Arm Wrestling

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I’m new to the world of Arm Wrestling. I recently saw a televised Arm Wrestling tournament on ESPN which perked my interest.

I have a couple of questions:

  1. Two names immediately jump out when entering the world of Arm Wrestling: John Brzenk and Ron Bath. These guys have apparently dominated the sport for over 20 years. Their strength and technique is undeniably top notch, obviously. But in looking at these guys, I’m surprised they are not, well, bigger. Not knowing anything about the sport, I would have expected a 20-time World Champion (Brzenk) and a 4-Time World Champion, 15-Time National Champion (Bath), both in the heaviest weight class (198+), to be much bigger. As in, stud offensive lineman, or body building big, you know what I mean. Some of the top guys are really big like Matt Girdner and Travis Bagent, but it appears that most of the top guys are just slightly above average in size.

I’ve seen some streaming videos of these guys (and Bath was on the ESPN tourney) and I’m in awe over what they can do. They regularly take down guys much bigger that they are, with little problems. Bath is over 40 and he just crushes everybody! How in the hell do they do this? I realize they are strong as an ox themselves, but I’m sure technique plays a large part in it as well. Are these guys technique-wise just that much better than everybody else? If so, what is it that makes them so good?

For example, here is Ron Bath vs. Marcio Barboza. Barboza is 20 years younger, heavier, and has noticably bigger forearm and bicep, yet Bath almost beats him (great match, btw). Indeed, Bath has beaten him. Wild.

  1. What is the head-to-head record between John Brzenk and Ron Bath? Where can I find some streaming video of these studs battling each other? I can’t find any.

  2. I noticed that most tournaments have seperate Right Hand and Left Hand categories. Are there tournaments where you use both hands (not at the same time) against the same opponent?

  3. How common are injuries? It seems like in the tough matches, with that much stress, torn tendons and broken elbows would be common place.

  4. Who are the big names of the past that I would be interested in?
    Thanks in advance

2

Large muscles don’t always corelate to stronger muscles. I’d guess that arm wrestling it 60% technique, 40% strenght.