my opinion

i have been wrestling many years and i have heard many questions etc. the question which always stands out is why does not such a person armwrestle anymore and why have we lost so many. my answers to these and many more is my opinion only i am not the best or strongest wrestler but i thank God for the things i have achieved and this is only my thoughts.
one of the main reasons we lose wrestlers is because of lack of money; you all know the cost of getting to an event and perhaps staying over, missing work, the cost of the event, well it can easily be in the £150 mark and this is in the UK only.
The other reason is fairness; how many times have you trained hard for a comp and only to lose by a refs decision. this with the money equals a loss in a wrestler. My soloution to one of these is to have a few seated refs and head ref as in the worlds or in the professional league! i know we could not afford video footage yet but to have 3 line refs would assist in fairplay. please do not get me wrong the refs job is one of the hardest so i am looking at solutions. if then the 3 refs come with a decision then at least it was looked into.
i find it so sad that how not only do we lose wrestlers but they lose interest in the sport. i mean why do any of you wrestle! i know why i wrestle because i enjoy it and i am also a fan.
If paul maiden was on a bill i would gladly pay to watch him armwrestle.Why is it then we lose wrestlers as fans? do you want to be the next person to say i used to wrestle because believe me no one will care. the sport has lost legends and do you think any one will care for you.
Take a look at most sports say football. The fans can pay over £200 a month for tickets etc. i know your thinking we may spend this in 2 comps or whatever you may pay but the fact is would you travel to watch other wrestlers. if your answer is no then your not a fan as you should be behind eachother at the events.Can you believe John Breznk was in the UK and only and handful were there to see him. This is the legend of our sport and no one seemed to care. Also this was for Free
The reason i am writing this is because i know Nick has 48 members so if you think you are a wrestler or importantly a fan and you do not want to be someone who used to wrestle, then speak
up, if we have 48 replies and one brilliant idea then at least the one idea can move us forward.
As i said i am only speaking for myself this is my opinion

i am not really sure why so many wrestler have disappear, in 1996 i went to iron arm this comp was that big neil pickup had to hold it over two weekend to get threw all the wrestling, i would say the money side of things is a big factor but i have spent thousand of pounds armwrestling i have took part in 5 world armwrestling championships ,poland,usa,japan.canada,finland, but i love the sport.but at the moment i could name more wrestle that have left the sport than what are taking part in it today


armwrestling in the uk needs a bigger profile.... hopefully eurosports can do it.......

Julien,
I'm not the most experienced here to talk about armwrestling as such, but I have competed in strength sports since 1986.

Anyway, as far as I see it all the strength sports I've been involved with have a drop off of competitors every year, for whatever reasons. Just one of those things!
What makes a sport alive is the new blood coming through (young or novice) to replace these numbers. If this isn't happening then the sport (if small) can be in trouble.

Regarding cost being a reason, this certainly can be a problem with money is tight, and with the country in a down-turn like it is now. This is even more reason for regional comps. In fact in football I can't understand why they don't go back to the old Div 3 North and Div 3 South like they used to have. Saves money, and gets bigger crowds/interest!
Prize money would help of course.

Regarding fairness, I don't really know enough about refereeing A/W (but have refereed many other sports), but have found that I have always been reffed very fairly.

Television can put some money into the sport, and into the pockets of the athletes. But don't expect a lot unless A/W is lucky. In strongman which has been a TV favourite for many years the prize monies are still small, and the guys have to do a lot of appearances at Super Series comps, get sponsors, etc, etc to make a living wage out of it.

Anyway, just a few pennies worth from my chops.

All the best to you all in 2009!
David

I sent a txt out to the few pullers i had in my phonebook about creating a unfied fedaration of the clubs which 1 or 2 members of the club would sit on a commite,each club who joined the members would pay ten pound membership,100 pullers £1000 in the kitty,then suggested that 1 comp would be at somepoint in the calender,were each puller pays 20 or £30 to enter a dual handed comp were the 2 highest place finshers with both hands would be sent to a comp like,over the top,gladiators night etc were the plane tickets or minium,so then all proceeds would go back to the pullers and give a chance for some people to gain expreince ouside of the UK for free,100 pullers £30 each=3000+1000 in membrships=4000 in theory could send away 10-15 pullers...and limiting the weight classes would make for seriously stacked classes,

since i have spoked to Neil and the consempt doesnt really diffrer from the BAF and in no way was it meant to challenge it as neil is the leading force and is doing mircales in were he has taken the sport,we also chatted about ways in bringing threw new novices and this is going to be a topic at the meeting in jan,as the sport gets more popular threw the eurosport channels we will nedd more places to train the new blood..................

Julian it does cost the puller a few pound to get around myself lose aroud £200 in wages thus travel and hotel and food each time i compete iam just lucky to have a understanding wife this is my beleif also why alot of pullers come and go but the hardcore puller will stay also the fan ask my wife she spent her honeymoon in 2003 in the ilse of man while i pulled then 1 month later instead of a hoilday we went to the euros in germany

There has been alot of people unhappy with the refs in the past and could and prob did make a few people leave but it could also of been a easy way out not being the top dog anymore must be a bitter pill to swallow

I like the sound of Pauls idea, the only issue that I have with this would be that it could be the same 2 or 3 pullers that could be sent to the comps, I thnk that it would have to be split so that everyone who is putting up their hard earned cash gets the chance to go to a comp abroad instead of just 2 or 3 pullers.

Im sure after talking to nick that that is exactly their plan .

Guess there aint that many hardcore pullers Jules 6/49=