Novice Contenders

List who you think are the novice contenders for the 2010 in each weight class, left and right arms if you can. See who disagrees and whom they would choose. This should open a can of worms.

me ha

peter henderson right arm 85 kilo

alex akinsons left arm 85 kilo

mark clay both arm's 85 kilo

& me

Alex what weight class do you come under and do you expect to do well with both arms?

Ha ha, you wish Nick. I said "novice" and just so we know, it's unlikely i'll be competing next year with my right.

you see Alex i brough a up and coming star to our world!

Super heavies, there's Paul Mortimer who's training with Lee and Tom, then there's Stephen Sowah, the 150kg guy who's training with Rod and us at MK, Leon Macey at 70kg on the left arm.

Robert Mekin,and Tom Holland 70s

jerry the berry to win overalls

Dan how you get on with the 150kg big man?

Dan wrote:

Super heavies, there's Paul Mortimer who's training with Lee and Tom, then there's Stephen Sowah, the 150kg guy who's training with Rod and us at MK, Leon Macey at 70kg on the left arm.

Definitely Stephen, he'll be a total monster (even in the pros) if he keeps the training up.

I'm surprised you included my name Dan if I can find a more effective way of training at home instead of powerlifting the entire time then maybe...

However there's no way I'll be doing the 70kg class. I'm walking around really lean at 74.5kg now. I did get down to 69.9kg once last year but felt and looked really really terrible, I'd never do it again!

Hi Paul, Stephens one of those rare guys that has great strength and i have trouble top rolling him, his hand is massive, however if i get him inside i can pin him, for how long i can keep doing that i'm not sure. He's getting better every week. Lee didn't have any trouble with him but then again Lee doesn't have much trouble with most guys.

Hey i will be keeping at 85kilos for the time being training hard at the moment arms feel gd i am getting used to the diffferent training methods , i hope i will do pretty gd with my left dont think i will compete with my right at the moment may wait to i have got the technique with my left . cant wait for my next comp to see if my traing pulls off .

Good stuff, looking forward to pulling against you alex.

And me against you sir how do u do the faces ha???

power wise, wayne spicer is Mega strong for a 85 kg novice ! with a bit more experience he will be number 1 for sure. and my big son Kieran has a monster hand thatll trouble everyone !!

Which faces Alex?

Good to know Dean, there seem to be quite a few for the 85kg's. What other classes?

I think it's time an intermediate or amateur class was introduced for comps as there are several names on here of guy's who've been pulling for more than a year at either junior or novice level and to have them armwrestling in the same class as the average Joe who's just walked in off the street wouldn't be fair and isn't likely to help encourage first timers to take up the sport.
Point in case is the novice comp Dean ran at a recent strong man contest, where guys and a girl completely new to the sport were armwrestling against either Wayne Spicer, Chris Dutton or Deans lad Kieron, 3 guys with at least 3 years of experience and training.
Rob Meekin and Tom fit into this category, although only juniors, both have a wealth of experience and train to armwrestle, they are in no way novices and should pull open class when they turn 18.
I spoke to Neil on this subject when in Italy and he confirmed that a novice in the BAF is anyone with 0 to 12 months of training/ competing, they then become intermediate level and can stay there as long as they wish, stepping up to pro as and when they feel ready.

Dan wrote:

I think it's time an intermediate or amateur class was introduced for comps as there are several names on here of guy's who've been pulling for more than a year at either junior or novice level and to have them armwrestling in the same class as the average Joe who's just walked in off the street wouldn't be fair and isn't likely to help encourage first timers to take up the sport.
Point in case is the novice comp Dean ran at a recent strong man contest, where guys and a girl completely new to the sport were armwrestling against either Wayne Spicer, Chris Dutton or Deans lad Kieron, 3 guys with at least 3 years of experience and training.
Rob Meekin and Tom fit into this category, although only juniors, both have a wealth of experience and train to armwrestle, they are in no way novices and should pull open class when they turn 18.
I spoke to Neil on this subject when in Italy and he confirmed that a novice in the BAF is anyone with 0 to 12 months of training/ competing, they then become intermediate level and can stay there as long as they wish, stepping up to pro as and when they feel ready.

Dan even tho i agree with your points unfortantley we struggle with the depth of puller we once had,i dont want to go down memory lane again but i remember the classes were stacked to the brim. just before i started i think nick can tell you more they had do a novice comp over 2days at a north west comp there was that many entries...
Nowadays even at the british pro its a poor turnout, 1999 british pro had around 150 pullers now were lucky get 50,therfore thats why all the guys from the past the golden era still dominate today and will for a long time.

Pete White held a wigan and st helens quaifers every year he did novice,and pro and at the end of the year he would hold the championships and they could gather as much as 100 pullers novice and pro combined,but today apart from Neil there is nobody having a good go at doing more than 5-10 comps a year and this is a factor in the loss of people staying and starting up in the sport

It's not the first time you've raised this point Dan and still i agree with you 100%, but it would take a real effort of everyone involved to promote the sport and spark that sort of interest. It's just as Paul said, there aren't enough people taking part in britain to split it into three groups. I feel that everyone presently involved in the sport should take an active part in it's promotion and not leave it down to specific people to create awareness and run the competitions. If everyone from professional down to novice made a personal effort to recruit a set number of new students and left the organisers to organise the competitions, i'm sure we would see a steady growth of interest. At the moment most pullers compete and apart from personal training take no further part in the sport until their next competition. Everyone has a responsibility and until THAT is realised there probably won't be any change.

I completely agree, it's something i'm working on down here. Money is the biggest factor as well as convincing people that armwrestling is a sport that should be taken seriously. I know that Lee is putting together a comp in Ely and has a venue arranged, it will be mostly novice i think, I too am looking for venues that are big enough but still affordable as i want to start running a series of novice comps like Teds in Cambridge, with the aim being 4 or 5 comps next year with a final qualifier to send novices to the British championships.
Better start playing the lottery!!

Quote :

Point in case is the novice comp Dean ran at a recent strong man contest, where guys and a girl completely new to the sport were armwrestling against either Wayne Spicer, Chris Dutton or Deans lad Kieron, 3 guys with at least 3 years of experience and training.
Rob Meekin and Tom fit into this category, although only juniors, both have a wealth of experience and train to armwrestle, they are in no way novices and should pull open class when they turn 18.

Wayne didn't enter as he had a bad elbow, luckily for everyone else Just so everyone knows, I've still got under a years experience and this event was my 2nd competition so I was between the novices proper and the guys Dan mentioned. I came 3rd/4th (there wasn't a ranking match for those places, but I'm confident I could have got 3rd) and though it was a no weight limit comp everyone was 90kg or under.

Both Kieran and Chris are really experienced compared to me, but I didn't have a huge problem with Chris on the practice table (right handed we seemed pretty damn close) and leftie I'm pretty sure I'd beat him.

I suppose it depends what we're trying to achieve; will people new to the sport really be put off if they feel so far away pulling guys with more experience in a novice comp? I pulled the new year cup at the start of this year, and Rob Meekin and Tom Holland pinned me so fast I didn't know what happened, but if anything that just made me start training hard, but maybe I'm just competitive... I do agree that there should be a time when guys who've been winning novice events should be pushed into the opens if they won't step up themselves, but I'm not the one to judge who these people are

I think one thing really slowing the sport down in this country is the fact it's next to impossible to get a bloody arm wrestling table for less than £200 (and that's if you can find someone to make one which took me months). Not everyone has a mig welder in their shed. I know people who've trained with me or Ben, wanted a table and been unable to find one, then simply had no way of pulling anyone and slowly given up.

I was going to mention money but though i'd keep schtum

It's great that Lee is arranging a competition down there but i'm sure the sport is already recognised in the local areas. In order to promote the sport selected individuals with the ability to teach and talk to the general pubic have to got to places like community centres, gyms and most importantly youth centres in areas not commonly associated with the sport. This way not only do we give the currently active individuals in society the proper understanding about the sport, we also encourage the next generation to pursue a future in sports other than football. At these free venus all it would take is for pro wrestlers to povide demonstrations and education.

Fairs points Leon, this country has got a s^$# attitude towards the sport but we don't rely on the country to make the necessary changes that will benefit ourselves. We are the one's with the ideas and the desire for the sport to do well here, therefore we are the ones who need to make the changes.

God of War wrote:

Fairs points Leon, this country has got a s^$# attitude towards the sport but we don't rely on the country to make the necessary changes that will benefit ourselves. We are the one's with the ideas and the desire for the sport to do well here, therefore we are the ones who need to make the changes.

You're dead right, if the arm wrestlers don't do it for themselves no one will. It's good to see different people putting on Independant comps, I guess supporting them is the way forward.