Arm Wrestling Has Taken Off

Who knew?

Who knew that one of the hottest sports around these days has probably been around longer than all the rest?

Maybe it doesn’t go back quite as far as the cavemen—or perhaps it does? But chances are the Greeks and Romans used it as a way to settle disputes. And likely others have followed suit over the centuries.

In fact, most of us probably have tried it at least once or twice, though not in serious competition.

So, what are we talking about? Give up?

Arm wrestling!

It turns out arm wrestling has become quite a thing over the last half-century, especially around these parts. Participants in Pennsylvania and New Jersey travel to tournaments all over the country—usually driving there and often at their own expense—to compete for meager prize money.

They do it for the love of the sport, which members of the New Jersey Arm Wrestling Team consider more like a hobby than a job. “Every hobby costs money,” said 59-year-old Harry O’Neill, who was a regular on the circuit in the 1990s, before family and work commitments made him step aside for a couple of decades until recently. “The best I ever did financially was when Univision had a tournament.

“I won $1000, a year’s supply of vitamins and Miss Puerto Rico gave me the trophy.

“Now it’s my time. I’m just starting to get back into it. You need a reason to get out of bed and do something. “

His buddy Steve Walker, a five-time national champion and 2021 world champion seconds that notion. Like O’Neill, Walker arm wrestled religiously in the ‘90s and early 2000s, before turning his attention to raising his family and work. And like O’Neill now that his kids are grown, including daughter Maddie who picked up the sport during the pandemic and has already become a champion, he’s rediscovered his love for the sport.

A love that was born more than three decades ago. “I’ll be 54 in October,” said Walker, who works as a security guard at Lenape High following a 25-year career as a prison guard. “I started at 17 years old when I graduated high school.

“I heard there was a tournament in Trenton and just went to watch. That’s where I met my trainer, my mentor, my coach Mike Mignogna, who just passed in June, which was devastating to all of us.

“He took me under his wing. He said, ‘I’m going to start a New Jersey arm wrestling team. You only have to come to the house once or twice a month to train.’

“It wound up being twice a week.”

That’s how it started for them. Two strongmen–or women–sitting at a small table, locking arms, each trying to force the other’s arm to the table.

Sounds pretty simple. Not really.

Here are the basic rules according to Ray Romanowski, who’s become a referee the last two years when he’s not competing in the 200 lb. weight class. “You have a head ref who’ll start the match and then a down ref,” explained the 40-year-old Romanowski, a novice when he started, but who has since become the 2023 amateur champion. “Two referees because you can’t see both sides of the table.

“The head ref starts the match: ‘Ready…Go.’ You’ve got to make sure your wrists are straight. Your shoulders are square to the table. Your elbow has to stay on the pad.

“When the match is on my side of the table, I can’t see the elbows coming off the table, so the other ref is looking to make sure they’re not coming off. When it’s on the other side I’m looking.

“You get one false start. If you continue to do it, you get a foul. Two fouls equal a loss. There are a lot of rules.”

There are also up to 12 weight classes, ranging from 130 lb. lightweight to superheavyweight. You can wrestle above your class, but not below. And there are several age groups, starting in the teens, going all the way up to seniors.

While you’d naturally think the bigger, stronger man or woman has the advantage, it ain’t necessarily so. “It’s hand and wrist,” said O’Neill, whose best finish was second in the nationals in 1998. “It doesn’t matter how big your arm is.

“If I control your hand, I control your arm. You can go into a gym and see guys with gigantic biceps and their wrists are like a girl. You might be able to bend and curl more than I can, but I’m gonna be able to bend your wrist back.

“If your wrist goes the rest of your arm will follow.”

Of course, since most top arm wrestlers are well aware of this, other aspects come into play. “There’s so much technique involved,” pointed out Romanowski, who is an auto mechanic during the day. “You use different techniques against different guys.

“When you referee you can see what other guys who might be in your class do and learn a lot of things. Any little advantage helps.”

Mignogna’s unexpected death, resulting from complications from back surgery, has left the New Jersey team in a bit of disarray. That’s led to Walker picking up the mantle, with members of the team practicing in his house–which contains a complete gym–twice a week or more.

One of the participants, though, doesn’t have to go very far. She lives there and has turned into an arm-wrestling sensation in just a couple of years.

“Growing up I didn’t know anything about it,” recalled 23-year-old Maddie Walker, who decided to give it a shot after her 2020 softball season at Dominican U. in Orangeburg, NY was wiped out by COVID. “My first tournament was a world qualifier, and I finished second.

“Then I got three gold medals in juniors– right hand, left hand and open. There are a lot of tournaments, but you have to travel pretty far. I’ll be going to Montana in October, and to Bulgaria for the Worlds next summer. And I just qualified for the Arnold Classic (named of course for Schwarzenegger) in Ohio.”

In the process, Maddie’s already racked up three golds at the Nationals and four in the 2021 Worlds, held in Orlando, as well as six individual state titles. That makes a father proud. “No girl in this area will touch her,” said her 340 lb. Dad, adding that they often train together, with Maddie using several rubber bands to give her added strength and make it more competitive. “She works hard.”

In fact, Maddie’s got a full rooting section. “It’s definitely cool since he’s been around for a while and people know him,” said Maddie, who broke the school home run record at Dominican with 34 and is now teaching science and math at a local school while pursuing her master’s online. “And my mom, Tracy is my biggest cheerleader.

Walker has had great success early in her career

“She sets up my promos and my sister, Devan, is my videographer. So everyone has their own role.”

While arm wrestling has turned into the latest of many burgeoning sports for women, it’s not quite the same for the men. “Arm wrestling, in my opinion, you do when can’t do anything else,” said Steve Walker, who gives many of the medals he’s won over the years to the kids at Lenape. “A lot don’t get to the sport until they’re 35 years old when they’re done playing flag football or hockey or softball.

“It’s an individual sport. It doesn’t matter your size or age. You’ll get as good as you put into it.”

They have just one complaint. If badminton, weightlifting, canoeing, and even break dancing are Olympic sports, why isn’t arm wrestling? “We’ve been trying to get into the Olympics for a long time,” lamented Walker, who played football on both lines back in his days at Trenton Central High. “The reason we want to go is because they drug test.

“Most of the tournaments in the States don’t drug test.”

For now, though the competition, the camaraderie, the adrenaline rush when your opponent’s arm hits the table, is enough. The Walkers, father and daughter, O’Neill, Romanowski and their supporters will keep on doing the thing that they love — even if the rest of us never fully understand just how big a thing it really is.