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Post by Giles Russell on Feb 1, 2013 0:21:06 GMT -5
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Post by Giles Russell on Feb 1, 2013 0:22:28 GMT -5
How f'n cool was this?
Begged fools to ride with me...no takers! I bet I won' have to ride alone this year???
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Post by Giles Russell on Feb 1, 2013 0:24:31 GMT -5
Proud to say, no one bitched and most importantly, no one got hurt.
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Post by David Owens on Feb 1, 2013 0:32:30 GMT -5
Good story Thinking about it that way, it is highly likely that I could promote a local tournament with open classes, never post it on the NEB and never tell another armwrestler about it, and have a very similar out come
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Post by John Wilson on Feb 1, 2013 8:41:28 GMT -5
Good story Thinking about it that way, it is highly likely that I could promote a local tournament with open classes, never post it on the NEB and never tell another armwrestler about it, and have a very similar out come In my experience, yes you could. In fact, that's the ONLY way to make it happen like it does in Giles' awesome story. I have been to events like that. They exist. You know what kills those events off? Get one or two actual armwrestlers to show up. Then playtime is over. Every single competitor will think the Antichrist just showed up with mystical powers beyond mortal comprehension. Events similar to what Giles is describing were almost common when I was a kid. The reason is because there was a local bar that hosted actual events, Joe's Place, in Petersburg, VA. As a matter of fact, I met Rick Layton there when we were both teenagers. He had come there from NC to compete. Anyway, when the real events happened at Joe's, the locals ran for their lives. They'd come watch but knew better than to enter. The locals held the real pullers in awe. But every other Friday and Saturday night you had to fight your way to the table. The place stayed packed and the armwrestling table in center of the place was was the center of my social world as a teenager until I left home. I grew up thinking everybody armwrestled. You cannot mix the two, and that is where our sport has gone wrong from a spectator-driven point of view. If we held these events separately from Pro events, these events would pop up everywhere. But you cannot let active pullers compete. You use these events to steer people to the real events but you don't ruin the local event by turning it into a real armwrestling event.
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Post by John Wilson on Feb 1, 2013 8:50:24 GMT -5
And that's why I KNOW that Giles' idea for his Pro Only one class event will be huge. It is getting this sport back to its roots. That's how most of us got into the sport. We are the few who came back after a series of humiliating ass-whoopings when we went from local-hero status and began entering organized events.
Every event needs to first determine what the event is. On a local level, you can be an all-things-to-all-people event: Kids, Teens, Novice, Open, Masters. But beyond the local level that is the event nobody will fly to twice.
If you are talking about an event where you expect people to buy plane tickets and hotel rooms, you need to running a PRO event. It should last 3 hours, MAYBE. Get a sponsor and stop trying to sell the bar owner on the idea that the competitors are going to buy ten thousand dollars of beer and greasy wings. You supply the show, and it's the bar owner's responsibility to use that to draw a crowd and sell his grub. People who fly to compete after training, dieting, and mentally preparing are not there to gorge on bar food and beer. That's local-level pulling. Sell the bar grub to the spectators. The Olympics doesn't survive by selling hotdogs to Usain Bolt while he waits to run the race of his life.
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Post by David Owens on Feb 1, 2013 12:33:37 GMT -5
That's basically what TAA was in the beginning. I think I may have posted it on the board as a novice only event but warned if you weren't really novice you would not pull novice. I paid cash to the winners. Never had a single slip, NO NOT ONE! never fouled anyone out! and we used WAF rules! and the crowd was family and friends who cheered their asses off!Then after the event I invited them all to come to practice with me at the venue where the tournament was held, which the owner loved because we were bringing bodies into his otherwise dead bar on a Sunday afternoon.
This is why I say we need to promote novice, because your right you can't really mix the good pullers with the novice without scaring them away, but you have to keep it being real novice!
Or make sure you are the only "superhero Armwrestler" in the room and don't pull!
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Post by Deleted on Feb 1, 2013 14:06:26 GMT -5
This is friendlying awesome Do this! One weight class is the way to go. Honestly, nobody cares who the best 154 lb guy is, spectators want to see the baddest man. Sure, they love to see David and Goliath (which they might see in the semis) and that will be what everyone is waiting for. I'm sick of the ladies complaining on Facebook about how hard it is to cut the last 4 pounds off their frail 158 pound frame. Fack it.. show up and pull. Eat a facking steak the night before, bang your woman.. be a man and don't hide in saunas before the event. This is a man's sport, a tough guy sport, we've lost some of that with all the little itty bitty weight classes and catering to novices bullsh1t. This is a real facking event with real cash and real men taking home the cheddar. If I'm available I'm showing up... and I'm eating a friendly1ng steak the night before.... if my woman is around she's gonna get helll too!! I do believe this is my favorite post on this board....ever I think Giles is on to something here with this new idea for AW. A few tournaments I've been too was kinda like a T-Ball tournament. Everyone walked away with a trophy from a watered down 4 pullers per class. A couple of those I had gotten a few 2nd places. Those trophys are now in the trash and I remember nothing about them as being fun.
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Post by Robert Miller on Feb 4, 2013 20:50:51 GMT -5
You guys kick a$$!! (Giles& Andy) Saw the post on FB & these guys put it together! Definitely wanna make this one! !
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Post by Deleted on Feb 5, 2013 12:45:29 GMT -5
I can't take any credit on this. Giles is the brain's beind this idea.
I think its really going to work out great.
Robert make sure you can bring JDorsey with you.
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Post by Robert Miller on Feb 5, 2013 19:46:52 GMT -5
Yer too modest Andy... & yes Giles is definitely a sharp guy!
& will do on bringing Jason. I'll get him ready!
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Post by Giles Russell on Feb 6, 2013 17:23:30 GMT -5
Thanks R.M.. That left of yours might just be able to cover the cost of your trip!
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Post by Robert Miller on Feb 6, 2013 20:07:09 GMT -5
Thanks Giles... long as Bucky or your Dad doesn't show! How's Sr. Doing anyways? The man is a beast both hands!!
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Post by Giles Russell on Feb 7, 2013 10:13:05 GMT -5
Ha. He's all good. He's currently fighting a bad case of "old man-itis". Hasn't been training or working out for a while now. Still a bull tho! When Tommy moves back home we'll get him back draggin' us around again.
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Post by Keith Potts on Feb 7, 2013 11:08:54 GMT -5
Giles; Great ideas, I think you're spot on with this. I do have one idea... Give the guy that doesn't want to hook a chance to opt out with a penalty that leaves no room for error (foul plus warning), or a coin toss.
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