What do armwrestlers want/demand in Major events?

[enginterzi]

OVER THE TOP movie had created an excitement in people about armwrestling.but the extremings in the movie about armwrestling made armwrestling lost credit as a sport.how close did we get to the olympics since the movie was shown?drinking oil,chewing cigarettes?thinking of today's benefits are just stealing our future.im not a part of this selfishness and will never be an a.. kisser either.professionalism serves to certain people,amateurism serves to all.it seems like money can buy anything.

i wish armwrestling could be counted as a sport instead of being a symbol of bar fun for many.it would be better us to have sportive clothes on us while we armwrestling.being popular is important,but being popular can be incorrect ways too.first we all must decide where we wanna reach.then check if the direction we are going is correct way to reach our goal.or is it something like"I CARE ABOUT WHAT HAPPENS IN MY TIME,BECAUSE I WONT BE ARMWRESTLING WHEN ARMWRESTLING BECOMES AN OLYMPIC SPORT"?in fact,it seems like we will never be counted as a REAL SPORT with materialistic minds.

[Christopher Myers]

To answer what made the Zloty Great.

First there was promotion of Teams as well as individuals there was a great sense of pride being on a good team as well as the desire to do your best as a responsibilty to the team as well as your own pride.

Second it was held in an exotic place ( at least to me Poland was Exotic )allthough there are exotic places in america events are usually regulated to where it is cheap ( middle america ) cheap is not prestigeous. When was the last Great event in Hawaii?

Third the venue itself was Classy it was a ballroom with all the trimmings...people actually dressed like it was a wedding. they sat at Tables they wore suits they brought bueatiful dates

fourth The athletes were treated like celebrities they were corraled into a gated off area and escorted down a runway through the crowd to the stage by bueatiful models as they were energeticaly announced to the table

fith the lighting bright clear the music upbeat and loud the view to all was good there were screens playing replays and making the view good for all flashes of light fog misting all around ( hard to breath but it looked really cool )

sixth the promoter made sure ( not hoped ) that good competition would be there...some were paid regardless of there showing some where lured with the prize money some where lured by pride but Igor made sure that they were there no matter what it took....and they were there...no doubt about it

seventh the match ups ...... Igor made sure that the matches that people wanted to see occurred...period .....he took direct involvement of giving the crowd what they wanted and he kept the pace from begining to end.... a couple of normal matches a celebrity match up .....then a couple of regular matches the celebrity match up ...you could not get bored ...period

eigth Good Trophy's even though there was prize money he still had awesome Trophy's...you knew you won something the Open class trophy was like the "Stanley Cup"

Just My opnion
Christopher Myers
In my Armwrestling career I never ever felt like a Pro athlete until that event....Even if I never pulled agin I would remeber that event for the rest of my life ... I felt like I was pulling in the new millenium's " Over The Top"

[Steve Kirlew]

Malin said:

I think it´s also fun, when you are gonna compete the semi-finals are gonna do something speciall with it...that you maybe present WHO the persons are that are gonna compete against each other, exact weight, merits, country/city, fore arm messure. And so on. To make it more like a SHOW. It´s there you can invite media and people that doesn´t armwrestle to watch.
To sit and watch for 5-10 hours in a row isn´t fun if your not a armwrestler. Then you can invite them to come at 6.pm (for an example) when the semi finals start.
Malin

I totally agree with Malin and Also John Brzenk when he said about how more athlete promotion! Igor did this for Zloty Tur where he had a voting system for those competing to vote for who you think will win!
Also i like the idea of having rankings up to 10 or something so that there is more incentive to work your way up!

[Ron Klemba]

I totally agree with John. The matches are over so quick at times it can take away from how much dedication it takes to make that happen. The more hoopla/build up that announcers and interviews can drum up the better. I have met some of the most interesting people in the world in this sport. I would not know they are interesting except for asking questions and talking with them. We need to know more about the person in the armwrestler and present that to the public too!.
Then talk about accomplishments, training regimine and partners etc.
Armwrestling is difficult to watch for the general spectator. Anything we can do to cover the action better i. e. camera angles with big side screens. play by play commentary etc.
If we want this to grow we need to take some risks.
In this era of reality tv, personalities sell, people get behind the underdog or the sure thing etc.
Music, hype, anything to make it seem bigger than life will help it grow.
I think we can get what we want and give the world what they need to help make it happen.
ron klemba

[Rob Bigwood]

Well said Mr. Klemba.

Armwrestling needs more drama and hype!

[ddevoto]

This is great. I intend to summarize all the remarks and see where we go with the fundamental concepts. Please add all your thoughts and include what you think about big money tournaments and what you would do to make changes. More of them are on the way.

[Olin Lucas]

Sweetness ROCK ON

[Tony Carpenter]

The ranking system is a great idea. But there is a way professional sports now a days do it. They hold Pro Tours. If you hold a series of tournaments and rank out how people have done in them. How to do this? I think the state directors for the sport have to work together to make a list of events in a certain period of time.

Also you need sponsors and TV time. Get ESPN to agree to show a tournament, let companies know about it, and see how many want there logo on an armband around one of the competitors arms. That will help bring money into the sport, which can help reduce the cost of what can be an expensive investment.

One place events need to be held at is at colleges. You will draw a crowd there.

Lastly, You need to get Hype with the locals. Hold an event in a public area where two people that are about even go at it two days before the competition. Then allow people to pull against the two competitor. Have someone talk about the event over a loud speaker while this is going on.

P.S. One way to have armwrestling publicised is to have steve lareau mass spam everyone with his armwrestling dvd (just kidding with you steve).

[STEVE PHIPPS]

Dave,

I agree with the need to tell the story of the armwrestlers before the match up. This last ESPN show did a fairly good job of that. The more people see and know about an armwrestler or sportsfigure the more likely they will watch. Look at the example of the World Strongest Man Contests. They used to show mostly just the events, but have become much more popular in the last few years as people got to know the individuals. When people find out I armwrestle the first thing most say is " It that like Worlds strongest man and MAGNUS SAMUELSON."

[STEVE PHIPPS]

I also like the idea of an offical ranking system for a couple reasons.
1. gives the armwrestlers something to work for and attend more tournaments.
2. it could also be used for setting up the matches for a tournament. In wrestling, say with 16 wrestlers, the top guys never armwrestle each other until the quarter or semi finals. They are seated at the top of each quarter bracket. This also prevents a # 4 or 5 armwrestler getting kicked out of the tournament with 2 matches and two losses and not placing anywhere near the top. For example. Travis could armwrestle John first match lose, then armwrestle Ron Bath in the losers bracket, because Ron lost to Barbosa and then one of them are out.

[Olin Lucas]

I feel that when armwrestlers compete in a tournament that is going to be televised there should be a fairly strict uniform that we should have to wear. I personally get tired of seeing people wearing blue jeans full of holes, old ratty shirts and my biggest pet peeve is not wearing hats. We want out sport to quit looking unprofessional and "red neck" so we need to start with appearance. In the professional world of sports appearance is the first thing your audience looks at. Look at all the different compaines out there who sponsor or make clothing/apparel for MLB, NFL, NBA, PGA, NHL etc. Everyone who competes as a professional athlete has the gear and apparel to make them look professional grade. I think with the armwrestling movement that is going on, we should be able to get enormous support from some large companies suchas, Adidas, Nike, Puma, etc. When I say support, I don't necessarily mean full sponsorship, but I think they should be able to offer all athletes that will be competing in tournaments that have television footage a reasonable discount on any clothing/apparel that would suit the tournament directors approval or theme. I believe what Igor did with Zloty's shirts looked great on television with such bright vivid colors. I also believe that a nice pair of athletic polyester or mesh pants would have finished the appearance quite well. One other thing I would like to add to this is the ability to let us show off our sponsors. Many of us have been lucky enough to have people want to sponsor us, but they want exposure. We as atheletes are the ones who would be able to give them that exposure, but many times we have been told we were required to wear a particular shirt that would not allow that. This is something that would need to be taken into great consideration along with any uniforms worn. If we were given enough time in advance to get sponsor information on a uniform type shirt that would be great. Just remember if it were not for these sponsors some of us would not be at many of these tournaments.

Next I would focus on the way the tournament is ran in a timely manner. Every sport you watch has some type of game clock (except baseball) Football has two different types of clocks an actual game time clock and a play clock in which the center has to hike the ball off to the quater back before the time runs out, or they will be penalized 5 yards for delay of game. Basket ball has a shot clock violation which keeps some type of pressure on the athletes to move at all times. Why not do the same thing with armwrestling like a "Grip Clock"? By that I mean post a big time clock behind each table where the public can see that acutal time is on the clock for the two competitors to get their grips set. That way when the guys/girls are put in the referee's grip, the public will see the actual clock ticking down to that time. It will then give the public view a little intensity as to wondering if the competitors will get a grip before the "Grip Clock" runs out and a referee's grip takes place. In doing this you will not only have an eye catching clock in the background that keeps the public intense, but this will also take out any referee error in keeping up with time his or herself. Referee's have enough things to worry about while they are setting the grip like whether or not one opponent is carving into a hook position, or too high on the knuckles, keeping the shoulders straight, etc. This would be very efficient in keeping the tournament running smoothly.


I have run out of time at work for now, but these are just the beginning of some of my ideas which would help promote this sport to the next level. I hope I did not piss anyone off with the clothing/appearance theme. It's just the honest truth for an advancement in this sport.

[Rob Bigwood]

TTT, for Gary!

[Christ Russakis]

great work olin, you put alot of thought into that and i agree 100%. sounds good!! see ya christ

[Ryan Thames]

TV commercials

Promoting the individual athletes.

Help the athletes advertise there sponsors: when their names are called to the table and especially on the ESPN programs

Make the sport more professional for TV have a require dress code or something. But it cant restrict the advertisment of sponsors but if the sponsors where advertised during the name calling and on TV this wouldnt be a problem. What business doesn want there name announced on ESPN.

I agree with all these guys.

Except i think the structure of the tournaments are good maybe a few improvments could be done.

I agree with malin there should be a "pre"tournament type structure then have a set time for the finals.










;Dand of course a reality show would always help ;D