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Competitive arm wrestling isn’t entirely about strength, but it sure helps to have it
Competitive arm wrestling isn’t entirely about strength, but it sure helps to have it.
Recent surgeries have knocked Santa Fe’s Victor Gonzales out of next week’s New Mexico Arm Wrestling Championships, but he still expects to be plenty busy when the tournament rolls around.
Gonzales, 42, is director of New Mexico Armsports and will be the man behind the championships Saturday at Buffalo Thunder Resort & Casino.
He expects more than 100 competitors from a number of nearby states as wrestlers vie for what should amount to more than $5,000 in prize money.
“It seems like the sport is really taking off,” Gonzales said. “Especially with all the hype from the World Arm Wrestling League, which did a big series on ESPN.”
He took over Armsports, which puts on a number of arm wrestling events around the state, about three years ago and has made a concerted effort to grow the sport.
“I’m a businessman,” said Gonzales, who owns and operates Precision Flooring Concepts in Santa Fe. “So I’ve run it like a business.”
Still, when it comes right down to it, he said, he’d much rather be out there gripping the sweaty palm of some fellow competitor.
“I would have to say it’s a strength sport, and I just love strength sports,” said Gonzales, who played football and wrestled for the Santa Fe High School Demons before a family illness forced him home. “It’s one-on-one, and there’s nobody there to help you out.”
The strength, however, can take one only so far, he said.
“It’s technique and strength — you have to have a balance of both,” he said. “We take it very seriously and train very seriously for it. We do different exercises in the gym, and
people stare at you weird.”
Top contender Brian Sanchez of Albuquerque said he uses some traditional free weights, but also uses bands and tries to ape the wrestling motion with hand weights.
“But my favorite training is pulling (arm wrestling) other people,” he said. “Besides that, I do a lot of pull-ups. I try to mock arm wrestling, mimic the movements, and bands are not so hard on your tendons.”
Like anything, though, the most efficient means of improving is by doing it, Sanchez said.
“The arm moves so many different ways easily, so the best way to do it is practicing with others,” he said. “But by pulling slow, because it’s practice so you don’t want to damage yourself up all the time. It’s kind of like sparring in boxing — you don’t want to go full-force.”