Alberta Provincials Predictions

[kennett]

I was unable to attend due to having major hip surgery but planning to make a return to the table when ready. Dropping 30+ Lbs of muscle is hard on the entire body. I wish I could have been there to give Corey a run for the money but unfortunately I still have a couple more months of recovery. If you've seen my facebook, you'll understand from my laceration. The poor turnout could be due to financial stresses, Alberta fires, high unemployment rates etc. everyone has their own personal reasons. Another big reason could be a lack of passion for a sport that has regressed instead of progressed. Where can this sport take us?I feel that the general puplic see's this sport still as a drunken bar sport and when they do see us in a public area, our professionalism is lacking compared to other organized sports. Should we introduce a dress code? Idea's? Back in the day(which was only 5 years ago) I was recruited and introduced to the sport, a comradery/friendships that drew me in, I don't see this anymore, not in Alberta. Jeff Miller has had me over to his home and has made an effort but only when special guests come to town, we need to start building relationships/friendships. When guests are veiwing a tournament and they see people slamming apponents into the pad, it can be very intimidating if they don't have a history announced when known competitors go up to the table. Last tournament I brought a friend, who has never armwrestled on a proper table, to try out the sport and he was slammed, this doesn't help introducing people to the sport. I think novice tournaments are a great way to draw new people to the sport but we need to find better methods of getting the numbers. I don't have the answers but I do love this sport and will be around for as long as this body will hold up.

[Jeff Miller]

Yeah, I didn't want to sound too negative, but we definitely need to do something differently in Alberta. I do feel hopeful though -I know how much I love it, and many others could too.
I'm thinking for the west ed mall tourney we'll have a novice division for people wanting to try it out; 3 novice weight classes to keep it simple.
I know I could do more to promote the sport - we should set up a meeting to discuss ideas where to focus our efforts.

[Del]

Inconsistency!!!!! Alberta's tournaments have always been hit or miss with participation. I look at even top rated pullers who will avoid tournaments or don't enter a specific arm because they are afraid to lose. What we need to do is introduce a open class that top ranked pullers cannot pull in, but have scheduled supermatches or individual match ups for the top ranked pullers. For example myself and Mark harrison in a right hand supermatch and myself and Fraser in a left hand super match. This would give all of us reason for training. We then would not enter the open tournament and slam new beginers or less tallented pullers. We also could try to incorporate a tournament like sask/man. where they setup matches between the provinces and try to match up there pullers the best they can. But we would compete with BC. I think there are so many different ways to change this sport and participation levels.

[adam luka]

wtf Del that was my idea that I just brought up at practice tonight. Great minds think alike!!

[Jeff Miller]

Good one Del. Probably you'd need three categories 1) Supermatch only 2) Open 3) Novice. and we'd have to limit weight classes to keep the numbers up (I'm thinking 3 novice, 4 open)

PS Del, you think you can beat Fraser left? You think you can beat Mark Harrison right handed?

Hey Adam, I think you should run for a position on the Alberta Executive next year at provincials.

[Eric Roussin]

Are full Provincials results still not available?

[Jeff Miller]

Gord just told me he will post them within a couple days.

[Jeff Miller]

On second thought I don't like the idea of limiting the greats from pulling open classes, because the up and comers need them to test their abilities on every so often.

Alternatively, what about Mark Harrison, Del Mudryk, Fraser or whoever wants to test themselves jump classes to the sparsely populated 220+ class to give poor Corey Buchta, and Mark Shannon a challenge. That would keep the ranks filled in the each class, and still give people an appropriate level of difficulty with less special supermatches required.
I'm thinking novice classes 0-176, 176-198, 198+ (3 classes)
Open classes 0-165, 165-187, 187-220, 220+ (4 classes)

Of course I'm always a fan of the odd supermatch between two greats for a main event.
I'm not as interested in supermatches between less established pullers in place of a tournament (more chance of a mis-match, w/o a battle, and no chance to try another opponent).

[Del]

Jeff here is my two cents take it for what its worth!!!!!!!! Your last comment has always been possible. People have always had the option to jump up weight classes. The problem with this is you are pulling against much larger pullers where injury can always come into play. What i was saying with the single match ups is you can find reason to train and train hard to compete. When you know you are going to be pulling a certain puller you then can train techniques to beat your opponent even if you might not be as strong or fast. Against bigger pullers technique can always be matched with brute strength. You asked if i could beat Fraser and Mark. Right now probably not, but if the match was set I would train I disagree off to make sure i gave it 100%. If I lost than i would keep training till i would win. The problem i see in this sport is if i lose to a Mark Shannon i don't see a reason to train because our weight is totally different. If i were to lose to someone at my own weight i then would find reason to train. I strongly feel that this system would benifit all advanced pullers and everyone would become better armwrestlers and we would have a better team every year for Nationals. Also if someone like Scott was winning certain tournaments there is no reason why a supermatch between him and someone higher ranked could be set up so he could test his arm against them. Also the winner of the supermatch could also take on the winner of the open tournament at the end of the tournament both contestants willing. I would just like to see better turnouts at these tournaments so people will always be looking forward to the next tournament. What do you think?

[Jeff Miller]

Thanks for the feedback Del; especially I see your point about the mismatch in weight and possibly power that could cause injuries. Which would make the supermatch/reg. tourney system you speak of a more logical choice - for future tournaments it will definitely be something to consider.

Hey just trying to get your goat about Fraser and Mark; I really think both of those matches would be very competitive. Sometimes when I try to be funny on a forum it comes across as being an jerk (or maybe I'm just a jerk!), sorry.

Anyways, for the West Ed tourney in October, I'll try to incorporate something (perhaps supermatches, or an elite division with a weight limit) to make it appealing to you, Mark, Fraser, out-of-province superstars etc. I think the best way to guarantee good matches is to finalize the participants ahead of time so you KNOW the match-ups will make sense.
BTW, thanks to all the people who gave feedback/ideas on this topic, it really gets the brain thinking outside the box!