If you take a gander in Laura Park’s purse, you’re likely to find a wrist flexer and a hand grip along with her keys and wallet.
These days, as she prepares for the Canadian National Arm Wrestling Championships in Charlottetown, PEI, she doesn’t go anywhere without her exercise equipment.
Park—who’s lived in Jasper since 2009—captured her spot in the national competition last month in Red Deer, winning all of her 13 matches in the provincials.
“I was a little nervous going into it because there were two girls [in my weight class] who have already gone to nationals and one that went to worlds. I was a little intimidated … but I won undefeated.”
And since then she has been training non-stop in hopes of capturing the national heavyweight championship, so she can compete at the 36th annual World Arm Wrestling Championships in Lithuania.
As well as using her wrist and hand flexers, she also lifts weights and uses tension bands to build up strength in her hand, wrist and forearm.
Strength is an important part of the sport, but Park said it’s not the only thing that wins matches.
“A lot of arm wrestling is technique and know-how. I would say it’s 50/50 technique and strength.
“My technique is going fast. I try to do the top roll right away, that’s kind of like getting your weight behind it and turning your wrist at the same time.”
To accomplish such a feat, Park said it’s important to have a strong grip, because without one, your hand could slip from your opponent’s.
“After you slip once you get put into the straps. They literally strap your hands together, which kills,” she said. “That’s why I want my hands strong, so I can hold them from slipping, because once you’re in the straps, technique goes out the window and it’s all strength.
“A lot of people who aren’t so good with the technique, you’ll see intentionally slip. I load up with chalk before I go to the table just to avoid that.”
Although Park hasn’t been competing for long, her knowledge and inherent skill didn’t come by chance. Arm wrestling is a sport that she grew up around back home in Ontario.
“My dad was big into it,” she said. “He and all of his buddies in London, Ont. worked really hard to get the sport recognized as a professional sport, out of the bar scene and taken more seriously.”
Attending events from the time she was a baby, Park picked up the techniques and rules of the sport, but she never really took it seriously, only competing a few times in her youth.
Then, last November, she saw there was going to be a tournament at West Edmonton Mall and decided to signed up.
“I literally didn’t train or do anything when I went to that one and I finished in fourth.”
At that tournament, called Mayhem in the Mall, Park started talking to a group of guys from the Alberta arm wrestling scene, only to discover that some of them had competed against her dad in the old days.
“It was them that told me about provincials,” she said, “and then I just started working my butt off and ended up winning.”
Going into the nationals, which take place May 17–18, Park said she’s at a disadvantage because, although she’s been working out, she doesn’t have a regulation table to practise on.
A regulation arm wrestling table is tall with upholstered elbow pads, as well as handles for the competitors to hold with their opposite hands.
“I have been practising with one of my buddies in Hinton, but it’s hard because we’re just using a kitchen table.”
Park said she has a friend creating a table top for her that she plans to attach to a “makeshift regulation height table” so that she can practise and get used to competing the way she will in the championships.
Once she has a table, she said she would like to start an arm wrestling club in Jasper.
“That’s something that I want to strive for because in year’s coming, if we have three or four people from Jasper and start a Jasper team, I think we can go places.”
Nicole Veerman
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