Ladies Arm Wrestling

One of the world's fastest growing sports is ladies arm wrestling. Wrestlers bear such personas as Holly Go Fightly, Wild Irish Rose, Brutal Biceps, Gator Grip and Jenny Kreuger.



Susan "Armed and Dangerous" Whitney spoke about the basics of competition:

"I always thought of myself as kind of strong, especially for my size," she says, "The thought of testing that notion appealed to me - but mainly, I thought this is something I could win at."

How does it work?



"Every competition has eight arm wrestlers, and each one of them has a persona and a theme song. Basically, we dress up in costume and become this alterego. There's an outlaw cowgirl in a cowboy hat, who steps out to Wanda Jackson's Fujiyama Mama. Other wrestlers include Amy Smackhouse, the beehived, cat-eyed American cousin to Amy Winehouse; Scarlett O'Scara, the southern belle; Spider Girl, who is covered in web tattoos, and Roller Gurl, the roller girl who turned arm wrestler, because she thought roller derby was soft." The competitions are straightforward knock-out with the losers in the first round entering a plate competition, so everyone gets to fight at least twice on an evening.

Do the girls need much training?

"For the first one, I trained a lot, because I really wanted to win," Whitney says. "Basically, I did a lot of push-ups. I would go to the gym and do chin ups, work with weights. I would simulate the arm wrestling motion. I would make my husband arm wrestle me, have him provide counter pressure and hold the position for a while. After the first match, I found I could beat my husband easily. It makes for a good marriage."