PRESIDENT's BULLETIN

2025 is almost in the rear view mirror. The road this year took me to Armagh, Grantham, Preston, Philadelphia, Ramsgate, Motherwell, Swindon, Tallin (Estonia), Leeds & of course Birmingham for Udezumou & both Nationals. In all a month away from home, without counting working away for the summer. Just one armwrestling trip left: Leigh next week for Armgods Ultimate Armwrestler. This bulletin is going to stay up for few weeks with only this top paragraph being updated - this will give time for as many people as possible to read it before the changes take effect for the 2026 Warzone season which starts in Preston 28th February. Pinkertons Irish Open is set for 31st January. Events calendar has details - this is going to be updated as soon as IFA EUROS dates are announced & other arrangements are finalised. There will be an AGM in January - the full members get to vote, the associate members can attend but not vote. Notice will be sent with at least 4 weeks notice to the 2025 members. 

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Changes for 2026, What & Why.

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This is going to take some time to explain. Those allegic to reading simply need to follow Kieran Morrison's advice for Warzone competitions "Pull when your name is called & don't ask any questions."

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Those who are interested, read on. 

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Some imagine I make money running the PAA. I don't. The fuel, hotels, time taken organising, time missed not working (I'm self employed) come out of my pocket. Add up the hours & even at minimum wage my efforts would have bankrupted the PAA very quickly - & still would. Some expect me to be more professional, polite under pressure & to be at their beck & call no matter the hour or frivolity of the request. I'm none of those & make no apologies for it. 

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I'm not an effective armwrestler, indeed many have noted that my technique is lacking & my results are very poor by anyone's standards. I reckon I've had maybe a dozen good pulls out of a thousand. I don't recall winning a pull this year in competition. Sometimes after a tournament I can't remember who I pulled, such were the demands on my attention before during & after. Were the few that I have beaten on form? Probably not. I have no illusions. I started armwrestling as a focus for recovery from illness - it worked. I managed to get enough wins under the old system to gain pro status. I've not progressed that far since & at 51 with a telephone directory of injuries might not get too much further. If I weren't running the show I might have drifted away from it a year or so ago. Certainly running things this year has been a challenge. There are more people than ever & with the numbers comes a requirement for more involvement & more attention. Why do I continue? I ask myself this often. I remind myself that it's fun to see people who I have become friends with make progress. That's it. No exit strategy to be a promotor, grow a channel, make a living from it. I'm not trying to grow the sport. I'm trying to provide progression for those already involved in it. For those not involved, I don't care. I've no interest in what people are doing outside the structure of what I'm doing. I haven't got time to be interested in it, but good luck to them. 

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With that in mind I'm looking back to before the PAA started & why Paul Maiden built it. He felt there weren't enough opportunities. There was a backlog of novices & the gap between them & those who were called Pros was big. I remember when I took over from Paul that some pro's complained that when there were Pro classes, they might have made 6 weeks effort to be in a category & turn up to find there were too few or no opponents to make it worthwhile. Novices like me with little or no talent for the sport found that they travelled to a tournament to be swiftly defeated to two losses. Side tables were full of better people practicing their techniques & a lot of people - smarter than me likely - decided to quit & find something they were good at to do instead. This led me to develop the regional warzone concept that gives everyone participating a lot of pulls & opportunities regardless how many turn up at any weight. I've seen new arrivals go through this system & emerge as champions & medallists at the Pro Nationals. We have regained some status in the world by having World Champions at IFA & a few of our best guys are travelling all over the world to be in supermatches against people that WAF, East Versus West & other big end promotions rate as the best. It doesn't matter what measure is used, we have world class pullers developing here. That's not all down to me - Paul Maiden continues to provide opportunities for pullers of all levels. This year via Armgods he flew a team out to America without them paying & also gave away £10000 in prizes. I think it was madness. Most don't appreciate what he did - certainly the numbers in the triple crown tournament didn't make it as big as it should have been. As with forming the PAA he wanted to do something for the armwrestlers that he wished others had done for him - international opportunities, prize money, superstar entrances, press conferences. I think he's invested his time & money a few years too early & that most of you don't deserve the effort he has put in. 

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The majority of the outgoings of the association go on insurance, medals, certificates, some venues require payment, IFA fees, referees & scorers are given some expenses. Referee & Scoring expenses for Nationals now over two days include some hotel costs. I don't think people even consider that. Equipment is renewed when required. A lot of physical things are provided by me at no cost. The association doesn't get or apply for grants or sponsorship. The regional tournaments produce a surplus that helps fund the increased costs of Nationals. We're non profit making. There shouldn't be a giant surplus - the competitions should improve as should the standards of the pullers who we want to export abroad to win medals. I think that is working.

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So what next? I'm not going to be around forever. The things I have bought about have to be sustainable to whoever comes behind me. Elliott Eccles has passion, interest & ambition to be a President in the future. I'm trying to show him what is involved without killing his enthusiasm. He's already a world champion with a lot of potential to improve. I have to be mindful that supervising you gorillas would likely stifle that. There might be someone between me & him. I'm not planning on jumping out just yet. I had a day off earlier in the year & was certain I was done. Fifty or so people convinced me to stay on & I have despite myself in many ways. Whatever, I need to be able to hand over a system that doesn't rely on hundreds of hours of unpaid boring work - case in point is the Novice Nationals. 

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There is a lot of clamour to win the Novice Nationals. Some people avoid competing in progressive events because of a desire to win it. One of my vice presidents Tom Atherton - a previous winner - once described it as the tallest dwarf competition. I believe it has ceased to become a stepping stone for many & the amount of attention & resources it eats up are vast. I think the majority will agree that it should be fair. People who have won high level competitions should not be in it. Previous winners should not be in it. Those who are not resident in the UK should not be in it.

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When  I took over in 2021 I started a blank sheet & filled it with the names of people who I found online from known clubs, published results & updated it everytime I filled an entry sheet for a tournament, got results from tournaments I wasn't involved in & names from clubs. Before Novice Nationals for weeks in advance I ask club captains to provide a list of the wrestlers who are safe to pull. For insurance purposes & the regulations that are in some ways unique to this country the pullers have to be 18 years or older. I have over a thousand names on that list I created. It tells me who has got a win, 2nd or 3rd place at what weight where & when & for those who haven't won anything when I last saw them or when they were last active. The five year rule designed by Paul Maiden & Dave Kelly to bump the procrastinators out of the Novices is rarely volunteered. It's often a complaint from someone they beat that alerts me. When a novice gets smashed by a foreign champion who hasn't been in the country that long who is to blame? Well it would be me for holding a tournament with rules & not doing due diligence to check. It's a big responsibility. There is so much that can go wrong despite my best efforts & the responsibility is heavy. These are the times when it feels unreasonable & not worth doing.

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In the nine weeks before Novice nationals I had messages most days from people who can't be bothered to read the instructions asking for details already published. I had entries from people who genuinely mistook what the requirements were. I had some from cheats hoping to get a medal at the expense of someone much less skilled. I prevented 12 people from entering the Novices who had no business being in it, some of it while supposedly relaxing with the family on holiday. This is not fun by any stretch of the imagination. If it's not done & a cheat is found to be a medal winner - as happened a few years ago - a few people are robbed of their chances & the whole event is discredited. Putting that right is costly & difficult. Other medals & certificates have to be made, postage costs & this mug has to work more hours for free putting it right. Can I hand that over to someone else? Who would want to do it? So the system needs to change.

Looking at stats - last year only 2 of people from the Novice Nationals competed in the Pro Nationals. This year it was 15. Better, but still poor. Of the entrants to this years Novice Nationals half of them hadn't competed in the PAA before, so some unfamiliarity with the rule set & way of things was obvious. 

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Is it a fear of losing that kept the seasoned novices away from the Pro nationals? Or is it that they've been rewarded too much for doing less? The five year rule which was to get rid of procrastinators from winning too many novice medals now seems ridiculous. We reward procrastination with Pro Status & the casual leisure armwrestler is pushed out of a comfort zone. Is the lure of a lower Novice National title the reason why many new people appear having competed no where else?

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I was asked this year who else in the world has Novice Nationals? In the hotel the night after the right arm Pro nationals I had the chance to ask my European referees who are well travelled. Between impromtu interruptions from drunken pullers who thought they might join the conversation (they were moved on swiftly), I found out that some parts of Africa do. Netherlands, Finland & Poland to a fashion have something similar. The problems I have regarding catching out non residents & foreign champions is not something that they have encountered. I described the system I have of multiple starts in the regionals - Vice President of Poland Darius Groch was interested in exploring this further as something that might work for some of his competitions & we might see him next year pulling & reffing a warzone to get the feel of how it works. 

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A lot of people enter Nationals. When able to score three tables at a time I did. Numbers increased sufficiently a few years ago to put it over two days. This more than doubled the operating costs but the fee stayed the same. I didn't increase it because it the regional competitions generate enough to subsidize it. Everything elsewhere is going up - living & travel costs especially. I want armwrestling to be affordable. The commitment from the referees, scoring team & me particularly had to increase to put the competition on over the weekend. We did this for the Pro Nationals too. I was resistant to it, but it has worked better. 

I think it worth defining what a Novice should be now that we have a progressive system that is producing champions & medal winners at Pro National level & further afield.

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A novice is - or should be - someone who is new. They've been trained at a club & that club has told us that that person has demonstrated that they are safe to pull. That is not a guarantee that they will do this - they are adults with free will & they may be competitive & have watched some Michael Todd videos without realizing that he has had so many micro fractures due to being committed to winning that his arm doesn't straighten anymore. We need to look after & educate them. We give a safety briefing & our tournament entry form gives practical advice on how to pull safely: look at hand, keep hand inside shoulder. The Novices are identified & pull against each other in the first round giving each the chance of a win against a novice. Thereafter they are thrown in against all comers - the pros are asked at the safety briefing to help them develop & not to smash them - that has worked well too. We've defined a novice in the past as being someone who has pulled less than 5 years, not won a national tournament, placed twice in a national tournament (this year we changed it to placing 1, 2 or 3 in the Nationals), placed twice in a pro tournament or placed three times in a non national tournament. 

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Going forwards a Novice will be defined as someone who is new this or last year, so unfamiliar with being in a tournament under referee instructions & had no wins anywhere. We monitor them in the warzones & remind the pro's to help them & not to smash them - no given wins though - they have to be earned. After that year they don't become a pro. They will be competitive armwrestlers without a specific title. That's it. The goal is progress. The warzone league is going to provide more pulls for the ones that are learning so where at the moment it usually takes seven rounds to get the 6 finalists (so about 7 starts for everyone up to that point) we are going to continue pulling until we have another 6 pullers with 10 pins. Tom Atherton suggested that this will be a tier two final in the same manner with a separate set of medals. I think it likely this will give up to 12 pulls on average each arm for those in the competition who don't make the main final. Compare that the the double elimination model used in most other places that give just two chances of losing. Supermatches have at most 4 wins & 3 losses, usually 3 wins & up to 2 loses. The warzone league will give the overall winner of each tournament 12 points. The person who comes 6th in the tier 2 final will get 1 point. At the end of the season the person who gets the most points will be the belt winner - so a regular attendee of the tier 2 final could get more than the occasional winners of the overall final. Getting novice & tier 2 medals is going to be harder. I've had it said that there have been too few in a category - I have had five or more - & that it has been like a woke participation medal giving scheme. I want to reward progression, so getting in the tier 2 final is going to be the measure. Build your wins at the warzones, get on the league table of the top 12, learn your trade, place in a tier 2, win a tier 2, get into the overall final (top 6), win it. These are the steps.  

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I'm thinking that the Warzone season end will be over 2 days. Day one will be for the belt both arms. No new entrants - if you've been in the league in 2026 you have an invite to the finale. Day two will be for everyone including new people from clubs without pro status so the main contenders for the belt won't be in it. The Nationals will be around 6 weeks later, time to recover & prepare. 

I WON'T BE RUNNING ANY MORE NOVICE NATIONAL TOURNAMENTS. The UK & IRELAND NATIONALS will be triple elimination, so an extra chance before being eliminated & each category will have a prize for the non pro puller who finishes highest. Pro status is still something that can be earned - by placing at Nationals 1, 2 or 3, winning two regional tier two warzones, or placing 1 2 or 3 in three regional warzones. Supermatches will also be considered - any of the vice presidents/board members can recommend a match to be considered so an exceptional performance can be recognized. 

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Pro status has to be earned, it is not going to be rewarded anymore to procrastinators. Those committed to compete will eventually prevail - those who wish to remain casually involved can compete without pressure of promotion until they are ready. Pro Status is a measure of competence - there may only be a few real pro armwrestlers in the world if you define pro as being able to make a living at it. Most of those who do make a living from armwrestling do so because of advertising revenues from social media channels - tournament prize money is an unreliable source of income. In this country we have a few who are in demand abroad to appear on pay per view promotions. They have day jobs too - the costs of flying, hotels & food is sometimes (not always) compensated for. The sport is still relatively small in that regard. 

The UK & IRELAND Nationals will still require pullers to be 18+, residents for 5 years or more & committed not to pull for any other country. We won't be checking these things last minute. New pullers will still be directed to clubs to be safety trained. Those from abroad who are already safety trained will need to provide evidence with tournament results or visit a club to confirm. If you want to be in the UK & IRELAND Nationals we will have seen you before as being a competitor at one of our events. New faces at the regional warzones will be reminded of the Nationals rules & invited to prove residency & age (if young looking) before the Nationals.   

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Lots to take in. There will be questions: use the get in touch button. Change is unfamiliar & scary to some. When I started doing the warzones a few years ago some told me it was ridiculous & would not work. It did work & the three main critics ended up enjoying taking part. It doesn't suit everyone. No system does - but there are alternative promotions. The bottom line is I'm not willing to invest the personal time & attention into the boring stuff especially as only a tiny proportion of the Novice National entrants are committed to ongoing progression or the association for the rest of the year. The new system will build more opportunities & that's how it's going to be until someone else takes over from me. 

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See you down the road.