Shane Palmer reflects on his time arm wrestling as he prepares to host an arm wrestling tournament in October.
Shane competed in a national event and didn’t place in the adult category. However, when competing against other youth with his untrained left arm, Shane walked away with a national title. This sent him to the world tournament in Greece.
“I competed with adults as well as the youth in the different weight classes across two days,” Shane said. “I got destroyed by the adults; I only beat one person. But in the youth, I got destroyed on the right arm, but not the left. Funnily enough, at the same time I didn’t train my left arm. And that qualified me to go to Greece and the end of September.”
Before the world tournament, Shane was in a car accident, harming his left triceps.
Because his right bicep, the main muscle used in arm-wrestling, wasn’t damaged in the car accident, he was able to heal enough to still compete in the world tournament and take third place.
Shane switched from going to high school in Fremont County to Madison County, and found people who also enjoyed arm wrestling. He began a club that practices twice a week during their lunch hour
“First month I was there, I started a club, found a group of people that actually liked arm wrestling already,” Shane said. “They just didn’t know how to get into it, how to find tournaments and find stuff like that, how to train.”
Shane said the Call to Arms arm-wrestling tournament is a prominent competition in the area, but that he and his father have started a tournament of their own. Shane said the competitions are a great place to find people who know more about the sport.
“I host a tournament called the Yellowstone Arms, both are big cash tournaments, give away a lot of money,” Shane said. “There you can meet up with locals and see where the practices are.”
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