{"id":5037,"date":"2013-05-17T23:33:45","date_gmt":"2013-05-17T23:33:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/inveske.co.uk\/shawn-lattimer-talks-about-migrating-from-powerlifting-to-arm-wrestling\/"},"modified":"2013-05-17T23:33:45","modified_gmt":"2013-05-17T23:33:45","slug":"shawn-lattimer-talks-about-migrating-from-powerlifting-to-arm-wrestling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mariliacoutinho.com\/pt-br\/shawn-lattimer-talks-about-migrating-from-powerlifting-to-arm-wrestling\/","title":{"rendered":"Shawn Lattimer talks about migrating from Powerlifting to Arm Wrestling"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.mariliacoutinho.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/fig-1.jpg\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-2161\" alt=\"Shawn and Rob\" src=\"http:\/\/www.mariliacoutinho.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/fig-1-300x200.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Shawn Lattimer, one of the strongest SHW powerlifters until the late 2000s, made a major change in his sports career: he became an Arm Wrestler. A few years later, he was already at the top positions of the American AW national ranking. A successful engineer, Shawn talks about the different demands of each sport and his experience migrating from one to the other. This interview was given to me in January 2011.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.mariliacoutinho.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/fig-2.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-2162\" alt=\"fig 2\" src=\"http:\/\/www.mariliacoutinho.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/fig-2-300x199.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ol start=\"1\">\n<li>You have interrupted your career in powerlifting and migrated to arm wrestling. What would you say were your greatest accomplishments and richest learning in powerlifting?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><i>My greatest accomplishment in Powerlifting is actually a tie.\u00a0 In 2003 I won my first pro competition in the WPO with an 810 lb. bench press, which was 2<sup>nd<\/sup> in the world at the time.\u00a0 It was also a personal best for me.\u00a0 My in meet record prior to that was 700, and my gym best was 765.<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>That is a tie \u00a0in my mind with my all-time best lift of 905 lbs. in 2007.<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>I believe I was the 5<sup>th<\/sup> man in the world to bench 800 lbs. or more, and I was the 5<sup>th<\/sup> or 6<sup>th<\/sup> man to bench 900 lbs. or more.<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>My richest learning form powerlifting is patience.\u00a0 I may still hold the record for missing 900 lb bench attempts in competition.\u00a0 I believe I missed with 900 or more about 17 times in competition before finally achieving the 905 lift.<\/i><\/p>\n<ol start=\"2\">\n<li>How have you decided to become an arm wrestler? Did you have experience with this sport before?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><i>I essentially became bored with powerlifting.\u00a0 I competed for 12 years, and I worked my way from a 460 lb. bench in my first meet all the way to 905.\u00a0 I toyed with the idea of chasing the 1000 lb. mark, but after the road to 900, I simply saw no allure.<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>A co-worked of mine is a well-respected armwrestler.\u00a0 She won the world championship title in 2005 right handed.\u00a0 We were discussing training one day over lunch, and I mentioned my need to find a new challenge.\u00a0 She suggested armwrestling, and gave me contact information for a team that trains near me.\u00a0 I decided to take her up on it and contacted Team New Jersey.\u00a0 From there forward, I became and arm wrestling addict.<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>Prior to this, my only armwrestling experience was at the lunch room table in high school, and a single armwrestling competition I foolishly entered having no knowledge of the sport (circa 1999).\u00a0 Needless to say, I hurt for a long time after that competition.<\/i><i><\/i><\/p>\n<ol start=\"3\">\n<li>Did you feel right away that you were naturally gifted for AW? Could you comment on the following factors that may or may not have influenced your success in AW: a. motor skills acquired from multiple sports; b. skill learning speed; c. background in powerlifting; d. being an engineer; e. being naturally strong; f. any other factor that you may think of<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><i>Gifted&#8212;&#8211;yes and no.\u00a0 I am gifted in the fact that I have a huge hand and incredibly strong fingers.\u00a0 I also had very strong wrists without ever really training them specifically.\u00a0 However, I found quickly that being strong as a powerlifter means absolutely nothing on an armwrestling table.<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>Armwrestling is a very counter-intuitive sport.\u00a0 Everything that you think should work, is exactly incorrect.\u00a0 Everywhere I was strong, had nothing to do with armwrestling.\u00a0 Everywhere I was weak, I needed to be strong.\u00a0 I spent 3 months being beaten by a 16 year old team member.\u00a0 The 154 pound lightweight was too strong for me to practice with\u2026\u2026.<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>In particular, the bicep is incredibly important in armwrestling.\u00a0 I effectively ignored my biceps for years, as they are not of high importance in powerlifting.\u00a0 It took me a full year to get my bicep power up to acceptable levels for armwrestling.<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>Additionally, armwrestling requires power in the form of a static contraction.\u00a0 You want to lock your arm in position and move with your body.\u00a0 Powerlifting is a dynamic contraction, there the joints are in motion.\u00a0 The two types of strength are not on the same plane.\u00a0 I had to completely re-learn my motor skills and my methods of apply power.<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>An interesting positive factor: Armwrestling is highly dependent on tendon strength.\u00a0 Holding static contractions places a lot of strain on tendons.\u00a0 Tendons grow, recover, heal, etc. in the same way as muscles, but at a tiny fraction of the speed.\u00a0 I was lucky enough that the severe overloading I put my body through prepared my body relatively well for armwrestling.\u00a0 It took me about 6 months to get over the constant deep \u201ctoothache\u201d type pain in my tendons.\u00a0 Many other novice armwrestlers require 1-2 years.<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>The last advantage I have had is my natural tendency to invest my brain fully into anything I attempt.\u00a0 I spent years understanding and fine tuning my bench technique by analyzing all of the tiniest portions of the motion and the attributes of powerlifting gear.\u00a0 I am doing the same thing with armwrestling.\u00a0 In this way I have found I am able to better play to my strengths and protect my weaknesses from my opponents.\u00a0 Essentially, the same mindset that makes me a good engineer does help me in sports as well.<\/i><\/p>\n<ol start=\"4\">\n<li>Do you feel your background in powerlifting helped your evolution in AW ? Why? (or why not)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><i>My background has helped in some ways.\u00a0 As I mentioned before, patience is a huge factor.\u00a0 Additionally, I learned long ago that I have weaknesses.\u00a0 I learned how to identify, attack and eliminate weaknesses.\u00a0 This knowledge\u00a0 has very direct applications in armwrestling.\u00a0 Many competitors refuse to acknowledge weaknesses, and other acknowledge them but lack the insight to eliminate them.\u00a0 I\u2019ve been lucky enough over the years to learn how to address my own weaknesses.<\/i><i><\/i><\/p>\n<ol start=\"5\">\n<li>Is any part of your training routine from powerlifting retained for AW or has it changed completely? What has been retained, if any?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><i>I actually retain a lot of my training, but not specifically because its best for armwrestling.\u00a0 In large part, habit plays a big role.\u00a0 I have eliminated a few things, like heavy bench lockouts, bench shirt work, board presses, etc.\u00a0 I have modified some of my routines, like shoulders, to use single arm movements to activate additional core and stabilizing muscles.\u00a0 I stopped squatting and deadlifting several years ago due to lower back injuries, but otherwise I still do a streamlined version of the workouts I have always done.\u00a0 I have added a lot of armwrestling specific work for biceps, wrists, grip, rotation, etc.\u00a0 Recently I even started working on doing pullups.<\/i><i><\/i><\/p>\n<ol start=\"6\">\n<li>Briefly, how is your AW training and competition preparation? How do you build your periodization in AW?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><i>Actually, I don\u2019t periodize my training.\u00a0 Most of my armwrestling specific weight work is high repetition with heavy weight, aiming for 12-15 reps for endurance.\u00a0 I tend to work towards fatigue more so than any specific weight\/rep\/set goal.\u00a0 For the most part, I would say 30% of my strength is built with weights; the remainder is built during practice sessions on the armwrestling table with team mates.<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>Week to week the training is basically the same.\u00a0 The week leading into a tournament I suspend my training.<\/i><i><\/i><\/p>\n<ol start=\"7\">\n<li>Training frequency and intensity: is it the same, similar or different from PL? Some training systems employ 90-100% efforts every week, year round. How does that apply to AW? How many meets do you think a top AW may manage during one year?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><i>The training is the same, but different at the same time,\u00a0 The level of intensity is the same, and the effort placed into the training is always 90-110% for table work.\u00a0 Work with the weights may vary significantly.\u00a0 However, less of the body is negatively affected by armwrestling, such that recovery times are a bit faster.\u00a0 Generally, table work goes to failure due to fatigue.<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>Different armwrestlers do a varingy number of tournaments per year.\u00a0 I average about 10 per year.<\/i><\/p>\n<ol start=\"8\">\n<li>CNS overtraining: does it occur in AW?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><i>I really don\u2019t feel that CNS overtraining occurs with any regularity.\u00a0 Generally, you are not placing the body into an overload condition.\u00a0 The bigger issue is fatigue.\u00a0 Overtraining in armwrestling tends to lead to tendonitis more so than anything else.<\/i><i><\/i><\/p>\n<ol start=\"9\">\n<li>How frequently (weekly, monthly) do you think you must train under a competitive setting (competition table, either with opponent or cables)?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><i>I prefer to do table work once per week.\u00a0 My team holds a practice session every<br \/>\nSunday for about 3 hours.\u00a0 We drill technique and work on strength and endurance.\u00a0 I feel that the table work is the most critical item in armwrestling.<\/i><i><\/i><\/p>\n<ol start=\"10\">\n<li>What kinetic chains and\/or muscles are most recruited in AW and how do you feel an experienced powerlifter adjusts to eventual changes in that respect?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><i>The majority of the upper body is involved in armwrestling.\u00a0 The forearms, biceps, and shoulders are the major players, with lesser involvement from the lats, erctors, abs, triceps, pecs, etc.\u00a0 The adaptation isn\u2019t all that difficult, but finding so many neglected areas can be a bit depressing.\u00a0 I was amazed at how weak I was in specific areas, when I had felt that I was generally all-around strong.<\/i><i><\/i><\/p>\n<ol start=\"11\">\n<li>Do you believe it is possible to keep \u201cdouble-sports-identity\u201d, training and competing both PL and AW? If not, what lift would be most affected by the incorporation of AW?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><i>It can be done.\u00a0 There are a few competitors who participate in both sports.\u00a0 I believe it is very difficult to rise to the top of both sports at the same time, but a truly superior athlete could do it.<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>I think the bench press would be most affected.\u00a0 At least in the gym, the soreness I get from armwrestling significantly limits my ability to train the bench.<\/i><i><\/i><\/p>\n<ol start=\"12\">\n<li>Last but not least, how are you enjoying AW? If you would like to say something about the sports environment, subjective feeling, etc., go ahead.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><i>I absolutely love the sport.\u00a0 It has the same camaraderie and \u201cbrotherhood\u201d that powerlifting has.\u00a0 The head to head nature of the competition is more fun for me; and the rush of competing is truly addicting.\u00a0 The fact that the sport is a chess game at its heart has a special attraction for me.\u00a0 I have to be ready with an attack, a defense, a counter attack, and a second defense\u2026..in less than 30 seconds.\u00a0 And I have to prepare myself based solely on my previous knowledge of the opponent and reading his setup and grip at the table.<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>I\u2019m having a great time, and I\u2019ve been relatively successful in the 2 years I have been in the sport.<\/i><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Shawn Lattimer, one of the strongest SHW powerlifters until the late 2000s, made a major change in his sports career: he became an Arm Wrestler. A few years later, he was already at the top positions of the American AW national ranking. A successful engineer, Shawn talks about the different demands of each sport and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,20],"tags":[1828,743,1829,1830,15,1831,1832],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mariliacoutinho.com\/pt-br\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5037"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mariliacoutinho.com\/pt-br\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mariliacoutinho.com\/pt-br\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mariliacoutinho.com\/pt-br\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mariliacoutinho.com\/pt-br\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5037"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.mariliacoutinho.com\/pt-br\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5037\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mariliacoutinho.com\/pt-br\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mariliacoutinho.com\/pt-br\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mariliacoutinho.com\/pt-br\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}