Arm Over Arm Pull

As with the vehicle pull, the aim of this discipline is to move an object (which is generally a vehicle of some description, though there have been exceptions) as fast as possible over a set distance.  In the case of the vertical lift variant, the objective is to achieve a set height or the highest point possible. However, unlike the vehicle pull there is not a harness and rope arrangement and the rope is being pulled towards the competitor (who is seated and facing the object in question). In the simplest of terms, the athletes will be pulling a rope (which is attached to a car or boat for example) towards them, utilising biceps, back and legs as the primary muscles. Too much reliance on the biceps alone will leave them fatigued fairly quickly, and with the real possibility of not finishing the course.  Ideally, competitors will take long pulls on the rope for maximum reward, as opposed to shorter, shallower ones. Equally, it is a given that the grip will be crucial here as well, with the thickness of the rope to be pulled being a key factor. A thick rope will be easier to grip initially, but will test the forearms as the event progresses. As the rope is gripped tighter so the forearms will become pumped more quickly, which in turn adversely affects the grip. Whilst a thinner rope will be trickier to hold onto, slipping through the grip and increasing the chances of tearing skin from the hands as the competitors tire.

The aim is to keep as much tension in the rope as possible in order to ensure that there is little wasted effort in the pull. As with the vehicle pull, momentum is also vital. The sooner the initial inertia is overcome and the wheels are in motion, the sooner the athletes will be able to utilise the momentum and commit themselves to completing the course. It is worth noting, however, that momentum will not always be a factor and this will depend on the nature of the arm over arm pull being used. This is most evident when contrasting events where wheels are in contact with the ground (train, car, lorry, etc) with vertical lifts or the boat pull (1993 being the exception).

The arm over arm pull has been featured in numerous forms since the 1980′s. The wool hoist, where a 280lb sack of wool was hoisted vertically was one of the earliest versions used. Unlike pulling a car or van along a horizontal road, there was no chance to build momentum here as each pull was from a ‘dead’ weight, and the objective was to lift it as high as possible. The major problem that competitors such as Geoff Capes, Jon-Pall Sigmarrson and Simon Wulfse encountered was in trying to actually pull the rope in a hand over hand fashion. Each time they removed one hand from the rope the sack would drop down slightly, making it a brutally hard event. The battle wasn’t against overcoming inertia and building momentum, it was against gravity. Under the gaze of the Christchurch locals, Icelandic legend Sigmarsson took the win in 1983, achieving 9 feet and ten inches.

Two years later in Cascais, Portugal it was a 235kg boat that was pulled up a twelve metre slipway. The weight was not an issue, but the gradient (1:6 or around 16.5%) ensured that there was the inability to build momentum. The competitors were fighting against the boat moving back down the ramp, and this made up for its relative lightness.  Twice a WSM winner, Capes triumphed here in 19.9 seconds. Skipping ahead a year to the Promenade des Anglais in Nice, with the Mediterranean Sea as the backdrop, it was a six and a half ton truck to be pulled down the 20 metre course. Capes repeated his win of twelve months previously, narrowly ahead of JPS.

In one of the most unique arm over arm events ever used at WSM, Finland in 1990 saw the competitors were pulling a barge and its cargo of logs weighing 15 tons over a twenty metre course along the Pielisjoki River. To further add to the difficulty they were pulling against the current, the logs were absorbing more water as the contest progressed, and the nylon rope was getting wet on each pull. In spite of his comparatively light bodyweight the Briton Adrian Smith took the win on this occasion ahead of a number of WSM stalwarts including the American OD Wilson, Jon-Pall Sigmarsson and Finn Ilkka Nummisto. Rounding off the contest in Tenerife in 1991, the boat pull made a return. Unlike in 1985 however, the boat was on a trailer meaning that it had wheels in contact with the ground as opposed to the bottom of the boat being on wooden ‘skis’ or running up the wooden struts on the slipway. To counter this, the weight of the boat and trailer was 450 kgs and the gradient was 1 in 4 or 25%. The Dane Henning Thorsen took the win, and also second place overall.

In 1992, Iceland took on the hosting duties and having already had boats and trucks pulled in previous years, this time it was a 13.5 ton aircraft that provided the challenge. On a damp and foggy day, with twenty metres to be covered, the moisture in the air, and in turn on the rope, made grip even more of a factor. Home country favourite Magnus Ver Magnusson took first, narrowly ahead of the overall 1992 WSM winner Dutchman Ted Van Der Parre. For the first visit of WSM to South Africa in 1994, the arm over arm pull was used in just one of the qualifying rounds.  In keeping with the surroundings of the nearby Pilanesberg National Park, the competitors had to haul a safari jeep, complete with ten passengers over a twenty five metre course. Scotsman Forbes Cowan recorded 33.02 seconds to come out on top

1996 in Mauritius saw another twist added to the discipline. The athletes faced the ordeal of pulling six cars tipping the scales at over 9 tons in total, over a thirty metre course. Australian ‘Megaman’ Nathan Jones put his colossal biceps, back and legs to good use winning the heat in 44.06 seconds. Heading back to the USA in 1997, with Nevada as the venue, the competitors in heat three had to overcome three stretch limousines, with additional weight in the boot of each, weighing a combined 8 tons. As per twelve months earlier, the length of the course was thirty metres. Magnus Samulesson, who always performed creditably in this event, was the only man in his heat to manage the full distance, clocking 46.60 seconds. In the USA qualifying section, Tommy Ingalsbe (44.72 seconds) edged out Phil Martin (44.98 seconds) to secure a hard-fought win.

WSM headed back to Africa in 1998, with Morocco in the north of the continent as the venue.  The arm over arm featured in two out of the ten heats. The course was thirty metres in length and at the other end of the rope from the competitors was a 16 ton truck.  Samuelsson was the quickest of anyone in either group in 53.18 seconds, with South African Peter de Bruyn taking his heat in 58.25 seconds. The final in Malta one year later featured the return of the boat pull. Situated at ‘Blue Grotto’ on the south of the island, the objective was to pull a 300kg boat up a slipway. The gradient of the slipway was no match for 1998 WSM Samuelsson, who demonstrated once again how proficient he was in this discipline. The man with ‘the world’s strongest arms’ posted a time of 31.62 seconds, which was enough to edge out Canadian Hugo Girard by 0.7 of a second.

One the first of two visits to Zambia in three years, the heats of the 2001 edition of WSM saw the athletes presented with a sixteen ton railway carriage to be pulled over twenty metres. High above the Zambezi River, each of the five groups faced this task. Torbjorn Samulesson, the younger brother of Magnus showed that arm over arm skill was a Samuelsson speciality, winning his group in 26.8 seconds. Veteran Dutchman and Highland Games expert Wout Zijlstra won his respective group in 27.9 seconds. The remaining heats saw the three fastest times of the day. German Heinz Ollesch dipped under 26 seconds with 25.8, whilst 2006 winner Phil Pfister was even quicker to take first place in his group, posting 25.3. The man with the lowest of all the times was Magnus Samuelsson, showing again why he favoured this event, with a final time of 25.1 seconds.

The 2001 final had echoes of 1983. On this occasion however, the vertical lift weighed in at 285kgs, but contained a ratchet mechanism (rather than jockey wheels) which meant that the rope would click into various settings, rather than heading back towards the ground as in 1983. With the athletes competing in pairs, the 285kgs had to be hoisted to the top of the apparatus in the fastest time possible. 2000 champion Janne Virtanen demonstrated his explosive strength, taking victory in 13.27 seconds.

On the return of WSM to Malta in 1999, ‘Blue Grotto’ played host once again to the boat pull. Giant American Brian Shaw made short work of the twenty-metre course. The Coloradan pulled the 300kg boat at an astonishing rate, in an event at which he is currently unrivalled. His time of 32.44 seconds was almost 7 seconds ahead of his nearest challenger, the five-time WSM winner Mariusz Pudzianowski.

The vehicles or objects being pulled may have undergone changes, but the constant has been that whoever triumphs in the arm over arm pull will have earned it through a combination of grip strength, the technical ability to work the upper and lower body in unison, whilst having the cardiovascular ability to push themselves to the absolute limit.