Nasr Youssef. The Legend of Armwrestling in Africa >>>

Nasr Youssef. The Legend of Armwrestling in Africa # Armwrestling # Armpower.net

Today armwrestling is developing very actively in different parts of the world. The huge African continent also takes its place on the map of world arm-wrestling. And this, as elsewhere in the world, is due to the efforts of both athletes and coaches, fiery enthusiasts and people who love arm-wrestling. Perhaps the most notable and energetic one of the enthusiasts of the African arm wrestling is Nasr Youssef, the Head Referee and Technical Director of Africa, as well as the coach of the Egyptian Armwrestling Club, a researcher in the field of physical training.

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"My relation with armwrestling started in 1985 since my childhood at school, where I used to beat all my classmates by some rules we created for ourselves.

In 1992, by accident, I came to know that there was an Egyptian Federation of this great sport. Although at that time I was a member of the Egyptian national athletics team in throwing discus, I decided to devote myself to armwrestling by joining one of the biggest armwrestling clubs in Egypt.

My first official сompetition was in 1993. It was National Egypt Tournament, where I  won the second place after the Egyptian National Champion. Then I realized that arm wrestling is not strength only!

So I decided to create a training program of my own. I have read many books on physical training, which helped me a lot to be a coach for myself before becoming responsible for a team. From the literature and the internet I learned that there are three ways to win in armwrestling: hook, top-roll and side-pressure. I personally prefer to combine between the hook and the top-roll styles.

As an athlete, I won many Egyptian and African Champion titles in different categories: Senior, Para and Masters. So many times I won up to 6 different medals in one competition.

In 2000, as a coach, I became officially responsible for a team with all categories. After two years of training, my team won the first place in Egypt - Para, Juniors categories and we became a very tough competitor in Senior category.

In 2004 I was not satisfied by the level of qualification I’ve got from books, so to be more professional coach I studied the course of trainers in the Egyptian Olympic Committee and attended many specialized courses in arm wrestling training.

In 2015 with excellent degree, I have graduated from the Faculty of Sport of Alexandria  University in Training Planning.

Along with my coaching and training activities I am doing a  unique armwrestling scientific research to obtain a master degree in the Science of motion and Biomechanics. This research, will be the first one not only in Egypt and Africa, but also at the level of the whole Middle East .

The outline of any sport training is to divide the year into periods: 

1- general physical preparation.

2- specified physical preparation. 

3- the period of competitions and the transitional period.

Each of these periods has its own features of what you should improve more from the fitness elements (strength, speed and endurance) to the balance between load intensity and load size.

Through my experience in armwrestling I would like to advise the the following to the newcomers:

1. Training needs a load planning schedule. Don’t train in a random way.

2. Keep away from any kind of stimulants because of their psychological and moral negative effects.

3. Train with a good biomechanics analysis of the each style. Find out where proper motor effort provides maximum performance and minimize the risk of injury.

Finally, I hope to see armwrestling to be the one of the Olympic sports. 

Today I am working with Ghana and African Federations on organizing of one of the greatest African championships ever."