Artem! What are your thoughts on the World Cup? You were there with your team, and you entered yourself. Are you proud of your team?

Hello, Anastasia, to you and the whole armpower.net team!

I have a very good opinion about the World Cup in Gdynia. Recently I attended a contract signing in a certain office – I’m a lawyer – and someone asked me: “Where can I watch the Polish tournament? It was very interesting! Especially when the fighters didn’t listen to the ref and were tied up for that.”

Looks like even people who have little interest in sport liked the show in Gdynia! I went to World Cups in Kazakhstan and Brazil, but promotion there wasn’t half as good.

Who’s your favorite for the Nemiroff? Do giants like Taras Ivakin have a chance to take the podium?

Im’ no medium, but here’s my opinion. Taras Ivakin is like Mike Tyson in boxing, he’s beaten all the undefeatable armwrestlers of the sport. If he wants to and has enough motivation, he’ll do it again. It all takes time, the more you put in, the more you get back.

What are your thoughts on the outcome in you category on Nemiroff?

I always watched the World Cup, even when I wasn’t training. It’s a Colosseum-like spectacle. All it needed were the thumbs up – or down. I think Ukrainians will win – Eugen Prudnik, Mher Musaelyan – I’ll cheer for them. For 95 kg category, I say Artem Taynov will come first.

Watching your fights, one can say you are a very technical fighter.

In your opinion, what’s the most efficient strength – technique ratio to apply in armwrestling?

Thank you for the complement!

Strength and technique are correlated, but you need to add the psychological factor to the equation. If you try to build a relation, technique is the base for every sport, armwrestling is no exception. Power can be increased sevenfold with a right attitude. This is a work in development, it offers much food for thought.

You coach a lot of kids and youngsters. I know firsthand that this is tough work. How do you get young people to train any sport, especially armwrestling?

Coaching others is also teaching yourself. I listen carefully to my students, make note of every observation and comment. I never force people to train. I even train some 5-year olds, at their parents request. Nowadays the standards of physical education are very low, kids don’t know what bars, ropes and balls are. All young people “hang” in the web, so to draw them into training even for an hour you need picture, sound and text information and real life examples. You need to promote sports clubs on the Internet.

What are the biggest issues of Ukrainian armwrestling?

Mostly our problems stem from lack of financing. I’m happy to have been born in the very heart of Ukraine, where Vorskla and Dnieper meet, where people are very friendly. But when it comes to taking people to a tournament, it’s always the same song and dance – money. We get great support from an agricultural company in our region. We also owe a lot to our local administration. They always say “Even if the tournament is on Mars, the kids should still go!”

Anastazja Kisiliewa