Some technique, a bit of sparring – tells us Russell Jodrey, American armwrestler. – Quite demanding trainings. I don’t have the kind of equipment back home that they have at Zloty Tur. Mostly I just do weightlifting.

Russell has his own gym in USA, where he coaches children. He has no one to spar with.

There are a couple thousand people in my neighborhood, and not one strong man. – Russell tells us. – The nearest strong guy lives some 200 miles away. I haven’t managed to convince any of my neighbors to start armwrestling, everybody thinks this is an injury-risk sport. I think my career suffered a lot for the lack of a club and sparing partners. I hope to raise a couple of boys to be good armwrestlers.

Russell is coaching his nephew, Nocona, in armwrestling. Nocona’s father, Kevin, Russell’s brother, has even purchased a table from Igor Mazurenko.

Nocona has potential – says Russ. – In August, in a Northern America championship he placed second in right-hand and first in left.

While he’s in Gdynia, Russell is thinking about competing in the World Cup in the -80kg category. In the meantime he’s training with Igor, who’ll also set up a training program for the next few months for him.

I want to use the plan to train Nocona – says Russell. This is a main goal for me. I’m sure it will make him a better sportsman. Nocona weighs 70 kg, so he’ll make a good sparring partner for me.

Iza Małkowska