Arman Karsybayev, accomplished Azerbaijan coach, Master of Sports in armwrestling - a promoter of this sports in his country. His students are known world – wide, but he is not. It often happens that a master stays in the shadow of his students. Arman Karsybayev started his career at the age of 23, when he was studying economics at the Academy of Transport in Almata.

I started as a representative of my school and won the city championships – says Arman. – After the Academy I went back home to Shardar, a city to the south of Kazakhstan. I gathered a group of young sportsmen and started teaching them, organizing competitions. My friends helped me a lot with prize funds, for which I’m very grateful to them.

Beginnings were rough. Armand had to improvise, be a renaissance man to create the right conditions to train for himself and others from his team.

The “Shardara Armwrestling” team was formed in 2001 – recalls Arman. – We had about 10 fighters. We had no weights, not to mention a gym. We had to adapt to the conditions. We trained in a yard, we used a radiator instead of a barbell. Step by step our team got bigger, our conditions better, our fighters more skilled. We had a gym now and prizes for competitions were much better. Now we have a modern facility, where our team can train for free.

In 2005 Arman has won the Asian Cup and a bronze medal in the Tokyo World Championships, in the category up to 110 kg. The master’s achievements motivated his students too. At first, the “Shardara Armwrestling” team was one of the worst in the country. But years of hard training and great coaching resulted in their becoming one of the leading teams in their country.
Our secret is that we train, train and then train again, as a team – says Arman. – We are like a family.

In the last 13 years we’ve built ourselves from scratch, we had our share of ups and downs, joys and sorrows. In this time 58 Masters of Sports canditates and 200 Masters of Sports were trained in our ranks – 87 Masters of Kazakhstan and 65 Masters of Asia, 8 Masters of the World in juniors, 1 senior Master of the World, and 10 senior winners of the World Cup.

Now Armand is the director of the sports board for the Shardar district, helps fighters get sponsorships, jobs, get into schools and he also organizes competitions. Thanks to him the “Shardara Open” contest was born, in honor of the II World War veterans. This event has been taking place for 16 years at the eve of the Victory Day.

The tournament is an homage to the 1941 – 45 war veterans – says Arman. – It’s also dedicated to my father , Roman Karsybayev, who is a war veteran too. The prizes in this tournament are very high. This year about 700 people took part, weight categories started at 30kg.
This summer, the Asian Championships will take place, in Japan. Soon there’s also the A1, the World Championships and the Nemiroff World Cup.

At the beginning of each year we make a plan for the club – says Arman. – We decide who will compete in which tournaments. This year we plan to start in the Asian Championships, the A1 and the World Championships. People who’ll go to the most prestigious events are : Abilda Erjan (Juniors World Champion and Nemiroff World Cup winner in 2013), Rayhanov Shynbolat (Nemiroff World Cup winner in 2013), Ongarbayev Kydrygali (World Master of juniors and winner of Nemiroff World Cup 2013), Rustembek Talgatbek (Master of the World 2013) and Shamiev Mazghan (Master of the World in juniors and Nemiroff World Cup winner in 2013)

Arman is a unique person, totally devoted to armwrestling and its evolution. Many coaches should have him as his role model.

Artur Grigorian