Every armwrestling competitor, trainer and referee live with a passion for the sport and they set their lives around it. More often than not the passion transfers to their entire families as well. But it sometimes happens that some of "ours" have also a second, often "hidden", passion. For example: Igor Mazurenko has been flying small airplanes for years. I once watched his performance from the airport and almost sh*t my pants from fear. Alex Kurdecha, as you probably know, plays american football, Mariusz Grochowski is an alpinist and a sailor. Damian Zaorski does extreme running, Anders Axklo lifts stones and hunts. And so, today's hero, Arkadiusz Kwiatkowski... plays pool! Precisely - he recently got back to his old passion. Of course, he won't leave armwrestling!

Arkadiusz Kwiatkowski: competitor, Polish Championships medalist, trainer in Samson Marklowice, the founder and chairman of this club, armwrestling referee.

PeSzy: Arek, what is it all about with billiards? I'm asking because you showed us pictures by the table but it looks somewhat different!

 Arkadiusz Kwiatkowski: I used to play billiards for 20 years in a no-longer-existing club Jednorożec (eng. Unicorn) in Rybnik. Over a year ago I picked it up again and signed into the Billiards Academy in Wodzisław Śląski.

I combine the two disciplines even though it might seem like they exclude each other at first glance - but I see an "added value" in it. I love the two disciplines and I think it's worth it to train other sports as well.

It gives you a bit of an insight on what it's all like in other sports.

 PeSzy: What was first? Which table came first?

Arkadiusz Kwiatkowski: Haha, good question! Ever since I can remember I have been armwrestling and I picked up billiards when I was 15.

PeSzy: What are your billiards achievements?

Arkadiusz Kwiatkowski: The plan for this year was to start in the qualifying tournament for the Polish Championships in Billiards and I think it went quite well - I got to the quarter-finals. There are two tournaments left out of the four qualifying tournaments for the Polish Championships and the sum of the points from these four tournaments gives you a qualification. Now I'm simultaneously preparing for Poland's Armwrestling Cup and the two last billiards tournaments. I'm trying to fit the trainings around each other.

PeSzy: I know that there are lots of types of pool...

Arkadiusz Kwiatkowski: There's indeed a lot of different varieties of billiards. I generally play "eight", there's also "nine" and "ten".

PeSzy: You are an armwrestling referee, do you also do it for billiards?

Arkadiusz Kwiatkowski: I will be getting my referee licence. For now I have noticed that the billiards referees are more respected than the armwrestling counterparts. Maybe it's a result of our overlookings. I hope this will change in the future. 

PeSzy: Thanks for the interview. I saw a pool table in Gniew Castle so... Maybe at the next competition...

Arkadiusz Kwiatkowski: If we find a table... Greetings!