PeSzy: When you met Alex, did you know that he would succeed in armwrestling so much? At least as much as he's achieved by now? How long have you two known each other?

Marcin Lachowicz: We have known each other for over 7 years. I organized the Olympic Picnic in 2014. Alex came up to me back then and asked if we could fight by the table. He was pretty surprised that he couldn't do much. He asked if I could train him and that's how friendship began, with our love for armwrestling as the base. I knew that with this potential and hard work he can achieve a lot in our sport and his limits are only in his head, not in his muscles.

What were his biggest strengths back then? Alex had huge potential from the very beginning. He had great genetics combined with general physical strength and strong grip. Moreover, he's an incredibly intelligent guy, and this is surprisingly very important in the sport. I was supposed to talk about his biggest strengths so it's not in order to mention that he wasn't a workaholic at the beginning of our collaboration, right?

My trainer work with Alex is a very broad subject: When he was in a good mood, he did almost all of the exercises that we set, but on worse days... Only the ones that he liked and that didn't cause pain. But with time he came to realize that armwrestling is a very cross-sectional sport and the top athletes have to have a whole variety of techniques, which in result makes them all-rounded and prepared for every path a duel could possibly take. That's why for some time I haven't had to force him to do the more painful exercises.

PeSzy: I think that Alex's improvement as a competitor slowed down when he took up american football. Do you share my opinion?

Marcin Lachowicz: I don't think it's the case because Alex only started taking our sport seriously quite recently. For a long time he went to competitions after competitions with no practice. I tried to implant the golden rule in him: „If you're not prepared, watch the duels from the seats”... It often happened that he lost stupidly with competitors he shouldn't have lost with under no circumstance, which as a result wavered the position that he managed to build.

PeSzy: Can you remember the duel with the American in Rumia? It was surprisingly easy. Tell us honestly, were you sceptica before this fight?

Marcin Lachowicz: When it comes to the duel with Scott Mendelson, I had no doubts that Alex would use his strengths and win. I was more restless about the fights with Trubin or Rustam Babayvev. In the duel with Trubin in China it was only nuances that decided the flow of the fight but with Rustam Alex perfectly used his advantages and won in a beautiful manner.

PeSzy: What are – currently, here and now – Alex's biggest advantages? What can he turn out to be better at or what IS he at least as good at as the best of the best in our sport?

Marcin Lachowicz: I currently don't train Alex as often as I did in the past because I, myself, appear at the gym quite rarely. Therefore, I can't say for sure what the cause of his success is. Of course, I'm still trying to support him as much as I can, I advise him as often as I can, both before and during his fights. But with all certainty, Alex started to treat our sport seriously and this really paid off. I showed him a little of what he should focus on, and some things he started to deeply analyze on his own to work on where he's lacking. He started to like some exercises that strengthened and stabilized his shoulders and side pressing. That's why he started to feel comfortable in techniques other than top roll. His main advantage is his head and the fact that in many exercises he's made considerable progress... while also maintaining a reasonable surplus. For sure he has one of the strongest outside rotations in the world, and very strong fingers that allow him to control the opponent's hand. I think that he recently showed us that he's within the world's top athletes and other competitors should take him really seriously.

Many said he was a lost cause in the duel with Sporong and Gasparini and he showed us a big advantage over these fighters. I believe that at the moment he's at least in the top 5 of world armwrestling and I'd really love to see his fight with Vitali Laletin. Vitali is now in great shape but I'm sure it won't be too easy for him to fight Alex if we get to see such a duel.

PeSzy: Thanks for the conversation.

Marcin Lachowicz: Greetings!