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Michael Hann Wins Nationals


EricMilfeld

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I got word from Michael (Ivarboneless) that he took both right and left hand in the 70k class yesterday at Unified Nationals, up in Wisconsin. I'm very proud of him. He made the trip up to grip nationals with me only two weeks ago and placed second in my weight class (73k) and now has earned two national titles in arm wrestling. Very impressive, and well deserved!

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CONGRATS Michael!

Who got 2nd and 3rd???

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Congrats!

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Michael is one strong (and ripped) young man. Congrats buddy!

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I got word from Michael (Ivarboneless) that he took both right and left hand in the 70k class yesterday at Unified Nationals, up in Wisconsin. I'm very proud of him. He made the trip up to grip nationals with me only two weeks ago and placed second in my weight class (73k) and now has earned two national titles in arm wrestling. Very impressive, and well deserved!

Incredible.... how long has he been seriously training for arm wrestling?

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I loved that dude's log and he knows it. In fact he knows it was a followed by quite a few. If anything, his consistency and volume were awe-inspiring and showed one could build to a tremendous amount of work and make it seem effortless eventually. Very disciplined dude with his training, from what one could see in the log, so no wonder it has paid off, I'm very happy for him!

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This is awesome. Way to go Michael!!!

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I got word from Michael (Ivarboneless) that he took both right and left hand in the 70k class yesterday at Unified Nationals, up in Wisconsin. I'm very proud of him. He made the trip up to grip nationals with me only two weeks ago and placed second in my weight class (73k) and now has earned two national titles in arm wrestling. Very impressive, and well deserved!

Incredible.... how long has he been seriously training for arm wrestling?

He told me he did a lot of arm wrestling with guys in high school, and he's only 23, so it's been a rather meteoric rise.

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Lest we forget the years of gymnastics, including at the collegiate national level. He's got one hell of a build for the lighter classes, and actually puts forth the effort required to really be the best. He deserves those wins. Congrats Michael!

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Incredible.... how long has he been seriously training for arm wrestling?

He's been armwrestling for more than 7 years. He has been very good for several years. This was anything but an upset or surprise. If anything he had it coming for a long time now.

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Lest we forget the years of gymnastics, including at the collegiate national level. He's got one hell of a build for the lighter classes, and actually puts forth the effort required to really be the best. He deserves those wins. Congrats Michael!

Years of gymnastics would make for an incredible base of strength. The ligaments and tendons need to be prepared for high volume training. Gymnastics would do that for sure.

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Thank you everyone!

To answer the questions:

Joe: I don't know about third, but J. Dockter was 2nd righty and J. McGuire was 2nd lefty. I was in the zone, so I didn't keep track of anything other than who was still in front of me.

bubba: I've been competing for 6 years (will be seven years in August). I've been practicing on the table religiously since 2008, and I started lifting and focusing full time on armwrestling in April of 2012 when I retired from gymnastics (and as a consequence stopped posting in my log).

The tournament was not easy. J. Dockter is apparently well known for being a beast in the Midwest area of the country, but he is relatively unheard of elsewhere since he doesn't travel. I was in good shape, and I have one of the best toprolls in the country, but the man wrecked me up top in the semi-finals. I went to the B side and came up to the finals with him. I changed my approach, but still went up top a second time...and he wrecked me again...but luckily he elbow fouled, and the match was restarted. I was advised never to hook this man because his hook was his strong point, but I felt with him beating me up top I had no other choice. I forced the hook and won. Since I was on the B side, I had to do it again. I forced the hook twice more (one start resulted in a foul called on him) and drug him down to win my first national championship in the senior category.

Left handed was easier, but still not easy. I went undefeated left handed. Perhaps the most difficult part of left handed competition was retaining focus after the emotional drain of getting to the right handed title. I had to redline myself in a big way to claw my way to the top right handed.

I've been working to "train smarter" for a long time. Those that know me or read my log know my work ethic, but I was regularly injuring or overtraining myself. Aside from training sport specific, the things that made the biggest difference for me:

1) Adequate recovery. If I was still very sore, I would skip a training day...which was unheard of while I was updating my log. I've become MUCH stronger and more healthy after applying this concept.

2) Doing rehab/prehab. Icing down, rolling my elbows out, etc. It helped me to be able to train hard and heavy without overly damaging my structure.

3) Mental preparation. It can't be preached enough. If you see the videos of my matches at nationals, I stand at the table like a statue. It looks like I'm just staring at the table, but I'm seeing the match won over and over until the other guy steps up to take a grip. Weeks out from the event I was running wins through my head. This was especially helpful right handed. What do you do when a guy crushes you with a move that's supposed to be his weak move, and you just lost your best chance against him? I stayed in the game mentally because I was prepared to win this tournament at all costs, and I never let doubt set in. Do not underestimate the value of being able to taste the win. It is tempting to think mental preparation is silly, but come clutch time, you'll be happy you were ready.

Thanks again for the kind words everyone! I appreciate the wisdom, humor, advice, and equipment that has been lent/given to me over the years. The gripboard community certainly played a large role in my success this past weekend. I'm very grateful to everyone who has assisted me along the way.

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Very awesome, congrats!

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Congrats Mikael " The Paulsack " Hann.

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Aaron Gutt was 3rd both hands, he's a local from Wisconsin that loves pulling and has been training twice a week consistently for over 10 yrs but for some reason that I don't know only competed about once every 3-4 yrs. I guess he doesn't like I travel.

Mike was very impressive! I definitely underestimated his hook before but now I consider his right hook to be one of the strongest in the USA at 154, after only Corey/hale/Vazgen/fritsche (although fritsche is debatable ;)). Lefty I still think I can beat him ;) but he is definitely the man right now. Congrats again Mike.

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