By Adam Frisk Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
The familiar thwack of hands hitting leather pads echoing across Head Lake on Thursday evenings has returned for another summer.
The Haliburton Arm Wrestling Club has transitioned from a casual local meetup into a competitive force, marking growth one year after bringing its training tables to the public docks in town.
The group, which meets on Thursday evenings at the Head Lake public docks, is now regularly competing in amateur events and regional leagues, including tournaments in Belleville.
“We’re getting these wins at the tournaments now,” club organizer Brad Barry told The Highlander. “It’s a good feeling. There’s been some improvement on technique and such, so it’s been pretty sweet.”
When club members aren’t practicing down on the docks, they are hitting cable machines to build the hyper-specific, tendon strength the sport requires. But any experienced “puller” would tell you, gym strength only goes so far, Barry explained.
“That’s why it’s key for everyone to come out,” he said. “To get better at arm wrestling, you actually have to do it.”
That preparation is put to the test in structured tournament environments. According to club member Dylan Graham, the competitive bracket system is highly accessible to newcomers, offering lots of opportunities to gain experience.
“Even if you lose the very first match, you can work your way all the way up because they have a double-elimination bracket,” Graham said of some of the regional tournaments.
At higher competitive levels, arm wrestling becomes deeply analytical, like many other sports. Graham noted that competitors routinely study recordings of matches to analyze opponents’ setups and look for physical “tells” before a match begins.
While tournament days showcase the explosive power, what the club describes as going “zero to 100,” Thursday nights are reserved for mentorship. Solomon Dicks, a 30-year veteran of the sport, still acts as the club’s safety anchor. Practice sessions are strictly controlled environments where veterans teach newcomers how to protect their joints.
“If we are pulling and someone is in a bad spot, we tell each other, ‘okay, take it down,’” Graham said. Thursdays are for learning technique and conditioning the body to be unique, while ensuring that the club’s golden rule remains intact: everybody’s got to go to work tomorrow.
The public nature of the Head Lake docks training sessions has also turned the weekly practices into a bit of a local attraction, drawing in curious passersby. Among those who stepped up to the table was Cooper Scott Dennis, who was in town visiting from nearby Kilcoo Camp.
“I thought it looked like an amazing experience to just come and try and hang out,” Dennis said.
After testing his strength against the club regulars, the young man said he was surprised by the complexity of the sport.
“That was crazy. I didn’t know that there were so many different parts into arm wrestling and there were so many rules… I didn’t know that it was so serious,” Dennis said.
The club meets at the Head Lake public docks in Haliburton village on Thursdays at 6:30 p.m. All experience levels are welcome to attend.
