Team Arm Wrestling Federation brings team aspect to individual sport

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It all started with a playful arm wrestle at home against her father and one accidental coffee spill after a long day at work.

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“My father would come home from work, a very tiring, long day, and every day I would arm wrestle with my father,” recalled 14-year-old Iti Manchanda. “I went arm wrestling with him and he was a little grumpy and tired and I spilled coffee on him.

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“And my mom and dad both said, 'If you love arm wrestling so much, why don't we find you a real tournament and training facility, like a club where you can train and compete?' That's how we found my first tournament. So they were very supportive throughout the whole journey.”

She turned 15 in a month, a year and a half since she started playing the sport and several months away from being crowned world champion in her age group. Manchanda, from Waterloo, Ontario, is set to compete in a professional team league. The Tag Team Arm Wrestling Federation kicks off its exhibition event at Henderson Brewing Co. on Saturday. in Toronto.

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Jason Constantini and Alex Keary, both from Toronto, co-founded the league. In 2020, they started with a YouTube channel called Table Monkeys.

On the men's side, it's an 8v8 game with four weight classes, roster changes and substitutions, and a scoring system in place. The women's team plays according to a 3 on 3 system, matches are played one after another, but without substitutions or changes in the composition.

Three more pre-season matches are scheduled for next year, with the full season scheduled to launch in November 2026.

As it stands, Constantini says, arm wrestling is similar to the way boxing is managed, with promoters trying to attract big names to events that drive sales, with no clear schedule to follow.

“We tried to create a format that was more broadcast-friendly,” he said. “And by making it team-based, we're trying to create a fandom in the sport where people are interested in watching the sport because they support Toronto, Montreal, Tampa Bay, Long Island or whatever the team may be.

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“Sports (now) are such that you have to know the people and like the people and want to watch them in order to be able to be a spectator and spend money to go to an event and participate and keep the sport active. And because of that, I don't believe it's conducive to reaching new audiences and bringing new people into the sport.”

Twenty-year-old Alexander Koshadze from Toronto doesn't think the sport is hugely popular right now, but he thinks the league could help it grow.

“This is a new kind of arm wrestling,” he said. “I'm used to an individual sport, but this takes it to another level where it's like team sports. And now you have teammates that you're going to work with and become a team. Then you come up with strategies.”

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Koshadze is a two-time world championship silver medalist who began his career at the age of 15.

“I am Georgian by origin, so I always knew about arm wrestling,” he said. “(But) I didn’t quite understand how it worked, and whether there were practices, trainings and all that.

“But I started when I was 15 with a website called Armbet, which is Devon Larratt's website where you meet other arm wrestlers. So you can meet arm wrestlers and start training, and that's how I got into it.”

Larratt, from Victoria, is the sport's most popular arm wrestler and is considered one of the best of all time.

Both Manchanda and Koshadze hope that arm wrestling will eventually become an Olympic sport.

“Every arm wrestler’s dream is to make it to the Olympics,” Manchanda said. “So the day he gets to the Olympics will be a big deal.

“And I'm really looking forward to that day. It's like my dream. And I feel like this league is becoming very famous, a lot of great athletes are showing interest in it. So I feel like it has a bright future ahead of it.”

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