More than muscle: Arm-wrestling trio competing at weekend nationals

Big muscles? Yes. But there's more to arm-wrestling than brute strength, says one of the members of the Newfoundland and Labrador team heading to nationals this weekend.

Mike Butler, Rick Edmunds and Tim Young are representing the province in Halifax on Friday for the 2017 Canadian Arm-wrestling Championships.

There's guys that aregonnabe at the nationals now that I'm probably stronger than, but are just destroying me with technique.- Mike Butler

"You can say that I'm almost a young gun only in my 30s. Rick's kind of the old wise one, he's early 60s, and Tim is the muscle, he's in his 40s and he's a big guy," Butler toldCBC'sSt. John's Morning Show.

The N.L. team has "no expectations" for this weekend's nationals, Butler said, given their fairly recent introduction to the competitive side of the sport.

"We've only really been training for three months here, so we're kind of just going for the experience of it this time," he said.

Butler said all three members beganarm-wrestling while in Alberta, where he said pretty much every small town has a team of competitive players.

'Next year should be our year'

When he first started, Butler was pretty confident, but said he quickly realized there was more to it than just muscle.

"It was a real eye-opener for me because I was always really good at it and two of the guys [Edmunds and Young] have competed before at provincials and stuff, and when I started doing it with them they really showed me I wasn't that great at it," said Butler.

"You've got a bit of strength but it is mostly skill. There's guys that are gonna be at the nationals now that I'm probably stronger than, but are just destroying me with technique."

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Butler guesses, given his experience in Alberta, that province's team will likely have the strongest showing this weekend.

But regardless of how team Newfoundland and Labrador fares at the competition, Butler said it will be a great experience to get better trained.

"Next year should be our year."