Like many testosterone-addled teenagers, Curtis Klashinsky used to arm wrestle his buddies. He was into weightlifting and did pretty well, but the sport was never more than a hobby - that is, until he came across an arm wrestling tournament in Saskatoon in 2002. Klashinsky was 19 or 20 at the time, young and full of confidence. He decided to try it out, and it wasn't long before he learned there was a lot more to arm wrestling than big muscles.
"I had at least 50 pounds on most of those guys, but I lost four of my five matches," Klashinsky said. "It was a huge crush on my ego. I was 250 pounds, big into weightlifting, and I had no chance. I figured it just wasn't for me."
Oh, how wrong he was.
Klashinsky, who lived in Humboldt until he was six, recently won the provincial arm wrestling championship in both the right and left arm competitions. They were the sixth and seventh provincial titles for the same guy who had flamed out so spectacularly at his first tournament.
"I walked away from the sport for a couple years after that," Klashinsky said by phone from Saskatoon, where he lives and claimed his most recent victories. "When I came back I was a little bit better."
After being exposed to real arm wrestling training for the first time, Klashinsky built on his natural talent and quickly became one of the best in Saskatchewan. He showed up to his first practice an hour early and was off and running.
Most of his training is done under the umbrella of Team Saskatoon Arm Wrestling, a relatively informal group that usually meets once a week for training.
"Table time is key," Klashinsky said, referring to matches, rather than just strength training. "It would be ideal for us to get together twice a week, but I'm a single dad so that's not always possible."When he does get time to train, Klashinsky works on the more technical aspects of the sport, the subtle adjustments that most people wouldn't even notice. How much a wrist curves, how quickly a wrestler attacks his opponent - those tiny differences can make the difference between a win and a loss, especially when matches can be over in the blink of an eye.
"Most of my matches are over within two seconds," Klashinsky said. "I want it to be over by the time the referee finishes saying 'Go!'"
He also wrestles with both his right and left arms. There are differences between the two, but winning the provincial championship in both is still an impressive accomplishment.
"My right arm is stronger, but my left seems faster and I wrestle a little smarter with it," Klashinsky said. "With my left I'm more technical, with my right I go with my power move."
Whether it's his right or left arm, Klashinsky has learned an important lesson that he overlooked when he first started: brute strength doesn't always matter.
"The world's biggest bodybuilder could lose to a world-class guy who only weighs 176 pounds," he said. "The most important thing is to develop your tendon and ligament strength. That's why you see little guys beat big guys, because the small ones can withstand tremendous pressure on their tendons. Just doing 100 reps on the bench press won't do it for you."
With two young sons at home and a variety of jobs, Klashinsky doesn't have the time to arm wrestle more than occasionally. He's traveled to Montana and Manitoba for tournaments, but absent some sort of sponsorship deal there's not much money in the sport.
A dozen years after embarrassing himself at his first tournament, Klashinsky is one of the very best arm wrestlers in the province. Even though he has an armful of trophies, Klashinsky is always looking for people to come in off the street and give the sport a try, even if they're as inexperienced as he once was.
"I respect anyone who gets on that table," he said. "I always tell people to give it a shot. Why not?"
