 Two people with their arms in a starting position, elbows down with hands locked together | |
| Players | 2 |
|---|---|
| Skills | Strength, endurance, technique, resistance |
Arm wrestling (also spelled armwrestling) is a sport with two opponents who face each other with their bent elbows placed on a table and hands firmly gripped, who then attempt to force the opponent's hand down to the table top ("pin" them). The sport is often casually used to demonstrate the stronger person between two or more people. Arm wrestling is an ancient sport that was revived in the 1950s in the United States. In September 1962, the first world wrestling championship was held in Petaluma, California, as this wrestling was called (literally, “wrist wrestling”).
In the early years[when?] other names were used to describe the same sport, including arm turning, arm twisting, twisting wrists, wrist turning and wrist wrestling.