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Updated: November 4, 2009, 11:48 am	Share    Print    Email

East Hampton's Mike Bye (left) takes a crack at the Empire State Golden Arms Tournament of Champions next Thursday. Photos courtesy the NYAWA

East Hampton - In preparation for the Empire State Golden Arm Tournament of Champions on November 12, put on by the New York Arm Wrestling Association, thousands of pounds are being hoisted in the air, rep after rep, day after day. It's true that in the world of arm wrestling, superior brute strength will take a competitor a long way. East Hampton's Mike Bye, a veteran of the game, recognizes that as well as anyone, which is why he routinely hits the preacher bench, bangs out a series of one-armed push-ups and strengthens his abdominals with innumerable sit-ups.

By his estimation, though, "99 percent" of his training comes on a day-to-day basis on the job - climbing and cutting down trees, one-arm chainsawing, and on the water, pulling out dredges full of scallops or clams. It's unlike most any other workout that any of his competitors will experience and why he's a favorite to take home some hardware at next week's showdown.

Mike Bye (right) of East Hampton estimates that he's recorded 15 first-place finishes in his career, including multiple firsts at a Mohegan Sun tourney last year.

"A lot of guys sit down and curl, curl, curl, and it makes you stronger, but it really doesn't strengthen your tendons," Bye said. "It only works certain muscles. That drives me nuts. I see guys going to the gyms or guys at tournaments talking about their workouts, and it's fine for those muscles, but what else?"

He's never been shy about taking on a challenge - he ran the Long Island Marathon at age 11 and enlisted in the Navy at age 17. For more than 20 years, Bye has taken on all comers in the lightweight division of high-profile tournaments in New York, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and more. He estimates that he's won 15 titles and placed in dozens of others. At April's massive Big Apple Grapple, Bye took third left-handed - his off-hand - at 154 pounds, a year after taking first lefty and third righty in the event. He could add to his resume next week in Manhattan.

"I love it because it's one-on-one," he said. "If I walk in and I do well, it's because either I did the right training or I could just be having a really great day, or because I trained right, or both, then on the opposite end of the spectrum. I do it because I love the competition. If I win, that's great. If I lose, I don't get all upset and carry on about it. If you lose, you lose."

Even though he's a natural right-hander, Mike Bye has flourished in left-handed draws as well.

Arm wrestling has been in his system since he was a kid, tugging on his dad's arm - "He was huge, he was 6-6" - with his two arms. Bye's first tournament came about back in 1988 when he was a teenager in the Navy. The details of that showdown in Norfolk, VA, are fuzzy - he placed first or third, he said, but nevertheless, it was the first of many. He had spent four years in active duty as a SEAL before being honorably discharged due to poor eyesight. He remained with the Navy as a Navigator on, among others, the USS Iowa and USS Wisconsin. The affinity for armwrestling lasted through it all. When the hands are interlocked, fastened even further by a Velcro strap, there are no teammates or timeouts that can save someone at the arm wrestling table.

"Whether the other guy's stronger than you, you just messed up, or you get in a bad position off the bat, it all comes down on you," Bye said. "You can't blame it on your coach. You can't blame it on mom. It's you against him. That's what I love."

There's more to the sport than who can lift how much or shred phonebooks fastest, nor is it as simple as going "over the top," a la Sylvester Stallone in the 1987 film with Robert Loggia. Dan Fortuna, the event's organizer and a multiple champion himself, called it a chess game. "People think it's just arm wrestling, but there are all kinds of angles and styles," said Fortuna, who hails from Wading River. "You have to be smart and figure out your opponent's weaknesses."

Those in the mix long enough have fine-tuned their strategies and strengths, whether it be quick snaps, hooks, drags or posting toprolls - all popular techniques. Bye's strength will keep him in any match, but his experience has proven to as well. He is most known for his epic duels, particularly with Brooklyn's Harry Wilson, who Bye calls his nemesis and a great guy in the same sentence.

"The way I was brought up, I was taught that it takes twice the energy to try to take somebody down than to try to hold him," Bye said. "Sometimes it's like drag racing - who's quicker off the line? If they get you in a losing position right off the bat, it's just an uphill battle. If I hold him, it becomes a war of attrition, and most of the time it comes down to that."

Weight classes range from 154-and-under, in which Bye ordinarily registers, to the heavyweights at 226-plus. The women have three categories as well. To get more matches, Bye oftentimes enrolls in the 154-176 division and in both the right and left hand draws. "Once the adrenaline's going, I want to keep it going," Bye said. "For some reason, I don't seem to do too badly."

Scalloping season began Monday, and Bye was making the rounds, hitting the North Fork Tuesday. The workout he gets dredging makes for a tiresome yet ideally fruitful day on the water, much like the endurance challenge that comes with clamming and in the landscaping business. The trick is to build up the muscles yet not overtax them for the big tournament. Bye's been at it a long time, though, and he hopes that's the case in New York next week too, when the NYAWA crowns New York's Strongest Arm.