In Search Of Excellence - Devon Larratt: "Arm Wrestling Is My Life" | E64

Episode Date: June 6, 2023

Welcome to Part 2 of an amazing episode of In Search of Excellence, featuring Devon Laratt, a Canadian professional arm wrestler who has won multiple world championships and is one of the best arm wrestlers of all time. He is also a former member of the Canadian Armed Forces.In today’s episode, we talk about the things crucial for success, the importance of preparation, and the ability to accept defeat. You’ll hear about his most important wins and losses, the famous arm wrestlers he fought against, and so much more.Time stamps:01:05 The importance of Extreme PreparationThings important for successConsidered the no. 1 arm wrestler in the world at 33As you age you start losing physical energyFor the last four years, only trains his right handA lot of sacrifices is needed to become Number 1You must be obsessed05:19 How does Devon prepare for a match?Devon’s training falls into 3 categoriesThe most important is actual practice on the tableBreaking new grounds and pushing forwardMuscle, tissue, and training rehabStaying current 09:07 How important is a passion for success?Passion is probably the most important thingWhen you love something, you will be extremely motivatedMotivation will never be a problemYou have to know yourself 11:38 How to bounce back from a huge loss?Lost 6:0 from Denis CyplenkovDenis is an incredible human beingLearned a lot from DennisWas defeated by an incredible arm wrestlerIt’s great to have people to keep you humble and inspiredDenis is an inspirational athlete and fighterIs there a fear of losing?There are far more serious things than a matchLoves to fight and wants to have a good timeCherishes his losesLosses make you stronger 17:18 Is wrestling like poker?In poker, you have your cardsMaybe not much like poker (random)Arm wrestling is about self-betterment and growth of selfNo Limits - a nick name given to DevonEndurance has been his gift, never fallen short of itSponsors:Sandee | Bliss: BeachesWant to Connect? Reach out to us online!Website | Instagram | LinkedIn

Michael Jordan is arguably the greatest basketball player in history. He said that one of the things that made him the best, that made him a champion, was the confidence he has. How important is confidence and endurance in arm wrestling? And how important are they in life to be successful? There's no way to get around homework. When you talk about who's the confident person on game day, who's the confident person when the test is being presented.

It's the person who did the most homework. The key to my confidence was always knowing that I put in more work than the other person. I've spent more of my life, I've sacrificed more time, I've sacrificed more parts than they have to be left standing at the end. You're listening to part two of my amazing conversation with Devin Larratt, one of the greatest arm wrestlers in history.

If you haven't yet listened to part one, be sure to check out that one first. Now, without further ado, here's part two of my amazing interview with Devin. So one of the things that's made me successful in my career has been something I call extreme preparation, which means when someone's preparing one hour or two hours for a meeting or job interview or sales presentation, there are times where I've done 40 to 80 hours. Can you talk about some specific examples of extreme preparation that you've done and also talk about is it all physical and strength training and how much of it is actually mental training? I think that a lot of what it takes to be great is cutting away pieces of your life that are not important to you.

A simplification and a purity where you are spending as much of your time concentrated on the most precise bandwidth that's related to your success possible. I think that this is something that I certainly do. So I think one of the best ways I can explain it to you is in the later part of my career. So I was considered the number one arm wrestler in the world in the open weight division when I was around 33. That's like 15 years ago. Okay.

And I think that that's around the time that most combative athletes kind of hit their peak between in their early thirties because, you know, your injuries are still mostly manageable. You've got a lot of technique. You're young and healthy. And a lot of things haven't started to fade. Arm wrestling is really good.

You can really push that if you hold on to the love. But there's a lot of things you have to learn if you're going to hold on. One of the concessions that I made was as you age, you start to run out of physical energy a little bit more. Like your ability to recover, your ability to heal becomes somewhat diminished.

And it was my theory that I just wanted to physically express myself on the arm wrestling table at the highest level for as long as I could and I actually for the last four years I have completely focused on my right hand so I actually only train my right hand. I don't even train my left anymore. I still practice with it. I still have fun with it. But my right hand has done all the homework for four

years. I've tried to put all my energy, all my extra blood flow into this side because I know it's limited. I know that you can only do so much. But I'll tell you, every day, this is what I do. I practice every day. I wake up, I train. I train throughout the day. I go to practice. Before I go to sleep, I will practice. Arm wrestling is my life, really.

It's an experiment that I'm completely fascinated by. Yeah, I find it very interesting. I think that you have to fall in love. I think you have to become obsessed. I think you have to give yourself permission to let the activity that you love kill you. I think you have to let it

take over your life to a certain degree to reach the highest levels. I think you have to make a lot of sacrifices. I think you have to let a lot of things fall. I think you have to let a lot of things fail if you want to really simplify and purify. Can you give us a sense of what your training regimen actually is on a day-by-day basis, what you do to prepare strength-wise for a match?

Say my training really falls into probably three categories. Probably the most important one is the actual practice on the table. This is probably the most fun and the actual best, most specific thing that I can do. So what I'll do is I will train with other guys. So I'll go to different clubs almost every day. I'll travel different parts of the world. I'll train with people all around the world. I'll spend time on an arm wrestling table. Whatever you do, you get better at. So I never go far away from the table. This is probably the most important thing that I do.

And I believe that it's the only thing I would really have to do to ensure myself to always move forward. It's the most important one, to do the thing that you actually want to get better at. That's not enough for me. I do other things. I do two other things. So I try and break new ground. So I try and move forward. And I try to keep things very, very simple. I don't try and do a lot of things.

I used to. If I went back 20 years ago in my career, I would be doing hundreds of exercises, okay? Different exercise. I would break an arm wrestling match down and I would be working every motion, every movement that I could think of in a match to try and improve those areas. I now have become extremely simple and I understand that there are parts of the game that are much more important than others. And if you win these key pieces, then it becomes extremely difficult

for the other person to beat you. So I spend a lot of time pushing forward in probably two to four components. This is what I spend all my time kind of breaking new ground. When I mean breaking new ground, I break new ground in strength and in power because these are the most important components

in the fight, strength and power in an arm wrestling match. People talk about endurance. Endurance is great. When the match is close, it can come down to endurance. But if you ever ask me, Devin, what do you want? Strength, power. In these specific areas, rising, rolling, I spend so much time. Everything after that depends on kind of the flavor of the day. The last little bit, I'm working my grip. I'm working my inside game just a tiny little bit.

And when I say moving forward, this is me understanding that there's a little bit of damage I'm doing to my body that I'm allowing myself to heal from. The third thing I do is I do rehab. I do a lot of rehab. I do blood flow. And this is to make sure that I stay healthy,

stay functional, heal myself. I would not say it's really moving me forward. It is in a certain way, but not so clearly as the second option. Rehab is something, it's basically, you're just greasing your ligaments, greasing your tendons, pushing blood through your tissues

to enhance the healing and the metabolism and keeping the health up. So that's it. And then I'll kind of stay current. And that's just me kind of keeping my eye on the arm wrestling scene and knowing what's going on. But yeah, those three things. Arm wrestle, develop my strength and power in certain key motions, and then rehab.

So I've already talked about some of the elements of success. We talked about a simple mindset. We talked about commitment. We talked about work ethic and preparation. How important is passion to our success, both in what you're doing in your sport and in our lives itself? I think passion is probably the most important thing. It's probably the most important thing that is going to get you anywhere. If you do not love something, I highly suggest that you don't pursue it.

It's not worth it. And when it gets tough, you're not going to want to do it. When you love something, you will come back worth it. And when it gets tough, you're not going to want to do it. When you love something, you will come back to it over and over and over. Whether you want to or not, it won't matter.

You'll be drawn to it very strongly. It won't seem like work to you. You won't go to bed and be like, oh, okay, well, what are you going to do tomorrow? Okay, I have to do this. No, you'll want to do it. You will be extremely motivated to do it. Motivation, if you are passionate about something, motivation will never be a problem. You will not be deterred if you're doing the things that you love. It will continue to grow in you. You will become more efficient. You will become more effective. You will continue to pursue your goal. Discovering your passion is probably one of the most important things you can do as a child, as a young person, figuring out what it is that makes you feel alive, figuring out what it is that makes you feel at peace. These are the things that you really need to do to know yourself so that you can enter a

field where you can make your life very easy. The word work should not be in your vocabulary. It should be all play. Even the things that are hard and monotonous. The rehab that I do for hours every day, most people would probably hate, but I really like it because I enjoy mastery of my body. I enjoy the way it feels. I enjoy the process because I know it leads to victory on the arm wrestling table.

Passion is very important. Let's go to 2018 and the most anticipated arm wrestling match in history between you and Dennis Sveplenkov. You lost 6-0. What happened there and how did you bounce back from that huge loss? Yeah, Dennis is such an incredible human being. He's one of my very favorite people on the planet. Denis Saplankov. Yeah, I've learned a lot from Denis. He is one of our greatest champions in the sport of arm wrestling. Yeah, I mean, I don't want to make any excuses. I was defeated by an incredible arm wrestler that day. There's a good chance that Denis and I get to arm wrestle again soon.

It'll be on the right hand. It's really great when you have these people to focus on and continue to draw inspiration. Continue to keep you humble continue to show you that there is a higher ceiling dennis is dennis yeah he's an inspirational athlete he's an inspirational fighter um guy is so strong it's insane it's insane how strong he is like I don't know if you ever played Dungeons and Dragons you know most of us when we're you know if you're the human class you roll the dice you have three die six and if you're lucky you roll an 18 and then if you're a fighter

class you get to roll the die for the 100 you. Every once in a while, there's some legendary dude who has a 19 strength. Denis Aplankov is godlike. He's not in the realm of humans. There's a few people. You think there's 7 billion people on the planet. When you look at these complete outliers, which I don't think I'm really one of. I think that what makes me special

is just how crazy I am about the sport. I'm probably the, and when you talk about like where I am in the spectrum of crazy in the sport I'm wrestling, I'm probably way, way, way out there. But Dennis, not to say he's not crazy about the sport, but Dennis's strength is, it's just so

freaky. It's so freaky. His hands, his skeleton, it's probably like a normal male. He's probably four times the skeleton weight.

His bones alone, he's a complete, complete caveman. He's so strong. It's incredible. When you're sitting there and you're walking up to the table and there's people watching you or you're on ESPN, which does happen at times, do you ever get anxious before

the fight or have anxiety or think, gosh, what happens if I lose? I've been doing this a long time. You know, I like to know that really nothing matters. Really. It really doesn't matter.

I mean, there's far more serious things than an arm wrestling match and even they don't really matter. So really, it's just about me and me having a good time. And that's what I kind of come back to. I come back to the fact that I've been doing this since I was a kid. And I'm here because I love to fight.

And it's that simple. And quite honestly, as difficult as it is, I do cherish my losses. I really do. I never seek a loss. Even the times when I willingly accept a fight, when I know I'm the underdog, I never seek the loss. I do everything I can to avoid it.

But when it happens, I cherish it. I really, I'm happy for my loss. You do learn more when you lose. Like winning is so great. You know, I love to win. It feels so good. And you know, everybody's happy. It Everybody's happy. Winning is very simple. But I think that so much strength comes from failure, comes from feelings of being not worthy, feelings of failure.

So when you get those given to you, really, in terms of if you had a year or six months to your next match, would you rather come off a win or come off a loss? You probably want to come off of a loss. Losses will make you stronger depending on who you are. If you are obsessed and in love and never going to let go, then losses are great for you. If you are kind of on the fence, not sure,

and doing it for maybe if you're doing it for money or if you're doing it for some reason that's not as pure, then maybe a loss isn't good for you. But the people who are there just to fight and just who are there like very pure, losses are great for those people. Devin, you said that wrestling is like poker. Is life like poker as well?

And what have you meant by that? Well, you have your cards. You can bluff. You can play. Depends on what the opponent has. I don't know that it's that much like poker to tell you the truth because there's not a lot you can do with the poker hand. I mean, it's getting played regardless.

I mean, I'm not a big poker player and I understand that there's a lot of randomness, randomness. I think that in arm wrestling, it's very much about just self-betterment and a growth of self. Life, you will learn a ton from the sport. I find that there's mirrors all over the place. Things you learn about arm wrestling,

they're all through your life as well. Why is your motto, No Limits? Well, that's a nickname that was given to me. I never chose it. I think that people gave me that name because most of the times if the match stops, I win. I can normally go farther. I can normally go farther. I can normally go longer. Endurance for most of my career has been my gift.

Endurance for most of my career has been the component where I've never fallen short. How on earth do arm wrestlers make a living? When we talk about the average prize money for some tournaments is $80,000. The Arnold Classic, I think, is the highest at $300,000. You've got payouts going to the first prize for $12,500. And for women, it's $4,000. And you start going down there. If you finish in the bottom of the pack, we're talking top eight, you're making $500 per tournament, which means you're going there, you're spending expense, you're probably losing money. You have a very large YouTube channel. You've got 712,000 subscribers. You've had 206 million views on your videos. That's how you're making money,

I'm guessing. But how's everyone else making money and putting food on the table doing this? Yeah, arm wrestlers get compensation through different ways. Through prize money, through affiliations with companies, with sponsorship. YouTube, depending on the country that they live in, they're government sponsored. That's why I'd say most professional arm wrestlers are from government sponsored countries. That's why in North America, it's more rare. If you go to Georgia, if you go to Kazakhstan, countries like that where they recognize the sport, yes, it's much easier to be a professional arm wrestler

because of that government protection. You've had a bunch of challenges in your life as well. You had deep vein thrombosis and had a blood clot in your leg and in your lungs. How do you bounce back from that? And what's your advice to others who are sitting here listening to this wondering, I'm sick, I have cancer, I have blood clot, I had a stroke. What advice do you have for them? A lot of times you're sick, but you're not dead.

There's something you can do. I think that so much of the key to life is very simple. It's movement and breathing. So often when we've become hurt or sick, the instinct is to lay there, lay there and rest. But I think so often it's the exact opposite of what we should do. I think the faster that we can return to the activities that we love, the more health will be back in us. Um, if, if you, if you can't run, but you can walk, then walk. If you can't jump, but you can hop, then hop, you know, you have to start again. You have to, you have to do what you can do. Um, when I had deep vein thrombosis, I got very sick.

Probably almost died. But I started walking every day further and further until I cleared. I was lucky. I was lucky. Simple things. Stay hydrated. Walk. Breathe.

And count your blessings. because it will be over. Let's talk about your awesome wife, Jodi. You met her in high school. She herself is the former number one arm wrestler in the world. Talk about your love, and could you have been as successful as you are without her? Jodi has been incredible. Jodi has been such a support for me. It's just,

it's very interesting when you've been together so long. You know, when I talk about Jody, and we have, we have three kids together, our lives are completely, basically one thing. You know, when you make a life with someone else, the bonds become so deep that when you love each other, it's a form of love for yourself. And when you fight with each other, it's a form of fighting with yourself

long relationships become deeper and deeper and deeper until i think that it's they become difficult to recognize as whether they're another person or they're you becomes very, very intertwined. Jody and I, almost one person. I want to ask you about one more fight, King of the Table 2. You versus John Brank, if I pronounced his name correctly, where you were fighting with your right hand. What happened there? And it's considered one of the greatest fights

in arm wrestling history. Yeah. I don't know if that would be considered one of the greatest fights in arm wrestling history, but John Brank and I faced off again in... Yeah, I guess it was 2021. John Brzenk is recognized as the greatest arm wrestler of all time. This guy, he is actually the guy who won the over-the-top tournament.

He's actually the guy who placed first. He's the guy who won the over the top tournament. He's actually the guy who, who placed first. He's the guy who won the truck. He's actually like what they made the movie sliced alone. He's sly. He's Lincoln Hawk. Uh, and he's had an extremely long career. So basically 40 years of dominance at the, at the very highest level of the, of the world of arm wrestling. I actually beat John in 2008 to take the world title from him. And yeah, we faced each other a couple times, most recently at King of the Table 2. He came back from a little bit of a retirement and he wanted to face me. John is, uh, he's kind of like a father to the sport.

Like all of us now who are kind of at the top of the game and all the young guys coming up, everyone in the sport knows who John Brzenk is. John is, he is like the OG. He's like the, the guy that everyone looks to. He's, he's the gold standard. You know, we have current champions and the sport has certainly gone quite far.

You know, like the sport now compared to what it was 10, 20, 30 years ago, is almost unrecognizable. But John Brzezinski's contributions are unmatched. His time of dominance will probably never be replicated. So for me, any time I get to face John, it's a big honor um so yeah uh I love that guy you beat him for nothing

yeah I did yeah yeah so so with John I'm basically John's student, like we all are. And the thing is, I look at so many of the young guys coming up now and what they can do in the sport. And the thing is, you should be happy when you see the sport growing and moving forward from what you were able to give it. John gave birth to the modern professional arm wrestling scene through his fame and achievements. Everybody looked at John for 30 or 40 years. So yeah, always an honor to face that guy.

Before we finish today, I want to go ahead and ask some more open-ended questions. I call this part of my podcast, Fill in the Blank to Excellence. Are you ready to play? Let's do it. The biggest lesson I've learned in my life is Love the coach. Biggest lesson

I've learned, well, maybe that we are extremely mortal and this probably all doesn't matter. My number one professional goal is? My number one professional goal is to be remembered. My biggest regret in life is? A lack of bravery is never acceptable. The one thing I've dreamt of doing for a long time but haven't done is? basically giving away everything

and be like a leaf in the autumn wind and just traveling and fighting. That's it. If you could go back and give one piece of advice, what would you give to your 21-year-old self? Don't hurt yourself. If you could meet one person in the world, what would you give to your 21-year-old self? Don't hurt yourself. If you could meet one person in the world, who would it be? I'm quite happy.

I'm quite happy. I wouldn't know somebody else. I think I'm good. I think I'm good. The one question you wish I'd asked you is? Can I come up and train with the Ottawa Hawkers? Yes. Yes, Randall, you can.

I love it. Devin, this has been an awesome interview, an awesome podcast. You've really enlightened me to the world of arm wrestling and so many other people. It's so much fun being able to watch your shows and the videos before we got here.

I encourage everybody else, all the viewers and listeners to do the same. It's a very cool sport. Devin, you've been an inspiration. Thanks for being here. I appreciate you being here. Thanks so much, Randall. It's great to meet you.