HIGH RIDGE, MO (KPLR-KPLR11.com) -
A High Ridge, Missouri, native will compete for a his second national arm-wrestling championship this weekend. Some people like to use the expression "on the other hand." For Jeremy Plaster, that is literally what he did when an injury to his ring finger took him out of the sport that made him a national champion.
Jeremy was ranked number one and right on track for a world title in arm wrestling, until a freak injury changed that course, "I had a vascular problem that popped up in my finger. The finger stopped supplying blood, therefore the tip of it died and they had to surgically take it off."
It looked as though Jeremy's arm wrestling career had ended, "It was a wash. I had to walk away from it, which was rather painful to do. This sport's been a really big part of my life for a long time now."
That was when Jeremy looked on his other hand, his left hand, and saw possibilities. "I decided to throw my name in a hat at a relatively local event, left-handed, just to kind of hang out with some old friends that were in town. And I beat a few people I didn't anticipate beating. So I thought maybe my left arm was worth putting some time into."
Now, Jeremy is favored to win his second national arm wrestling title, his first left handed, this weekend in Little Rock, Arkansas, "I want what's mine. Whenever I left, I was ranked number one, right handed. And since then, obviously, I'm not anymore. I can't compete with that arm. So to me, a number one ranking, left-handed, would mean the world."
Though it's with a different arm, competing against the best has Jeremy back where he is most comfortable, "I feel like I was gone from home for years and years, and you can't find your way back. And then all of a sudden you turn a corner and there's your house. And you have that feeling of being home again. That's what I feel like. I can't put into words what this sport has given me. I can never give back what it's given to me."
Jeremy has three copies of the movie "Over The Top," with Sylvester Stallone, and says he does like it, but the mechanics shown in that movie are very far from reality.
Plaster works in security and trains in ju jitz tsu as well.
Jeremy was ranked number one and right on track for a world title in arm wrestling, until a freak injury changed that course, "I had a vascular problem that popped up in my finger. The finger stopped supplying blood, therefore the tip of it died and they had to surgically take it off."
It looked as though Jeremy's arm wrestling career had ended, "It was a wash. I had to walk away from it, which was rather painful to do. This sport's been a really big part of my life for a long time now."
That was when Jeremy looked on his other hand, his left hand, and saw possibilities. "I decided to throw my name in a hat at a relatively local event, left-handed, just to kind of hang out with some old friends that were in town. And I beat a few people I didn't anticipate beating. So I thought maybe my left arm was worth putting some time into."
Now, Jeremy is favored to win his second national arm wrestling title, his first left handed, this weekend in Little Rock, Arkansas, "I want what's mine. Whenever I left, I was ranked number one, right handed. And since then, obviously, I'm not anymore. I can't compete with that arm. So to me, a number one ranking, left-handed, would mean the world."
Though it's with a different arm, competing against the best has Jeremy back where he is most comfortable, "I feel like I was gone from home for years and years, and you can't find your way back. And then all of a sudden you turn a corner and there's your house. And you have that feeling of being home again. That's what I feel like. I can't put into words what this sport has given me. I can never give back what it's given to me."
Jeremy has three copies of the movie "Over The Top," with Sylvester Stallone, and says he does like it, but the mechanics shown in that movie are very far from reality.
Plaster works in security and trains in ju jitz tsu as well.
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