When I was young I assumed that this, of all games, was a test of brute strength. What I learned as I got older was that it has much more to do with form, and with psychology. If you can set yourself in a sustainable position and exhaust your opponent, you'll win most of the time.

My most vivid memory of this game was from 2002 when the youth group's bus broke down on the way home from the coast, and we passed the time with an arm-wrestling tournament.