After watching Rafal Kobylarz winning the Strongman Champions League event in Latvia, it was time to interview this new force in Polish Strongman.
Phil Burgess: How did you get into the sport of strongman? Did you do any other sports before?
Rafal Kobylarz: I started to train in the gym and decided to try my hand at strongman competitions. Previously I trained football and powerlifting
Phil Burgess: What is your best competition result and what is your aim for the next 12 months?
Rafal Kobylarz: In this year I think my favorite competition were :
- -Strongman Champions League – Latvia (Olaine) – 1st place
- -IHGF Highland Games Strength Challenge – Romania (Satu Mare) – 1st place
- -Giant’s Live Poland – S?upsk – 3rd place where I qualified for Worlds Strongest Man 2015
- -SCITEC European Strongest Team Challenge- Slovakia (Dunajska Streda) – 1st place, Croatia (Cakovec) – 1st place, Hungary (Tatabanya) – 1st place
- Arnold Classic Europe Spain (Madrid) – 1st place.
Since January I plan to prepare for World’s Strongest Man 2015 as this is a very important event for me.
Phil Burgess: Strongman seems to be very popular in Poland? Why do you think this is? And do you get recognised as a strongman in Poland by the public? I remember Mike Jenkins saying that strongmen in Poland seemed to be like rock stars?
Rafal Kobylarz: A few years ago it was like that, now it is a little worse after the departure of Mariusz Pudzianowski.
Mariusz was the star of the strongman, in Poland.
Phil Burgess: What strongman has provided the greatest influence on your strongman career?
Phil Burgess: What hobbies do you have outside of strongman?
Rafal Kobylarz: Spending free time with my wife, training highland games, and watching movies and various sports on TV.
Phil Burgess: What two things have you learnt in your strongman career which you wish you knew when you started?
Rafal Kobylarz: That you need to train regularly and slowly improve your results, and that I have to practice the most, events which I dislike.
Phil Burgess: If you were in charge of an international strongman federation what 2 things would you do to increase the popularity of the sport worldwide?
Rafal Kobylarz: I think that you could increase the number of events,and organize more competitions for amateurs.
Phil Burgess: Ok time for some personal stats, what’s your best log press, deadlift, squat?
Rafal Kobylarz:
- Log press- 190kg,
- Deadlift- 423kg,
- Squat- 353kg without suits and tape on knee.
Phil Burgess: What assistant exercises do you do to support the log press and how often do you train shoulders?
Rafal Kobylarz: I training my shoulders once a week, my arms are not so strong.
In this winter I must train my arms more because this event is not my favourite.
Phil Burgess: Any last thoughts you’d like to share?
Rafal Kobylarz: I would like next year to be better than this. This is my dream…..
