DENHAM SPRINGS — Craig Tullier's garage is an interesting place to be. It's filled to the brim with arm wrestling tables, where Craig and his students can hone their craft.

17-year-old Eli Courtney is one of them.

After being invited to Craig's by a friend at church, Eli started showing up to train regularly. As it turned out, he had a knack for this sort of thing.

"Whenever I first met him, I noticed the length of his arm and his hand," said Tullier. "I was like, you got the right tools to actually do this."

Tullier's assessment was dead on. Eli's reigned as the Teen Louisiana State Arm Wrestling Champion for the past three years. The success here in Louisiana led the young competitor to believe that he could take his talents to the national stage.

"My goal was to become the teen state champion for the under-18s before I turned 18," said Eli. "After I achieved that goal, that's when I realized, look, this is something that I really want to do, this is something that brings me genuine happiness."

That led to Eli competing at the National Arm Wrestling Championships in Ohio. He placed second on both his right and left arm.

But Eli's had an extremely valuable member of his team to help him make all of this possible: his mother, Kari Courtney. The two have spent the last few years driving all across the country for arm wrestling tournaments.

"We'd be driving anywhere from four and twelve hours to whatever tournament that I told her, 'Mom, I want to go to this," said Eli. "And she was like, 'I'll make it happen.' And for that I will always be grateful."

As for Kari, she knew from the get-go that arm wrestling was what her son was meant to do.

"The first competition was when I realized, wow, he's really great at this," said Kari. "This is something that he is good at, that he can inspire others at, he's an inspiration to me."

The biggest trip Eli and Kari took together came back in September of this year. Eli competed in Tokyo, Japan for the World Armwrestling Championships. He placed third in his weight class. A massive accomplishment for the young arm wrestler, but he didn't even decide to try for Tokyo until he competed in Ohio at nationals.

"I had no plans of coming to worlds this year until I went to Nationals," said Eli. "So that motivation led to to believe: If I can compete at nationals, then I can compete at worlds, I'll go to worlds next year and I'll place better. So, I think the snowball effect of that made me realize, look, I can just keep going."