Introduction to SUMO

100%Jiu-Jitsu said:
I enjoy these videos. The tradition is not very appealing to me, but I love seeing the basic principles of grappling (using leverage, creating frames, etc.) being applied under a unique ruleset. And the explosiveness and size of the competitors is certainly enthralling.

Ever since I was a kid and saw that terrible Keanu Reaves movie, The Replacements, I've wondered about the parallels between the skills necessary to be a sumo wrestler vs. an offensive lineman in football. I'm embarrassed to ask such a dumb question... but have any former football lineman ever actually tried sumo? :redface:
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There are actually a couple low-level pros who have tried college football. None really succeeded. I actually beat two former marginal NFL players in amateur sumo in the 90s.
 
Thanks GFY.

spent some time yesterday watching some chiyonofuji vids last night, beast.

looked up his overall wins and losses on sumodb and you can see a clear contrast from before and after 1981
 
Spawned_Fighter said:
Thanks GFY.

spent some time yesterday watching some chiyonofuji vids last night, beast.

looked up his overall wins and losses on sumodb and you can see a clear contrast from before and after 1981
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yeah, he made a big improvement then. according to wikipedia, he had shoulder troubles and around that time so his stablemaster told him to change up his strategy and rely less on throws that could injure him and more on forcing his opponent out and dominating territorially. i imagine this change in strategy also required him to gain more weight which probably helped him overall.
 
GoForkYourself said:
yeah, he made a big improvement then. according to wikipedia, he had shoulder troubles and around that time so his stablemaster told him to change up his strategy and rely less on throws that could injure him and more on forcing his opponent out and dominating territorially. i imagine this change in strategy also required him to gain more weight which probably helped him overall.
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that makes alot of sense. i recall most of his wins were forced, push outs

any word on homasho and azumaryu?
 
Spawned_Fighter said:
that makes alot of sense. i recall most of his wins were forced, push outs

any word on homasho and azumaryu?
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nothing new, i don't think. just that homasho's right hamstring and acl were damaged and he'll be out for a couple months. probably missing the next tournament but hopefully back for the one in november.

not sure what azumaryu's injuries are, but i'd guess he'll be missing the next tournament too.
 
Sexy Pants said:
Is there Sumo tournaments for a guy who weighs 200lbs?
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amateur sumo does have weight divisions. i'm not sure what the weights are for the divisions, but there is probably one that's suitable for someone around 200. and there are guys that weight and lighter in professional sumo as well, but they're generally in the lower ranks.

one of the lower ranked guys that i try to follow is Aragyoshi and he's only around 150 pounds.

you can see him here in a fun match, starting by clapping his hands in front of his opponent's face as a distraction and attacking the legs:



the smaller guys in professional sumo tend to be quite young, and as i said in the lower ranks. i don't think there's anybody around 200 in the top two paid divisions of the sport.
 
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Sexy Pants said:
Is there Sumo tournaments for a guy who weighs 200lbs?
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The deadline to register for the US Sumo Open in Long Beach, CA is August 23rd. You can sign up at http://www.usasumo.org

The men's weight divisions are light (<187), middle (<225 I think) and heavy. Plus there's an open weight division, and similar divisions for women although our cutoff weights are lower.

I'm told some of the European tournaments have cruiserweight divisions that might be an even closer fit.
 
and here is a short video from bulgarian former ozeki Kotooshu's recent hair-cutting retirement ceremony:

 
cool thread thanks for the info are there any good resources for the techniques used in sumo?
 
Gambledub said:
cool thread thanks for the info are there any good resources for the techniques used in sumo?
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there is a list of the kimarite winning techniques on wikipedia. it can be kind of hard to tell what some of the descriptions mean, but if you search youtube for the name of the technique you'll usually find a video of someone winning with it in a match.

there used to be a good video on youtube called "Sumo's Winning Ways" hosted by one of the commentators for the english sumo broadcast, but it's been taken down and hasn't reappeared in years and years.
 
GoForkYourself said:
there is a list of the kimarite winning techniques on wikipedia. it can be kind of hard to tell what some of the descriptions mean, but if you search youtube for the name of the technique you'll usually find a video of someone winning with it in a match.

there used to be a good video on youtube called "Sumo's Winning Ways" hosted by one of the commentators for the english sumo broadcast, but it's been taken down and hasn't reappeared in years and years.
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Thanks for the heads up i'll take a look. I'm also gonna search for winning ways, if I find it somewhere i'll upload it.
 
here are a couple videos from the recent jungyo in saitama.

here's kakuryu putting ichinojo (who of course beat him last tournament) through the paces during a butsukari geiko training session. he even gets a push from hakuho, but at least there were a lot of shouts of encouragement from the fans.



and an exhibition match between endo and terunofuji:

 
Konishiki interviewed by Kintamayama (in English with English subtitles)

[YT]t4czSOo3a6o[/YT]

Welcome to the 2014 Fukuoka Grand Sumo Tournament
this will be a good post for the next thread. couldnt get the embed for the life of me

[YT]ophBSu0qQYw&list=UUjEHJ_fQxC3wgXcIazGWt3Q[/YT]
 
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I can't wait for the next basho, it's going to be interesting.
 
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