Why SUMO is the world's greatest grappling sport

[-guerilla-]

I spent the majority of my youth in rural Hawaii and Sumo was exceedingly popular

I remember the first time I tried Sumo as I had done a fair amount of wrestling and Judo before

it's phenomenally violent

It has by far the heaviest impacts of any grappling sport but the real secret behind Sumo is that they have never changed the rules

sumo's rules have remained consistent for so long it is truly the world's greatest grappling sport

One of the reasons you see such phenomenal throws in Sumo is because of the ring out

I've been coaching high school wrestling for decades and one of my favorite activities is the sumo drill

My athletes get a big kick out of the lightest versus the heaviest and all the amazing things that happen when both athletes are worried about getting pushed out of the ring

If you never learned to appreciate Sumo I highly recommend you get to know the athletes involved

For me Takanohana was always the king of a sumo

However those of us that grew up in Hawaii will always root for the legends of Hawaiian sumo...
Musashimaru
Konishiki
And most well known Akebono

A lot of people think sumo wrestlers are fat and many are however my personal favorites were always extremely muscular and Powerful with probably around 25 to 30% body fat making them athletically lean... akin to a pro football lineman

One look at
Takanohana
Chiyotaikai
Chiyonofuji
Asashōryū
And you will never think of sumo as fat guys again

 

[DatCutman]

Huge fan of enho right now. Cant help but root for the little guys.

 

[-guerilla-]

Huge fan of enho right now. Cant help but root for the little guys.

when Asashōryū won against the heavier wrestlers I always felt like justice had been done...lol

It was Integral to the beauty and spectacle that is sumo

They are seriously cluster bombing it by adding weight classes

Its an athletic commission thing

 

[-guerilla-]

 

[RJ Green]

Takanoyama P4P GOAT

jk it's still Hakuho

 

[JimmyFresno]

Great thread, TS, thanks!

One tid bit of history from the world of pro wrestling: Haku/Meng, The Rock's uncle, a man countless wrestlers have said was THE baddest man they ever saw, was sent by the King of Tonga, at the age of 15 along with a small group of other teens, to Japan to train Sumo.

After his stablemaster passed away the following year, Haku ended up having to switch to pro wrestling.

Here's to a thousand more years of Sumo!

 

[-guerilla-]

Konishiki

 

[RJ Green]

 

[ChickenBrother]

In slow motion that looks like a Wile E. Coyote and Roadrunner cartoon. But there should have been a brick wall behind the wrestler that evaded so the attacker crashes into it, KO's himself and falls flat on his back while an ACME hat floats down and lands on his face.

 

[franklinstower]

I spent the majority of my youth in rural Hawaii and Sumo was exceedingly popular

I remember the first time I tried Sumo as I had done a fair amount of wrestling and Judo before

it's phenomenally violent

It has by far the heaviest impacts of any grappling sport but the real secret behind Sumo is that they have never changed the rules

sumo's rules have remained consistent for so long it is truly the world's greatest grappling sport

One of the reasons you see such phenomenal throws in Sumo is because of the ring out

I've been coaching high school wrestling for decades and one of my favorite activities is the sumo drill

My athletes get a big kick out of the lightest versus the heaviest and all the amazing things that happen when both athletes are worried about getting pushed out of the ring

If you never learned to appreciate Sumo I highly recommend you get to know the athletes involved

For me Takanohana was always the king of a sumo

However those of us that grew up in Hawaii will always root for the legends of Hawaiian sumo...
Musashimaru
Konishiki
And most well known Akebono

A lot of people think sumo wrestlers are fat and many are however my personal favorites were always extremely muscular and Powerful with probably around 25 to 30% body fat making them athletically lean... akin to a pro football lineman

One look at
Takanohana
Chiyotaikai
Chiyonofuji
Asashōryū
And you will never think of sumo as fat guys again

I just recently got into sumo last year. Cant say why but it may be the most entertaining sport I have ever seen. Too bad it isn't really a thing in the states because this is something I could have excelled at I think.

I did not realize that you could hit people in the face with your palm in Sumo? Is that legal? Is that something you can do intentionally to win?

We used to play a similar game as kids all the way into high school. We would get on long park benches with no backrests and play king of the bench. The goal was to see who could stay on the bench and throw the other guy off. No one could beat me no matter how big they were. I freaking loved that game.

 

[Fork]

i'm with you, TS.

sumo can definitely seem inscrutable from the outside and i can understand why, but the action in the sport is top notch.

here's another legendary smaller wrestler; Terao, the Iron Man, from the 80's-90's.


excellent pushing/thrusting technique and he had a really long career where he was competing against some really tough competition.

 

[Fork]

I did not realize that you could hit people in the face with your palm in Sumo? Is that legal? Is that something you can do intentionally to win?

yeah, it's absolutely legal. it's illegal to hit an opponent with a closed fist, but palm strikes, forearm blasts, and sort of side-elbow strikes are all legal and fairly common.

Asashoryu knocking the sense out of Bulgarian Kotooshu with an elbow at the initial charge:


Osunaarashi (who fought Bob Sapp in RIZIN) was pretty famous for his forearm blast:


the palm strike is called a harite in sumo, and here's a match between Takatoriki and Daishoyama that's full of them:


here's Hakuho with a harite and forearm/side-elbow combo to knock out Myogiryu:


i would say that it's sort of frowned upon at the same time as it gets a huge reaction from the crowd. Osunaarashi was pressured into changing his style so that he would rely less heavily on the forearm blast, and i think this kind of thing can be seen as too sort of "barbaric" (for lack of a better term) and unsuitable for the image of sumo.

 

[ChickenBrother]

the palm strike is called a harite in sumo, and here's a match between Takatoriki and Daishoyama that's full of them:


here's Hakuho with a harite and forearm/side-elbow combo to knock out Myogiryu:


i would say that it's sort of frowned upon at the same time as it gets a huge reaction from the crowd. Osunaarashi was pressured into changing his style so that he would rely less heavily on the forearm blast, and i think this kind of thing can be seen as too sort of "barbaric" (for lack of a better term) and unsuitable for the image of sumo.

Wow I've seen plenty of palm push knockdowns but I didn't realize you could stand and trade flagrant palm strikes to the point of KOing the opponent.

 

[Knock Out Ned]

yeah, it's absolutely legal. it's illegal to hit an opponent with a closed fist, but palm strikes, forearm blasts, and sort of side-elbow strikes are all legal and fairly common.

Asashoryu knocking the sense out of Bulgarian Kotooshu with an elbow at the initial charge:


Osunaarashi (who fought Bob Sapp in RIZIN) was pretty famous for his forearm blast:


the palm strike is called a harite in sumo, and here's a match between Takatoriki and Daishoyama that's full of them:


here's Hakuho with a harite and forearm/side-elbow combo to knock out Myogiryu:


i would say that it's sort of frowned upon at the same time as it gets a huge reaction from the crowd. Osunaarashi was pressured into changing his style so that he would rely less heavily on the forearm blast, and i think this kind of thing can be seen as too sort of "barbaric" (for lack of a better term) and unsuitable for the image of sumo.

What’s up, buddy? Was going to tag you in this thread.

 

[Deleted member 110072]

I'v never gotten that deeply into it but I'd agree as a spectator sport its clearly the most successful grappling sport in the world and its easy to see why, the action is fast and the objective very easy to understand even if technique is more complex.

 

[Fork]

What’s up, buddy? Was going to tag you in this thread.

hahaha, i got some kind of sumo sense where in the back of my mind i know there's a sumo thread somewhere.

 

[RJ Green]

I miss the Hakuho slap-a-ho days

 

[peregrine]

Guerilla it is turning into a good thread.

 

[Fork]

Wow I've seen plenty of palm push knockdowns but I didn't realize you could stand and trade flagrant palm strikes to the point of KOing the opponent.

yeah, i'd say back and forth, "stand and deliver" palm strike matches like that one with Takatoriki and Daishoyama are pretty rare, but a wrestler using a harite palm strike at the opening charge is pretty common. the goal is also rarely to knock your opponent out, and i think guys use it more as a way of opening up one side of their opponent's belt and shifting their head, as well as disrupting their balance, making them lose focus, and weakening their charge.

 

[franklinstower]

yeah, it's absolutely legal. it's illegal to hit an opponent with a closed fist, but palm strikes, forearm blasts, and sort of side-elbow strikes are all legal and fairly common.

Asashoryu knocking the sense out of Bulgarian Kotooshu with an elbow at the initial charge:


Osunaarashi (who fought Bob Sapp in RIZIN) was pretty famous for his forearm blast:


the palm strike is called a harite in sumo, and here's a match between Takatoriki and Daishoyama that's full of them:


here's Hakuho with a harite and forearm/side-elbow combo to knock out Myogiryu:


i would say that it's sort of frowned upon at the same time as it gets a huge reaction from the crowd. Osunaarashi was pressured into changing his style so that he would rely less heavily on the forearm blast, and i think this kind of thing can be seen as too sort of "barbaric" (for lack of a better term) and unsuitable for the image of sumo.

That is very interesting. I've watched hours of it but had never seen blatant palm strikes that looked deliberate like in the above videos. I think I would like sumo less if it were really common to see that all the time.