Tochinofuji

As another long time subscriber, I will greatly miss your uploads this coming basho. Hope to catch more of the fantastic Moti humour in July, but completely understand the need for a break. You've put in a tremendous amount of work over the years, and have in many respects singlehandedly carried the sport for a lot of us far flung fans. Thank you for everything you've done to date, and we look forward to more when the Moti-vation returns!

Excellent, thank you very much!

Now that is banzuke nomenclature I haven't seen before. Can anyone shed any light on the meaning of the "BS"?

That depends almost entirely on the nature and level of his wrestling and standing grappling (tachiwaza in judo terms). Many BJJ guys have a lackluster standing game (not intended disparagingly, I'm a lifelong martial artist currently training in BJJ, and my standing game is about the only thing that's worse than my ground game, which says something). Those with an MMA background tend to fare better on that front, but many still only have enough wrestling to defend a moderately competent single or double leg, and that's about it. That said, if he has a significant wrestling background, particularly Greco-Roman, he may fare reasonably well. But given the difference in rules, techniques, and the use of the belt, he'd still likely find it tricky against competent competition. Most underestimate the importance and power of the tachiai. I spent a session training with Todai club many years ago, and was astounded as to how hard even those guys hit off the start. It's not something I've felt in any other martial art or sport. Important, though, is the weight issue. 90kg is a very light rikishi, but a decent sized MMA/BJJ guy. Outside the sumo world, most don't encounter athletic individuals that are 300lbs. Hell, great example is Ishiura. He looks tiny, but is a muscular 115kg. That is a solidly heavy individual with a lot of strength. Weight and strength matter massively in combat sports, and especially in grappling. One rule of thumb espoused by Rener and Ryron Gracie is a 10lb weight difference is the equivalent of a belt. I think that's a little over the top, but at 90kg, your friend is likely to be outweighed by 50kg or more. That is substantial. At any rate, assuming somewhat standard MMA wrestling, I'd say 3 out of 10 against a mid-sandanme wrestler is reasonable. A very strong wrestling background might even mean 2 out of 10 against a bottom makushita wrestler of smaller stature, but that is probably quite generous. With a year of training, and no weight gain, he might be more likely to get 3 out of 10 against lower makushita. It has to be remembered a 30% winning record isn't exactly stellar. How far he'd have gone though is a hypothetical too far for me though. We can't even tell how far someone in sumo whose match history we can watch in full is going to go. So I'll leave that to those that know the man and feel like hazarding a guess.

Pareto might go so far to say that if you pick the right 20%, it might get you 80% of the way there.

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Kataginu, part of the traditional formal outfit for samurai. http://japanworld.info/blog/kamishimo/

I have to say, while just a visitor to makuuchi Terutsuyoshi's sumo looked excellent today. Great turn with the hand on the back of Daishomaru's neck to a clean yorikiri. Looking forward to following the rest of his matches this basho! Hopefully he gets the kachikoshi he needs to make it to the big show in March.

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I certainly agree with your points here, especially with regard to things getting heated during practice. It happens in any contact sport or martial art, and as you say can be dealt with quite readily. To my mind, it was more the idea of "ordinary disciplining" being the problematic area rather than "clashes among wrestlers during practice." I appreciate my mind is a bit overly legalistic and parsing things a bit finely, but it seems to add an interesting element of discretion within a heya as to what constitutes "ordinary disciplining" versus bullying/violence, which is part of what has gotten us here in the first place. Just struck me as potentially an interesting wrinkle, which may just be me misunderstanding what Shibatayama-oyakata meant.

-"But the association sought to draw a distinction between excessive force and ordinary disciplining, as well as clashes among wrestlers during practice. “Humans are creatures of emotion. Sometimes skirmishes are going to break out. It doesn’t mean someone should automatically be reported for hitting,” JSA director Shibatayama said."- Does anyone else read this as close to "keep on doing as you're doing, just don't do it in public such that we must be seen to do something"? Not that that would be a surprising thing, just funny to see as one of the main quotes in the article (though something may well have been lost in the translation).

Ultimately, who cares if amateur gets as much "respect" as professional? Do you love the idea of doing sumo? If so, do it. If not, don't. If you're doing it for some sort of external validation of worth, which is what it sounds like in some of your posts, you won't last at it long enough to get that validation even if it's there to be had. Further, sumo is a niche activity that doesn't garner as much respect as it should anyways. So don't worry about it, and if you love it, do it.

And if not religious, certainly political.

I, for one, would love to hear you expand on this. Martial arts are a big reason I became interested in sumo, though I see it more as a martial sport (akin to western wrestling or boxing, neither of which were generally considered martial arts before the rise of MMA) rather than martial art. The main distinction to me would be one of intent, which for martial sports would be to get good at a sport which may have direct martial/self defence applications, without those applications being a focus (or even an active consideration).

One additional advantage, aside from protecting against head and mouth trauma, is that properly designed and fitted mouth guards allow an individual to set one's jaw and bite down hard, which can allow an athlete to generate more force/move more weight. Some companies even claim this biting down can increase endurance (see: Under Armour). While likely not producing much of an advantage, it could be just enough to be worth wearing one regardless of its protective properties, particularly in a short duration contest like sumo where any discomfort or difficulty in breathing caused by the mouth guard isn't likely to be a significant issue.