Baruto in Makuuchi Version 2

[Kintamayama 44,346]

After this reply, maybe basketcase is most fitting.

Thank you, Brigadier. The carriage is not ready.

[Shakuyaku 0]

I still like Baruto. Yes, he has not done very well for himself this basho. But do you know what? I didn't expect him to either.

Things have gone very fast, and if he had made a basho like last time, I would have been very surprised.

He is strong, but he is inexperianced and still lacking in some techniques. And since last basho people have had the opportunity, and taken it as it seems, to watch him and learn where his weaknesses lies. As they should.

I'm afraid our little Bart has a tough autumn in store for him...

[Shimpu 0]

All these remarks about Baruto's future look a bit odd. When he keeps winning there is a big rumour about Raiden, 13:2, "maybe he will lose... but only against Yokozuna", 5 ozekis to beat etc. when he lose only third (!) bout this basho everything goes in the opposite direction. I wonder what if he secure MK. (Sign of disapproval)

[Asashosakari 18,783]

All these remarks about Baruto's future look a bit odd. When he keeps winning there is a big rumour about Raiden, 13:2, "maybe he will lose... but only against Yokozuna", 5 ozekis to beat etc. when he lose only third (!) bout this basho everything goes in the opposite direction.

Welcome to the MTV Generation.

[Bishonohana 0]

Sometimes it's frustrating being a Baruto fan :). I mean, he's got the power, but he's just not reliable in reacting and using it to the full extent..

Please.... (Holiday feeling...) give him a break!! He only has 3 losses for goodness sake!! He is young and has lots of potential. He needs to get more techniques under his belt. You talk like he should have ZERO losses and take Yusho already. Patience, patientce.... (Foot in mouth...)

[Guest pahayama]

Baruto's (allegedly) comments on today's happening can be found at:

http://sumo.1.forumer.com/index.php?showtopic=70

English translation in a nutshell: "I didn't really know what to do since I had never faced him before. I decided to just go for the mawashi and hoped for the best. I distracted him a bit at the start and got a left grip on his mawashi and then the right grip soon after. The layer I gripped was on loosely but I got a better grip later. Then he attaced, but nothing. Then I though the time was right for my own try. When I got him to the edge of the dojo he lifted me over the edge and we both fell over, him falling ontop of me. It was a big impact and it caught my breath but I recovered slowly. I wasn't sure who had won after we fell. I looked at the yokozuna and he winked at me so I gathered It was me. It was only after that I learned Kotooshu's foot had been out before he started lifting me. I had accomplished what I hoped to. I wanted to beat an ozeki this basho. When we got back in the dojo I bowed and when gyoji-san turned toward me and said WIN, it was finally clear. We'll see tomorrow morning if my back's OK. It's late, time to sleep. Today's win gave me a lot of energy for the following days."

[Jakusotsu 5,806]

"I wasn't sure who had won after we fell. I looked at the yokozuna and he winked at me so I gathered It was me."

(Sign of approval) Splendid! This outburst of humanity around the dohyo has much more charm than some other recent cracks.

[Doitsuyama 1,173]

The Estonian forum sure seems more lively than the German lately. Having such a special member (if he is for real, but it does seem so) surely will attract many Estonians. Congrats!

[Bix Poku 1]

The Estonian forum sure seems more lively than the German lately. Having such a special member (if he is for real, but it does seem so) surely will attract many Estonians. Congrats!

This forum is quite new. Opened for public in the beginning of this basho.

And of course, having OUR OWN great rikishi is something very important that attracts a lot of newcomers to sumo (including myself (I am not worthy...) ).

[Senpai 0]

The Estonian forum sure seems more lively than the German lately. Having such a special member (if he is for real, but it does seem so) surely will attract many Estonians. Congrats!

Well he is real. But not my job to make anyone to believe (I am not worthy...) Bart himself tought that he should give more back to his supports than just being on dohyo and let his fans cheer for him. So he contacted me and asked me could I make a little place for him where he could give his post-match commentaries.

Hopefully he has time to do that regulary but even if not he'll be still waited member in our little estonian forum when he has time for it.

And hopefully I have enough time to manage the estonian forum.

Edited July 17, 2006 by Senpai

[Arvi 0]

The Estonian forum sure seems more lively than the German lately....

It's Tippspiel you are talking about? I'm always wondering about stillness there. Except various sumo-games almost nothing is happening. (I am not worthy...)

[Jakusotsu 5,806]

So he contacted me and asked me could I make a little place for him where he could give his post-match commentaries.

Could we possibly ask for regular translations in English? I guess there would be many to appreciate it. (...ok, and one who doesn't, but please ignore him)

[pisipepu 0]

Estonian forum? where is that?

[SalParadise 0]

Something that's been bothering me a while. Pretty much every sumo critic sneers at Baruto's normally much too high and upright tachi-ai. Even as far as to say the guy hasn't got a clue about sumo.

But I wonder -- could it be that his unusually high tachi-ai is in fact a concious decision? Surely for such an obvious fault, if it was a serious and handicap for him, then his oyakata would've beaten such habit out of him since the day he first stepped on dohyo.

Could it be that given his characteristics, as in height, weight, and length of arms, having the center of gravity higher than normal doesn't make him as vulnerable as charging in horizontally would? While giving him a benefit of easy slapdowns, like he won at least 3 bouts in the last basho and the 2nd one in this one.

On the other hand, I can't think of a bout where he has won by forcefully charging at the opponent, like say Asashoryu has done this basho. His sumo is about either slapping the opponent down if he comes in too hard, or stopping him at his tracks, grabbing a hold and lifting him out. If he has the mass to survive a relatively upright tachiai, then considering the rest of his style, who's to say it's really a handicap?

Of course, time will tell.

So far Baruto has fought inexperienced, washed-up, or weaker rikishi for the most part (with obvious exceptions, but primarily...). If you watch the lower-division bouts, much of the time the really big rikishi with lots of mass to throw around just manhandle inexperienced opponents with their weight, despite having mediocre technique. Baruto has a huge advantage of being a bear of a man with massive amounts of muscle, which lets him get away with bad technique against opponents worse than him, because even with the advantage of an opening, they don't have the technique or experience to know what to do with it, or how to go about taking advantage.

When he gets up to shin-Komosubi and starts meeting the Ozeki for real, he is going to get creamed methinks, if he keeps that high tachiai. A powerful rikishi with good lower body movement who keeps their hips down should be able to mount a charge at him the way that futeno did to just power him out in a hurry. When he goes for a mawashi grip and misses it, he leaves himself open for that. If he was lower, while it may make it tougher to do the over-the-back mawashi grab he seems to like, it would make him harder to move giving him much-needed stability at the start of the match. When he loses, he seems to lose quickly.

He has a lot of things going for him -- he's incredibly powerful, has great defense, and good balance. But he's really inexperienced and his losses tend to show that.

If you remember when Kotooshuu was coming up, he had the same problem. He was mandhandling lower-ranked rikishi by getting that lefthand outside grip and tossing his opponents around, but he'd always come in too high and it would cost him a couple losses. When he got up to Shin-Komosubi, and got his first make-koshi, the higher ranked wrestlers just abused that opening. When he came back into sanyaku ranks, his tachiai was lower and he was able to maintain that rank.

I think that Baruto is probably told by his oyakata to come in lower, but I also think he's got to break the bad habit of trying to grab over the back of his opponent when they're that much more experienced than him. Since it's allowed him to win up 'til now, it's probably hard for him to change. With experience and more losses, he'll probably learn to adjust like Oshu did, if he wants to increase his rank.

[Senpai 0]

So he contacted me and asked me could I make a little place for him where he could give his post-match commentaries.

Could we possibly ask for regular translations in English? I guess there would be many to appreciate it. (...ok, and one who doesn't, but please ignore him)

I'll try to do that .. but don't expect it every day as I can't quarantee that Bart has time to do that every day. I hope you all understand that! B-)

[Senpai 0]

Bart toughts about day 10 and ready for day 11 (from http://sumo.1.forumer.com/index.php?showtopic=78)

Text edited and shortened

http://sumo.1.forumer.com/index.php?showtopic=78

After the match I had no will to do anything just went to my room and lied down and read a book 'I was here, Sass Henno'. About match. I really hoped for revanche but didn't manage to do that. Alread yesterday morgning I thought that I'll go and try to outsmart Hakuho and almost succeeded in tachi-ai but couldn't finish my move and got only right hand grip. Hakuho in the same time took his own and quickly throw me out. He surely is worth being yokozuna but it'll be hard to achieve it this tournament.

I'm not very happy about loss but not very bad from me either. Hopefully against Taikai it will be better. I hope to do better tachi-ai and get a grip of his mawashi to force him to belt-fight. If I would succeed in that I would have better chances.

My back and ribs got really bad hit in the match against Osh. Altough then hitting the ground only made hard to breath at first now all my ribs hurt like I had been under the hammer. But what a heck have to continue to fight. Some estonians will come to see my fight with Taikai today, don't wanna betray their hopes.

[yamaneko 2]

Bart gets miyabiyama tomorrow. Dont know who to root for there. I really want miaybiyama to finish off decently to carry over his ozeki run to the next basho. But at the same time i want bart to lock up komusubi

[Bix Poku 1]

Its hard to have more than one sweetheart. Sooner or later they'll confront each other.

Also true in sumo as I see (Bye, bye...)

[Asojima 2,870]

We now know that he has mastered at least one technique. (Bye, bye...)

[Bix Poku 1]

Shame it is!

But Taikai needed such a lesson once. Sad, that it was Baruto who had to do this.

[pisipepu 0]

i think sumofanmag will not need to put this one even on vote, this was as pure henka as there can be one... :(

on the good side - only 1 win from necessary 8 ;)

[Notsukutsu 0]

Not the kind of sumo that's expected of him, for sure. :(

Well, let the one without sin cast the first stone... Perhaps what he showed today would discourage some opponents from trying to exploit his high tachiai.

[bonobo 0]

So Baruto vs. the Ozekis is now 1:1 as far as henkas are concerned.

[Senpai 0]

I think we can now add a Henka law beside Godwin's law.

"Henka Law - Whenever a topic goes too long sooner or later henka will occure and after that initial topic will be pushed away and there will be discussion about how bad is henka."

Hopefully everyone understood the sarcastic joke.

Of course it was sad to see such a move from Bart but we have seen such moves from lot of rikishi and not only by lower rankers. But that's that. From Bart it was somewhat expected move against Taikai as he is no match against his pushing at least not yet .. I think Bart will get over of that weaknes of him for pushers. And seeing Taikai charging towards it almost looked like he was asking that.

I'm sad altough if Taikai got hurt as I was hoping him to fight for yusho. I like his windmill. It's something to watch if made perfectly.

Edited July 19, 2006 by Senpai

[Jakusotsu 5,806]

Hopefully against Taikai it will be better. I hope to do better tachi-ai and get a grip of his mawashi to force him to belt-fight.

(Bye, bye...) If he wanted to fool Taikai with this comment, it really worked! (Sign of approval)