Persistence Watch - 2016 edition

[Jakusotsu]

Wow - at 16 years and half the weight of Ichinojo, he's acting even slower than the latter.

[Asashosakari]

Final standings for Nagoya basho:

Shikona	Heya	Debut	MK	Current Rank	Highest Rank	Record	Win%	Last Basho	This Basho
Yamashita	Matsugane	Haru 2014	14	Jonokuchi 1 East	Jonidan 97	24-74	0.245	2-5	1-6
Hanai	Isenoumi	Haru 2015	8	Jonokuchi 2 East	Jonokuchi 1	15-43	0.259	3-4	0-7
Asatatsuke	Takasago	Haru 2015	8	Jonokuchi 2 West	Jonokuchi 2	16-41	0.281	3-4	2-5
Kushibiki	Shikihide	Haru 2015	8	Jonokuchi 3 East	Jonidan 99	18-38	0.321	2-5	3-4
Fukuminato	Minato	Haru 2015	7	Jonokuchi 15 East	Jonokuchi 1	16-40	0.286	1-6	4-3
Satoiazuma	Tamanoi	Kyushu 2014	5	Banzuke-gai	Jonidan 100	11-24-7	0.314	Bg	Bg
Hattorizakura	Shikihide	Aki 2015	5	Jonokuchi 18 East	Jonokuchi 18	1-33-1	0.029	1-6	0-7
Asahinishiki	Oguruma	Kyushu 2015	4	Jonokuchi 16 East	Jonokuchi 4	5-19-4	0.208	1-6	2-4-1

Well done by Fukuminato. Other than him it was mostly a basho to forget, with the only 3-4 record being rather emblematic of it: Kushibiki got there from 0-4 down. (Beating Hanai and two kids who will probably be joining us after Aki...)

[Asashosakari]

Aki 2016 through nakabi:

Shikona	Heya	Debut	MK	Current Rank	Highest Rank	Record	Win%	Last Basho	This Basho
Yamashita	Nishonoseki	Haru 2014	14	Jonokuchi 10 East	Jonidan 97	25-77	0.245	1-6	1-3
Oatari	Shikihide	Haru 2015	9	Jonokuchi 1 West	Jonidan 99	18-42	0.300	3-4	0-4
Asatatsuke	Takasago	Haru 2015	8	Jonokuchi 7 West	Jonokuchi 2	19-42	0.311	2-5	3-1
Hanai	Isenoumi	Haru 2015	8	Jonokuchi 29 East	Jonokuchi 1	16-46	0.258	0-7	1-3
Hattorizakura	Shikihide	Aki 2015	6	Jonokuchi 29 West	Jonokuchi 18	1-37-1	0.026	0-7	0-4
Satoiazuma	Tamanoi	Kyushu 2014	5	Banzuke-gai	Jonidan 100	11-24-7	0.314	Bg	Bg
Asahinishiki	Asahiyama	Kyushu 2015	4	Jonokuchi 13 West	Jonokuchi 4	7-21-4	0.250	2-4-1	2-2

Oatari was previously known as Omagnavox Kushibiki, but the name change hasn't brought him any good luck so far. Hattorizakura, infamously highlighted in the basho thread the other day, also finds himself 0-4 and makekoshi already. On the flipside we have Asatatsuke who started the basho 3-0 and consequently had his first potential KK clincher today - heavyweight sandanme regular Kenho was a step too far though. Still, three more shots to come.

Aki basho is the tournament when we traditionally find most of our persistence reinforcements as a number of Haru basho debutants will be picking up their third makekoshi here. 12 recruits failed to KK in both Natsu and Nagoya and are thus in danger of joining us; no KK or MK among them during the first week, so no news to report on that front yet.

Edited September 18, 2016 by Asashosakari

[Asashosakari]

By the way, I'm not sure what to think about the fact that nobody alerted me - for 10 basho! - that I forgot to change Yamashita's heya field from Matsugane to Nishonoseki...

[Rocks]

7 minutes ago, Asashosakari said:

By the way, I'm not sure what to think about the fact that nobody alerted me - for 10 basho! - that I forgot to change Yamashita's heya field from Matsugane to Nishonoseki...

I was going to say something but I had no clue it was wrong.

[Gurowake]

3 hours ago, Asashosakari said:

By the way, I'm not sure what to think about the fact that nobody alerted me - for 10 basho! - that I forgot to change Yamashita's heya field from Matsugane to Nishonoseki...

Easy - no one cares what heya these guys are in.

[Yubinhaad]

5 hours ago, Asashosakari said:

By the way, I'm not sure what to think about the fact that nobody alerted me - for 10 basho! - that I forgot to change Yamashita's heya field from Matsugane to Nishonoseki...

The thing about that is it was just a name change for the heya, not a move to a different heya. I'm sure someone would have noticed if, for example, a rikishi had moved from Oguruma-beya to Asahiyama-beya...

[Asashosakari]

2 minutes ago, Yubinhaad said:

The thing about that is it was just a name change for the heya, not a move to a different heya. I'm sure someone would have noticed if, for example, a rikishi had moved from Oguruma-beya to Asahiyama-beya...

Indeed, can't imagine that one would have slipped through... 

[Asashosakari]

No luck again for Asatatsuke, losing to the very professional Reon. In better news Yamashita and Hanai (against Hattorizakura) improved to 2-3 to stay in the race for kachikoshi. Asahinishiki is also still in, of course, but fell to the same score.

We have our first 4 sign-ups for future persistence: Teraowaka, Ose and Sawanofuji fell to 1-4 for their third straight MK, and Miura, who was set to drop off the banzuke altogether, is joining the basho tomorrow for the last two bouts.

[Asashosakari]

Another chance went begging for Asatatsuke, this time against pint-sized Urutora, leaving him at 3-3 before the final round. He's joined by Yamashita and Asahinishiki who were victorious today, but Hanai dropped to 2-4.

And the next three applicants have clocked in with Wada, Chida and Kazunofuji.

[Asashosakari]

 

[Yubinhaad]

So that's where Miyabiyama's mini-Mi shoulder lump went when he retired.

Lovely utchari there.

[Asashosakari]

And another two kids have picked up their third MK on Day 12: Shunpo and Kotokobayashi. Both guys' real surname is Kobayashi, talk about a case of odd timing.

Of the original 12 "contenders", 9 are already makekoshi, two more are even at 3-3. Only one has escaped via kachikoshi, which is pretty low even in the context of these somewhat skill-deprived groups of newcomers who still remain in Jk after two basho.

Edited September 22, 2016 by Asashosakari

[Yubinhaad]

Congratulations to Yamashita, who has finally fought his way out of the Persistence Watch's proverbial paper bag, staging a great recovery from 1-3 and clinching his first kachi-koshi today with an oshidashi win over Shimakaze. The latter seems to be the persistent type really, currently on an eight-basho make-koshi streak, but he avoided the watch thanks to a kachi-koshi in his honbasho debut last year.

[Asashosakari]

16 hours ago, Yubinhaad said:

Congratulations to Yamashita, who has finally fought his way out of the Persistence Watch's proverbial paper bag, staging a great recovery from 1-3 and clinching his first kachi-koshi today with an oshidashi win over Shimakaze. The latter seems to be the persistent type really, currently on an eight-basho make-koshi streak, but he avoided the watch thanks to a kachi-koshi in his honbasho debut last year.

 

Congrats also to Asahinishiki!

Asatatsuke unfortunately fell short of KK in the end, but he gave it all he had:

Edited September 25, 2016 by Asashosakari

[Ryoshishokunin]

I'm not sure how to query for this, so I'll ask instead: 

Has anyone ever managed to get from qualifying from the Persistence watch to a respectable rank? 

[Asashosakari]

3 hours ago, Ryoshishokunin said:

I'm not sure how to query for this, so I'll ask instead: 

Has anyone ever managed to get from qualifying from the Persistence watch to a respectable rank? 

Some information can be found here and in the posts that follow. 

[Asashosakari]

Aki results summary:

Shikona	Heya	Debut	MK	Current Rank	Highest Rank	Record	Win%	Last Basho	This Basho
Yamashita	Nishonoseki	Haru 2014	14	Jonokuchi 10 East	Jonidan 97	28-77	0.267	1-6	4-3
Oatari	Shikihide	Haru 2015	9	Jonokuchi 1 West	Jonidan 99	19-44	0.302	3-4	1-6
Asatatsuke	Takasago	Haru 2015	9	Jonokuchi 7 West	Jonokuchi 2	19-45	0.297	2-5	3-4
Hanai	Isenoumi	Haru 2015	9	Jonokuchi 29 East	Jonokuchi 1	18-47	0.277	0-7	3-4
Hattorizakura	Shikihide	Aki 2015	6	Jonokuchi 29 West	Jonokuchi 18	1-40-1	0.024	0-7	0-7
Satoiazuma	Tamanoi	Kyushu 2014	5	Banzuke-gai	Jonidan 100	11-24-7	0.314	Bg	Bg
Asahinishiki	Asahiyama	Kyushu 2015	4	Jonokuchi 13 West	Jonokuchi 4	9-22-4	0.290	2-4-1	4-3

The longest- and shortest-serving members have secured their graduation as detailed during the basho. Three others will now have to try to stop their streaks from reaching double-digits in Kyushu.

The fresh entrants for the new Persistence "season" are as follows:

Shikona	Heya	Debut	MK	Current Rank	Highest Rank	Record	Win%	2016.05	2016.07	2016.09
Wada	Azumazeki	Haru 2016	3	Jonokuchi 4 East	Jonokuchi 4	8-13	0.381	3-4	3-4	2-5
Teraowaka	Shikoroyama	Haru 2016	3	Jonokuchi 6 East	Jonokuchi 6	7-14	0.333	3-4	3-4	1-6
Ose	Kasugayama	Haru 2016	3	Jonokuchi 6 West	Jonokuchi 6	8-13	0.381	3-4	3-4	2-5
Shunpo	Minezaki	Haru 2016	3	Jonokuchi 7 East	Jonokuchi 7	8-13	0.381	3-4	3-4	2-5
Chida	Onomatsu	Haru 2016	3	Jonokuchi 9 East	Jonokuchi 8	8-13	0.381	3-4	2-5	3-4
Kazunofuji	Isegahama	Haru 2016	3	Jonokuchi 9 West	Jonokuchi 9	8-13	0.381	3-4	2-5	3-4
Kotokobayashi	Sadogatake	Haru 2016	3	Jonokuchi 14 West	Jonokuchi 14	6-15	0.286	1-6	2-5	3-4
Miura	Asakayama	Haru 2016	3	Jonokuchi 17 West	Jonokuchi 14	4-12-5	0.250	2-5	1-6	1-1-5
Sawanofuji	Isegahama	Haru 2016	3	Jonokuchi 21 East	Jonokuchi 21	3-18	0.143	0-7	1-6	2-5

However, Kazunofuji has retired after the basho, so we're joined by 8 rikishi from 8 different stables.

Pick a favourite and root for him. 

[Asashosakari]

By the way, veteran Koseki, who retired after Aki basho, was a former dai-persister who started off with 10 straight makekoshi, in fact never even reaching 3 wins before his first KK.

And on a trivia note, the other day I stumbled upon perhaps the weirdest career start ever: Oginishiki (not the well-known one) also opened his career with 10 straight MK - before reaching a 6-1 playoff in the next basho!

Edited September 30, 2016 by Asashosakari

[Morningstar]

What is up with Hattorizakura? Shear unsuitability and incompetence will get you a better win percentage than 2.4%. In this case one win in 45 tries.

One would have to be actively avoiding wins to get that bad.

[robnplunder]

6 minutes ago, Morningstar said:

What is up with Hattorizakura? Shear unsuitability and incompetence will get you a better win percentage than 2.4%. In this case one win in 45 tries.

One would have to be actively avoiding wins to get that bad.

He's that bad.  I saw his bouts and he simply does not belong in sumo, or in any physical sport for that matter.   He is skinny, slow & clumsy, and mentally unfit.   Someday, he will get seriously hurt in practice or in basho match.   I hope he quits for his own good. 

[Morningstar]

1 hour ago, robnplunder said:

He's that bad.  I saw his bouts and he simply does not belong in sumo, or in any physical sport for that matter.   He is skinny, slow & clumsy, and mentally unfit.   Someday, he will get seriously hurt in practice or in basho match.   I hope he quits for his own good. 

I spent some time watching his matches in the DB. The one win he has, looks like the other guy was sorry for him and gave him a freebie.

 

I do not think slow and clumsy, or utterly unsuited are the root cause. Nor is it simple lack of motivation. Rather they are the symptoms of something else. I expect that he actively dislikes doing sumo. Why he continues to do so, I must only speculate. But, from past experiences participating in youth sports organizations I expect he is going though the motions due to family pressure. I often see this with fathers trying to relive their glory days though their son's.

 

I hope he gets out of whatever is causing him to stick around. If not, he is going to end up hurting himself or someone else. One can only wish him the best of luck, and hope he gets whatever help he needs.

 

I thought maezumo was there to weed these poor guys out before the got in too deep. Guess I was wrong.

[robnplunder]

1 hour ago, Morningstar said:

I often see this with fathers trying to relive their glory days though their son's.

I am not sure (and we really don't know) if this is the case for Hattorizakura.   All I can go by is his sumo videos in which he looked really bad.   

[shumitto]

When I first started watching sumo, my attention was quickly drawn to this guy. I thought no one could be worse, but I am afraid I was wrong. While it is true that Hattorizakura has one (actual) win, it didn't look very convincing. I hope after Hattorizakura retires we don't get to see such rikishi for a long time.

[Nantonoyama]

Hattorizakura's day 3 bout of this Aki (against Kinjo) gave me some clues about how the sumo works.

- If a rikishi touches the ground twice with his hands after the move forward started but before the tachi-ai occured, it is not a defeat

- If a rikishi falls on his butt before the tachi-ai, it is not a defeat (what we can see at 0:50 is quite... weird)