Tom Brady trains with Goueidou

[Kintamayama]

http://sportsnaut.com/2017/06/tom-brady-training-sumo-wrestler-tokyo/

Edited June 22, 2017 by Kintamayama

[sekitori]

I would have expected that Brady would possibly go up against low ranking makushita rikishis. That would have been difficult enough. But to face an ozeki like Goeido is crazy. Yet Brady is such an outstanding, highly motivated athlete, I would not be surprised to hear that he did better than expected. If there are any videos, I would really like to see them.

Edited June 22, 2017 by sekitori

[Kuroyama]

5 minutes ago, sekitori said:

I would have expected that Brady would possibly go up against low ranking makushita rikishis. That would have been difficult enough. But to face an ozeki like Goeido is crazy. Yet Brady is such an outstanding, highly motivated athlete, I would not be surprised to hear that he did much better than expected. If there are any videos, I would really like to see them.

I imagine it would be preferable, when handling a superstar foreign athlete tourist, to set him up with your most skilled rikishi to keep the chance of injuring him to a minimum.

[sekitori]

According to CBS Sports, this is what Goeido had to say about Brady.

"[Brady] has a lot of explosive power. I feel energized. It's stimulating to have an opportunity to come in contact with athletes from a different sport."

I question how much "explosive power" Goeido felt, but it was a nice thing for him to say. One report says that if nothing else, it made Brady appreciate the protection of his sumo-sized offensive linemen even more. 

 

[inhashi]

Clip of Brady and the Ozeki... Nice effort, Tom. 

 

Edited June 22, 2017 by inhashi

[shimodahito]

just a photo... training starts when brady straps on a mawashi.

 

[Gurowake]

I laugh at Goeido being called a "star".

[Kuroyama]

3 hours ago, sekitori said:

I question how much "explosive power" Goeido felt, but it was a nice thing for him to say.

 

1 hour ago, inhashi said:

Clip of Brady and the Ozeki... Nice effort, Tom. 

 

Well... I suppose a firecracker is still an explosion.

[Seijakuzan]

43 minutes ago, Gurowake said:

I laugh at Goeido being called a "star".

As disappointing an Ozeki as Goeido has been, I think when you're #6 out of hundreds or thousands in your sport it's fair to refer to you as a "star".

Edited June 23, 2017 by Seijakuzan

[Bumpkin]

53 minutes ago, Seijakuzan said:

As disappointing an Ozeki as Goeido has been, I think when you're #6 out of hundreds or thousands in your sport it's fair to refer to you as a "star".

As of Natsu 2017, #6 out of 690 to be precise.

[Gurowake]

1 hour ago, Seijakuzan said:

As disappointing an Ozeki as Goeido has been, I think when you're #6 out of hundreds or thousands in your sport it's fair to refer to you as a "star".

It's hard to think of someone who catches as much flak as Goeido does in this forum as actually being popular, although he did place 10th in the most recent popularity poll.  To me, him being called a star is something that is laughable partly because it's sorta true, but here we tend to focus on how mediocre he is for an Ozeki, not how he's one of the top 10 in the sport.

[dada78641]

Glad to see there's a video. The article is very low on any actual content. Seems from the video he didn't do too well, though? Haha. Maybe he didn't push upwards enough? Funny to see, puts into perspective just how specialized sumo wrestling is.

[Kuroyama]

30 minutes ago, dada78641 said:

Glad to see there's a video. The article is very low on any actual content. Seems from the video he didn't do too well, though? Haha. Maybe he didn't push upwards enough? Funny to see, puts into perspective just how specialized sumo wrestling is.

Well, for starters Goeido is 10 cm shorter and 55 kg heavier. That's going to make him difficult for Brady to push around right there.

For another thing, Goeido was benching about 130 kg when recruited into Ozumo at age 18. It's been difficult to track down Brady's bench press; the only answer I've found anywhere says about 55 kg. Which seems low, but you don't usually rate your quarterbacks by brute strength.

So yeah, specialized or not, Goeido has a considerable weight and strength advantage.

[dada78641]

4 hours ago, Kuroyama said:

Well, for starters Goeido is 10 cm shorter and 55 kg heavier. That's going to make him difficult for Brady to push around right there.

For another thing, Goeido was benching about 130 kg when recruited into Ozumo at age 18. It's been difficult to track down Brady's bench press; the only answer I've found anywhere says about 55 kg. Which seems low, but you don't usually rate your quarterbacks by brute strength.

So yeah, specialized or not, Goeido has a considerable weight and strength advantage.

That's what I mean, though, the strength and weight difference is sumo specialization. They're both fantastic athletes perfectly suited to their respective sports.

[Washuyama]

I am definitely NOT a Tom Brady fan, but a lot of "experts" consider him the greatest to ever play the sport, which could be considered comparable to a dai-yokozuna in sumo.  So letting him face Goeido, a yusho winner and the highest ranked deshi in the heya, I would see is a sign of respect to TB12.   

 

On a side note, I noticed when some American media outlets (including ESPN)  showed a couple of these pics, they mentioned "Tom Brady met some sumo wrestlers during his visit to China."  This is an example of what is considered professional journalism these days.  

[Seijakuzan]

3 hours ago, dada78641 said:

That's what I mean, though, the strength and weight difference is sumo specialization. They're both fantastic athletes perfectly suited to their respective sports.

Even then, it'd be worth pointing out that the two greatest quarterbacks of the last decade - Tom Brady and Peyton Manning - are also two of the slowest and least athletic.  I would expect a 3rd string running back to do a better job pushing around Goeido.  That said, I agree 100% with Washuyama that choosing Goeido was all about respecting Brady's status.  I would hope that if Hakuho similarly visited say, Dodger stadium, that they'd let him take a few BP swings against Clayton Kershaw rather than their pitching coach.

[ryafuji]

 

9 hours ago, dada78641 said:

Glad to see there's a video. The article is very low on any actual content.

The Kyodo News article is better:

https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2017/06/5f95306a4ea0-nfl-star-brady-visits-sumo-stable-in-tokyo-trains-with-goeido.html

Edited June 23, 2017 by ryafuji

[Benihana]

It would be interesting to see some tackles do this, or in general football players who have nicknames like "fridge", "tank" or "spare tire". Their bodies are more like that of a sumotori and their role on the field is to push people around.

[Washuyama]

28 minutes ago, Benihana said:

It would be interesting to see some tackles do this, or in general football players who have nicknames like "fridge", "tank" or "spare tire". Their bodies are more like that of a sumotori and their role on the field is to push people around.

It's been done, although in a different era.  During the 1976 Los Angeles jungyo a couple of the L.A. Rams (Merlin Olsen and Jack Youngblood - both hall of famers now) had a go against a Makushita rikishi.   It didn't fare so well for the Rams.  Although the sumotori probably wouldn't have had any success had they tried to stop those two from getting to a quarterback.

[Amamaniac]

Injury would have been a significant issue in this impromptu (?) encounter.  Professionals (athletes and otherwise) often have insurance clauses that prohibit them from engaging in risky activity outside their respective workplaces.  Viewing the clip posted by Inhashi above, I ask myself: was this little more than an Underarmour commercial?  Otherwise, why didn't Brady man-up and don a practice mawashi like other foreign visitors given similar opportunities?

[Akinomaki]

not many other pics were in the overview these 2 days

o ooo

o oo

o o   o

[sekitori]

2 hours ago, Washuyama said:

During the 1976 Los Angeles jungyo a couple of the L.A. Rams (Merlin Olsen and Jack Youngblood - both hall of famers now) had a go against a Makushita rikishi.   It didn't fare so well for the Rams.  Although the sumotori probably wouldn't have had any success had they tried to stop those two from getting to a quarterback.

That's called specificity of training--as opposed to general training. The principle is that if you want to excel in an athletic activity, you practice that activity exclusively. General training may get you into good shape, but that's about all. If you want to be a successful rikishi, you specifically practice sumo. If you want to be an NFL lineman, you practice doing that and nothing else.

To point up a similarity to Olsen's and Youngblood's experience, Wakanohana Masaru was a yokozuna who won five yushos. After he retired, he tried playing American professional football and failed. If outstanding athletes such as Olsen and Youngblood had more experience in sumo, while they still may not do very well, they would be much better at it. The same reasoning applies to Wakanohana and football. Of course, the Rams players had no intention of entering pro sumo. Wakanohana did apparently want to play American football. But the principle is still the same--little or no specific training, no success. 

However, specificity of training has its limits. Body type is one of them. Rikishi-sized people, no matter how much they train, won't do well in bicycle races and running marathons. The same thing applies to average sized individuals who want excel as rikishis and American football linemen. 

 

 

 

 

 

[Kuroyama]

11 hours ago, dada78641 said:

That's what I mean, though, the strength and weight difference is sumo specialization. They're both fantastic athletes perfectly suited to their respective sports.

Not really. Lots of sports require strength and weight. Notably, in context, American football offensive linemen.

[Washuyama]

I think we're aiming at the same point.  No matter how good you are at a sport, you can't switch to a completely different sport and expect to compete at the highest levels.  Wakanohana couldn't make it on an NFL roster, but I have a feeling if he'd have given the time (although his age would have hindered that) at say Arena League or semi-pro football he may have had some success.  Ex-Wakanoho also tried football but at the college level.  Not sure why that didn't work out for him, he only lasted a couple years AFAIK.

Hell, even Michael Jordan was only able to make it to the minor leagues of baseball (I still think even that was only successful because he could fill the stadium as opposed to his skills as a baseball player)

Edited June 23, 2017 by Washuyama
Typo

[Tsuchinoninjin]

I dunno, a lot of guys around have to choose which sports draft to enter, and you have people like Bo Jackson.

I think pro linemen would do well in sumo if they trained with purpose, instead of just a one time trial with absolutely no training beforehand. They already have all the natural athletic + huge size boxes ticked and they could do a lot with just osu sumo.

There's something about the wiring in spectacular athletes where they don't give up and practice/train with a purpose. A long time ago I used to play go (weiqi) and a guy joined the club who shortly got drafted by a pro MLB team. He went from zero to really good at the game faster than I've ever seen anyone do before. It is just really something else.