Thanks for the tag, watched it and it's about the same as I've seen from other hobbyist/amateur sumo competitions. There's a local sumo club as well that I've gone to see a few times and while...
Thanks for the tag, watched it and it's about the same as I've seen from other hobbyist/amateur sumo competitions. There's a local sumo club as well that I've gone to see a few times and while it's good fun and all that in person, the style of competition and competitors keeps me from being all that big a fan of it.
I "get" some of it like weight classes as the competitors likely don't have the time to develop the skills needed for a small person to go toe to to with a larger foe, the edge of the ring being moveable/too soft to use as a tool to win at the edge is a constant bummer but is kinda made up for by having a grippy mat surface instead of dirt, but most of all the tachiai (initial charge) being determined by a judge instead of reaction to fists touching the ground takes a lot of the speed aspect (something that makes the smaller guys competitive) out of the equation.
It's easy to get caught up in the fun in person, but I don't watch the videos because of the lack of that fun/camaraderie.
cc: @AugustusFerdinand, since I think you will probably enjoy this video
Thanks for the tag, watched it and it's about the same as I've seen from other hobbyist/amateur sumo competitions. There's a local sumo club as well that I've gone to see a few times and while it's good fun and all that in person, the style of competition and competitors keeps me from being all that big a fan of it.
I "get" some of it like weight classes as the competitors likely don't have the time to develop the skills needed for a small person to go toe to to with a larger foe, the edge of the ring being moveable/too soft to use as a tool to win at the edge is a constant bummer but is kinda made up for by having a grippy mat surface instead of dirt, but most of all the tachiai (initial charge) being determined by a judge instead of reaction to fists touching the ground takes a lot of the speed aspect (something that makes the smaller guys competitive) out of the equation.
It's easy to get caught up in the fun in person, but I don't watch the videos because of the lack of that fun/camaraderie.