Re: (Sumo) Akebono; Rikishi benching and squats

["Chuck & Luisa Finberg" <cfinberg@wco.com>]

Doreen,
I'm glad you wrote the second half of your message, since your initial
anecdote left me still dubious.
A recent illustration of the significance of upper body "strength" would be
Tochiazuma's injury - the before and after: in retrospect no small part of
the initial rise of this fireplug related to his refusal to bend; a weakened
chest and shoulder left him vulnerable for many months, and even today....Or
consider the judo skills essential for success of smaller rikishi, as you
later mention...although Wakanohana's thighs are prominent reminders of the
first point that you make...whatever our emotional reaction to tsuppari-type
sumo, the hand-grappling that often achieves the ultimate advantage in a
non-sanyaku bout requires that a smaller rikishi have, what, not biceps but
"sinew?"
Chuck Finberg

-----Original Message-----
From: Doreen Simmons <jz8d-smmn@asahi-net.or.jp>
>[FIRST HALF] Developing upper body strength is counter-productive. A
top-heavy man fails
>in sumo. I personally knew one youngster in makushita ...
>As his chest, shoulders and upper arms got bigger, his sumo got worse and
>worse ...Also to my personal knowledge, Kirishima trained exceptionally
hard with
>weights, and developed great strength in the upper body.

>[SECOND HALF] But it's important to distinguish between weight training to
develop
>strength - which many modern sumoists do -  and weight training to develop
>bulging muscles - which spoils their sumo. Therefore this talk of how many
>(or how few) pounds they can bench has no bearing on sumo.  That said, the
>slimmer men in particular...have the strength to pull off utchari and
>tsuridashi ....But this requires mainly timing and good back and leg
muscles, rather than
>the brute strength needed for bench pressing.