Abi sumo film study: Foot positioning and positional awareness
🤼♂️ Sumo time, boys!
In sumo, positioning is among the most important things. If an opponent is out of position, a rikishi can capitalize. Some, like Midorifuji, utilize arm drags to create the bad position to capitalize off of. Other wrestlers that are more straight forward, like Abi, would rather a straight forward approach and create these positions with their feet.
In today’s sumo film study, we are looking at Abi and Atamifuji’s bout on day 5 of the Nagoya basho in 2024. In this bout, Abi creates an advantageous position with his footwork and smothers Atamifuji as he’s in a compromised position.
Abi and proper positioning
Coming off of the tachiai, (1) both Abi and Atamifuji look for a grip on the mawashi. Unable to get them, (2) Atamifuji pushes Abi to the edge of the dohyo. Before being pushed out, Abi (3) makes a heads up call and circles out to his left. Notice the angle Atamifuji is at compared to Abi.
(1) With his advantageous position, Abi looks to push Atamifuji out with the head. The distance is slightly too far and Abi adjusts on the fly. He (2) closes the distance on Atamifuji and grabs the back of the mawashi. He does not let Atamifuji turn into him and (3) pulls his opponent to the ground and (4) down for the win.
Denying Atamifuji the turn back into him is what truly won Abi the fight. If Atamifuji cannot push, which is impossible from this angle, he cannot win.
Circling back on the footwork and finish, (1) Atamifuji will get over excited pushing forward. This allows Abi to (2) circle out and causes Atamifuji to lose his balance as he was too reliant on posting on Abi. At this vantage point, we can see (3) Abi grabbing the neck of Atamifuji in addition with the previously mentioned mawashi grip. He uses the belt grip and neck grip to (4) pull Atamifuji down for the win.
Not executing on the advantage
Getting an opponent turned around is a great advantage of sumo wrestling. But keeping sound footwork, keeping your base under you, is a major part of taking said advantage. We can see the consequences of failing to keep balance as a rikishi tries, and successfully, creates an angle on the very next day of the basho.
Tamawashi has Kotoshoho figuratively on the ropes. With Kotoshoho turned around and at a bad angle, Tamawashi could not keep his balance and allowed Kotoshoho to complete his turnaround and push him out. One small little trip led to Tamawashi’s defeat.
In all of sports, balance is emphasized. But when 300 pound men are hurling their bodies into each other and trying to push them off of the dohyo, the necessity is magnified. Abi’s sumo approach is not revolutionary, he is primarily pushes his opponents back without relying on tricks. But when he does have an advantageous position, he looks to execute.