I learned a lot about the sport that year. I had been a casual pro football fan for a few years, but never really understood the game beyond the basics. These guys taught me some of the finer points. Football is more than just passing and interceptions, rushing and fumbles. At first that’s all you see, but as you learn, you begin to appreciate the art of being a lineman.

Linemen are the hidden jewel of pro football. It is their job to either set up or destroy plays for the offense or defense. A good line controls the opposing team’s line. Two aspects to a good line: the initial impact and the subsequent scuffling.

Sumo wrestling distills this to an art: Two men line up across from each other and try to put the other man down.

Yeah, I know that Sumo is saddled with the image of fat guys pushing each other around, but there is a lot more to it. It’s a technical sport with simple rules: stay on your feet inside the ring. No punching, biting or kicking. Get the other down via pushing, slapping, throwing, or tripping. And it is more than the isolated matchups; Sumo is an event that you have to follow day to day.

I have been watching Sumo for about three years now. One of the first things I learned is that each tournament is 15 days long. Each wrestler has one bout per day and the best record at the end wins. The first day I watched it, I was disappointed. Many matches end quickly and it felt very anti-climatic. But after watching the tournament in its entirety, the drama of the 15 days makes it great. There is a dynamic to it that is unique in sports.

Sumo obviously is an individualized sport. Each wrestler has their own particular style. Strength and size have a lot to do with winning, but technique and surprise play their part as well. As in any professional sport, you must have technique to compete, but in Sumo, technique is more than just who has the best footwork. The initial tachi-ai (stand and meet) when the wrestlers leap from the line and smash into each other takes on many forms. Once impact is made, one can choose to slap away at the opponent’s chest and face or go inside for a grip on the belt and try to get a throw in.

The tachi-ai is absolutely amazing to watch. If you think that football lineman are tough, imagine what it takes to do the same thing without pads and a helmet. Sumo wrestlers often butt heads directly, and when you have a combined weight of over 600 pounds crashing into each other, it is impressive. I am surprised there aren’t more broken noses or bloodied foreheads.

Because there are so many wrestlers of various shapes and sizes and because everyday the matchups are different, each day of the tournament has something new and exciting to offer. Upsets abound and over the course of the first 10 days certain wrestlers get momentum that carries them through some of the bigger matchups.

The sport is much more fun to watch once you learn a few of the wrestlers’ names and styles. Once you have a few favorites, its exciting to keep track of their progress and how they perform against certain wrestlers.

There is a purists aspect to the game as well, of course. Because these guys are so big, when someone gets a big throw or other impressive move, one cannot help but be impressed with the grace and finesse of the winner wrestler. There is so much strength and athleticism involved, its really easy to get excited.

Sumo is a lifelong pursuit. Wrestlers start as young as 15. Every day of the tournament starts early with the lower beginning ranks and culminates in the afternoon bouts among the upper echelon. There are about 40 wrestlers in the top division, divided into 4 classes. The top rank, yokozuna, is for life. The only way out is to retire. All the other wrestlers’ ranks are adjusted after every tournament based on their record. Each tournament, everyone is fighting to improve their rank, hopefully to make it to yokozuna.

The wrestler with the best record after fifteen days gets the yusho, the championship. It's really rare for someone to win with a perfect record. The yokozuna often but not always win the tournaments. The yokozuna matches are the last of the day. If the yokozuna loses to a lower ranked wrestler, the air quickly fills with flying zabuton, the cushions that ring side patrons sit on. Kind of like in hockey when people through their hats on the ice for a hat trick, fans celebrate the upset of the yokozuna with a flying zabuton frenzy. It's cool to see, but I wouldn’t throw mine unless it was the last match. Otherwise you don’t have anything to sit on after that!

Many of the high profile matches are sponsored by companies as well. Prior to the start of the match, company banners are paraded around the ring. Each banner is worth about $600, the sum of which goes to the winning wrestler. Some of those guys walk off the dohyo (ring) with over $6000 some times.

Sumo is very old, starting somewhere around 1500 years ago. The stamping ritual the wrestlers do before their match is intended to stamp out demons. They also always toss salt into the ring to purify it before entering. A brief intro to the history, rules, and other stuffis can be found here. It’s a pretty cool sport with a mix of history, philosophy, symbolism combined with strength, power, finesse, and strategy.

I doubt that Sumo will catch on as a worldwide phenomenon, but its worth checking out. It takes a little bit of watching at first to get a feel for it, but once you get past the initial disorientation and start to understand what is going on, it’s a really great sport. I look forward to every tournament, 6 a year in the odd months. If anyone is really interested, let me know and maybe we can work out something so I can send you a tournament on video.