Female sumo wrestlers

I think it's so cool that a few women have taken up sumo wrestling. I found Sports Illustrated has done a layout on female sumo wrestlers.

This ancient Japanese sport is reserved for the full, hefty-bodied male, rikishi.
Women can compete only at the amateur level. Women aren't allowed in the matches because the platform is blessed by a Shinto priest, and women are considered unclean. There's a lot of ritual purification going on in this sport and there is no protesting the judges' rulings.

Sumo wrestlers charge their opponent with a weighty burst of energy

Photo credit: hotblack from morguefile.com

 
Wrestling is a full-contact sport. The objective is to use your mind to out-maneuver your opponent with your body in order to get control of your opponent and pin them down or push them outside the ring. This sport is performed barefoot while blending disciplines of self-defense, martial arts, and hand-to-hand combat.

Wrestling reminds me of a chess game with two queen game pieces remaining on the board-every move is vitally pertinent for the win. Even the stare-down, the psyching-out your opponent, is all part of the sport.

But unlike chess, tennis or boxing, sumo wrestling has a lot of rituals dating back hundreds of years.
When you watch a match, don't blink, because the wrestling match could be over in seconds. The opponents size each other up to get that split second lead of charging first with a blast of energy to throw the other off balance. Blink, and you might miss their lightening moves.

Sumo wrestlers have to be limber because a match can put the wrestlers in all sorts of configurations.  I like watching wrestling matches and sumo wrestling matches are the most fascinating to watch.

Dan Gable won an Olympic gold medal in wrestling-I had the privilege of attending the same high school he graduated. There's a large portrait of Dan hanging in the school gymnasium. I preferred going to wrestling meets than football or basketball games because I think wrestling is more exciting to watch..

Wrestlers, no matter their weight class, have to be quick, strong, limber, and light on their feet. It's never boring to watch because there's always action on the mat.

Wrestlers have some nice physiques, too.

Sumo wrestlers must be comfortable with their bodies to move about while wearing only a big thong, uhh, I mean a belt, called a mawashi.
Women sumo wrestlers wear a mawashi over spandex, thank goodness.

Japan's national sport.

More interesting facts to know about sumo wrestling.


These wrestlers are strong and solid. View this video and notice when they go down, nothing giggles.



  
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Back to women and wrestling... take a look at this young female sumo wrestler from the UK. Even though I've never been to a sumo tournament, I can see participating in this sport would increase one's focus, strength, agility, mind control, and improve one's self-defense skills, as well.

In the UK, this grandmother is a sumo wrestler weighing in at 32 stones, which happens to be 448 pounds. She's been winning her matches. Good for her.
And this Indian woman needing a sponsor so she can compete in more sumo competitions. Hatal is pursuing her passion and doing well in India as the sole female professional sumo wrestler in India. She is determined and aims to "destroy all existent stereotypes. I hope she gets some sponsors and continues to make a name for herself and reaches her goals as an athlete and representative of her country.                                                   

If I could quickly charge someone and knock them over before they knew what hit 'em.
they'd think long and hard before messing with me again!

But first, I need to practice my squats.