Baruto injuries (was Re: [sumo] More On Hakuho, With Writer's Opinion)

[Mike Charlton]

Based on that article, which said that Baruto has now injured his left
knee in 3 completely different places, this could be a result of poor
technique somewhere.  So I went through some video to see if I could
see anything.  Now keep in mind that I'm not that well versed in sumo
technique, but I love playing arm chair oyakata anyway!

Here's an interesting video:

http://www.banzuke.com/~movies/aki2006/day3/2006_09_03_baruto_kyokuten.wmv

Here you can see baruto throwing kyokutenho out with shitatenage (or
it kind of looks like shitatedashinage -- can someone help me out
here?)  But I see something interesting.  As he's throwing Kyokutenho
out, his right knee move *outside* his right foot.  In fact he does a
little hop on the right leg since he's about to collapse over it.

Similarly, here's where he injures his left leg in January:

http://www.banzuke.com/~makuuchi/3-M1e_Kotoshogiku(1-1)_M3w_Baruto(2-0).mov

He's trying to perform shitatenage again, but doesn't set up the left
left properly in advance.  As he pulls, Kotoshogiku pushes and the leg
collapses.

So I'm wondering if this is a possibility for how he's getting
injured.  Unfortunately I didn't see the match this basho so I don't
know if that was involved again.  Since Baruto is so big and strong, I
can imagine that it's pretty easy for him to toss lower ranked rikishi
around.  But at the higher levels, it's possible that his lack of
technique is haunting him.

Even though he has done so well, perhaps it would have been better to
slow his progress up the banzuke, just until his technique catches up
to his size.


         MikeC
         Koishi