[sumo] Asashoryu at Dewanoumi again

[Mike Charlton]

Yeah, I saw some of Asashoryu and Hakuho on the evening news today.
Of course, it's only small excerpts, so I can't really tell anything, but
Asashoryu really seemed to be struggling.  When the reporter asked
him about his elbow, he relied "Ma ma" (so so).  The one thing that
struck me in the clips was that he was *really* out of breath.
I could tell he was pushing himself to the limit.

A couple of conjectures.  Possibly he's a little out of condition.
But also possibly he's also intentionally pushing himself to the limit.
One of the training techniques I used when I did karate was to
exhaust myself and then fight.  You always suck during the fighting,
but it allows your body to find new, efficient ways to move.   So
he could be doing something like that too (knowing full well
that he won't win his bouts).

I guess we can't really tell until the basho starts :-)

             MikeC