Push or Grapple: Sumo's Two Fighting Styles
The last article separated two ways of winning a single bout. This one is the same distinction stretched across a whole career: wrestlers specialise, and the first seconds of a bout are usually two men trying to make it their kind of fight.
Watch a few bouts and you notice that some end at arm's length, with hands slapping into chests, and others settle into two men locked together barely moving.
Those are not moods. They are the sport's two styles, and each wrestler has one he wants.
Oshi-zumo: the pushing style
押し相撲 (oshi-zumo) is sumo done at arm's length.
The wrestler wants space. He pushes and thrusts into the chest and shoulders, moves his opponent backwards, and never lets the bout become a wrestling match. If the other man cannot reach the belt, he cannot use it.
Bouts in this style are usually quick, and they usually end in a push out or a slap down.
Yotsu-zumo: the belt style
四つ相撲 (yotsu-zumo) is sumo done at close quarters, with a grip.
The wrestler wants to get inside, take hold of the まわし (mawashi), and lock the two bodies together. From there he can walk his opponent out or throw him.
These bouts last longer. Two men in a locked grip can stand almost still for several seconds while a great deal is happening that you cannot see.
Which grip, and why it matters
Wrestlers in the belt style are not simply trying to grab anything. Each one has a preferred side: whether he wants his own right arm inside his opponent's arm, or his left. A bout between two men who want the same arm inside becomes a fight over exactly that.
This is why you sometimes see two wrestlers apparently doing nothing for several seconds. They are not resting. One of them is refusing to let the other have the grip he wants.
When a bout is unexpectedly long and looks like a stalemate, it is usually a grip argument. When a bout is over almost instantly, it is usually because one man never let the other close the distance at all.
What the opening seconds are really about
Now go back to the charge. Two men collide, and within a second the bout has usually taken one shape or the other: hands on chests, or hands on the belt.
That moment is not the start of the bout. It is the result of the first contest — the one about which kind of bout this is going to be. Whoever wins that argument is usually the one who wins the bout.
It also tells you what to expect from the finish, which brings you back to oshidashi and yorikiri: no grip usually ends in a push out, a grip usually ends in a force out or a throw.
Watching for a wrestler's style
Follow any wrestler for a few days and his preference becomes obvious. Some go for the belt every single time. Others never touch it all tournament.
Once you know a wrestler's style, you can predict the shape of his bouts before they start — and you can see when an opponent has successfully denied him the fight he wanted.
That is roughly the point at which sumo stops being a series of collisions and starts being a series of arguments.
The full list of names, and why sumo bothers to record how you won.