How I spent my weekend

[Tony Dismukes]

So the past 6 months I’ve been doing a bit of training in Sumo on the side. This past weekend I got to attend a 3 day seminar led by Cornelius Booker, the current U.S. lightweight national champion. (Unlike pro Sumo, international amateur Sumo has weight classes.)

It was a lot of fun. Got a good workout, learned some new techniques, got to wrestle some really big guys, and met some cool people. On Sunday we had a mini tournament and I won the lightweight division and also a special trophy for greatest variety of techniques.

As a bonus, one of the other participants was a certified JKD instructor under Paul Vunak, so I got to pick his brain for some good tips during lunch break.

 

[drop bear]

I wonder how that would take off in western culture if we took the obesity out of it?

 

[Tony Dismukes]

I think the mawashi (the loincloth) makes it a bit of a hard sell for some people, but I’ve been trying to recruit training partners.

 

[Buka]

You continue to amaze, Tony.

 

[dvcochran]

Impressive, very impressive Tony. How the hell you matched with that much weight difference is simply incredible.

 

[drop bear]

I think the mawashi (the loincloth) makes it a bit of a hard sell for some people, but I’ve been trying to recruit training partners.

It would be good for all those SD guys. It is very stand up.

 

[Tony Dismukes]

Impressive, very impressive Tony. How the hell you matched with that much weight difference is simply incredible.

I managed to go 2 and 2 vs the 290 pound guy, but I didn’t have any wins against the 340-360 pounders. I managed to put up a good fight a couple of times, but that was it. Maybe if two of them hadn’t also been strongman competitors and the other wasn’t much more experienced in Sumo...

 

[JowGaWolf]

I think the mawashi (the loincloth) makes it a bit of a hard sell for some people, but I’ve been trying to recruit training partners.

ha ha ha..Sorry I'll have to pass on this one..

 

[Steve]

That looks really fun.

 

[Tony Dismukes]

Just found out the stats for the big guy in the center of the photo. 20 years old, 26-23 competition record, 400 pounds. Makes me feel a bit better about not coming close to beating him even once.