Wrestling Beast's blog

In my last blog entry, I talked a bit about the "sumo" match my opponent and I had together. On further reflection, "sumo" is not the best term to describe the match. Instead I would like to call it a Force off the Mat match.

My buddy came by recently and we had the opportunity to do it again. We used the same room, same 8x8' square mat and the same rules. Essentially we would start at opposite corners, count 1,2,3 and then rush at each other. The goal is to force the opponent's feet off the mat or his back to touch the wall fully. Since my room is long but narrow, we use this compromise.

We go at it for a set number of rounds. The first time we did it, I went five times, with me winning all those times. However, we were making it up as we went along. This time we went seven times, but my opponent improved, he forced me out of the ring or against the wall twice. Because of his size and strength, this is no walk in the park for me. These kinds of matches work best wehn the opponents are close in size and strength. Finally, he can get some payback for all those submissions and all those punches.

True Sumo this isn't. There are no throws off the mat, no intentional forcing an opponent to his knees and we are not engaging consciously in face slapping. But like Sumo, these rounds can be over very quickly or can take a minute before they are finished. Also, they are very exhausting after a few rounds.

I posted some screen captures of two force off the mat "rounds" of my latest encounter with my opponent and added some captions to help explain the action. I hope people will appreciate them.