Who is Full of Kakete? It's a Trip!
Or, more specifically, sotogake and uchigake
Yes, I know in Japan the first day of the May 2024 Tournament has already begun, but I won’t get my fix until tomorrow, so in the meantime, I decided to look at some stats inspired by a recent Sumo Prime Time episode:
Hiro looked at two kimarite: sotogake (outside leg trip) and uchigake (inside leg trip), which are part of the kakete category, which is all about grabbing or tripping legs.
As shown in the most recent tournament wrap-up, kakete is an unpopular category compared to the other ones.
Even the “other” category, which includes “fusen” (win by default), has higher percentages.
Kakete moves tend to make the wrestler who attempts them vulnerable to counterattack, as they’re often on one leg themselves or in an awkward position attempting a leg-pick.
In the March 2024 tournament, in all the matches, there were 0 Makuuchi matches won by a kakete move. In the over 2,000 matches recorded in the entire tournament, only 25 in total were won my kakete kimarite.
These are very rare.
What are the kakete moves?
Here is the full list, via the Sumowrestling wiki:
ashitori: leg pick
chongake: pulling heel hook
kawazugake: hooking backward counter throw
kekaeshi: minor inner foot sweep
ketaguri: pulling inside ankle sweep
kirikaeshi: twisting backward knee trip
komatasukui: over thigh scooping body drop
kozumatori: ankle pick
mitokorozeme: triple attack force out
nimaigeri: ankle kicking twist down
omata: thigh scooping body drop
sotogake: outside leg trip
sotokomata: over thigh scooping body drop
susoharai: rear foot sweep
susotori: ankle pick
tsumatori: rear toe pick
uchigake: inside leg trip
watashikomi: thigh grabbing push down
Pulling the data I have from the Sumo Database as after the March 2024 tournament, here are the percentage of the wins that come from the kakete moves, with sotogake and uchigake bolded:
These are not common.
Who is full of sotogake and uchigake?
To keep this simple, I focused solely on those currently ranked in sekitori (Makuuchi & Juryo), and simply counted their wins by uchigake or sotogake, from any level, using the Sumo Database records.
Of the 70 sekitori, only 24 had at least one of sotogake or uchigake recorded ever.
And when I rank them, who is on top will probably not surprise you:
Numbers 12 - 24 are all at 1 totals (though can be sotogake or uchigake… these are sorted primarily based on their original banzuke ranking.)
It was kind of interesting seeing the people who had a lot of losses to sotogake or uchigake, relatively. I decided not to track that, though.
Let me point out the obvious: 4 of the top 5 are Mongolian… but not Meisei. Interesting. Meisei’s 7 sotogake weren’t all in Makuuchi:
Three were early in his career, two were “mid-career”, and the most recent two were both against Shodai, last year. Figures.
The Champs Against Each Other: Hoshoryu v Chiyoshoma
A nice example of sotogake.
