Photo: Joshua Rappeneker / Feature: hellochris

1. You’ve got the right body

Sumo wrestlers are no couch potatoes. Underneath the fat lies the muscle required to thrust a heavy opponent out of the ring. Japanese sumo school recruiters often turn down the obese and sedentary, in favor of large-boned and fit candidate. The right body is one which can tolerate the rigorous discipline of daily training.

2. You’re male

Sumo in Japan adheres to strict Shinto traditions that forbid females from participating in the sport or even entering the ring. However, the USA Sumo Association does allow women to compete in its tournaments.

3. Putting on a few pounds doesn’t scare you

Professional sumo wrestlers can be as heavy as 400 pounds. Japanese sumo schools will help you get there by feeding you well.

Wrestlers in sumo schools eat two large meals a day of chankonabe (a meat, fish, and vegetable stew), rice, and beer. They take siestas to slow down their metabolisms, facilitating the conversion of large amounts of food into body fat.

It’s also common for wrestlers to receive massages, which are believed to expand their stomachs and allow them to consume even more food.

Photo: hellochris

4. You don’t mind the boot camp life

The heya, or live-in sumo schools, are no vacation. Wrestlers enter as members of the jonokuchi division, at the bottom of the sumo hierarchy.

Training begins at five in the morning and continues into the afternoon, with a lunch and siesta break in between. In addition, students have other duties, such as attending to the needs of the higher ranking students, cleaning, and doing various chores.

5. You’re OK with bruises

In sumo matches, the winner is the one who pushes his opponent out of the ring or causes him to hit the floor with any body part besides the feet.

A wrestler’s daily drills include the butsukari geiko, an exercise which involves repeatedly whamming his body into an opponent’s chest as he attempts to slam the wrestler to the ground, and body-slamming wooden planks.

6. You’re flexible

Sumo wrestlers may appear far from flexible, but they have to have limber bodies in order to move out of the way of their opponents. The matawari, or side splits, is practiced daily by wrestlers.

7. You don’t mind sporting a samurai ‘do

Sumo wrestlers are expected to wear their hair in a chonmage, an Edo-era samurai ponytail, at all times. Tradition says that sumo wrestlers without a chonmage have left the sumo world for good.

Photo: thisparticulargreg

8. You’re comfortable in a loincloth

You may cringe at the sight of wrestlers being hoisted in the air by the seat of their loin clothes, but it could happen to you.

Sumo wrestlers’ loin cloths, or mawashi, can weigh as much as eight pounds—heavier than you might expect. To get the feel of it, you can purchase one from e-sanpuku.co.jp. The long garment has complicated tying instructions, so have a friend help you put it on.

9. You’re determined

Rising above the entry-level rank takes years of practice and dedication. According to USA Sumo, most recruited wrestlers drop out within their first year.

10. You don’t plan on becoming a centenarian

Years of being heavy can eventually take their toll, even after the end of a sumo career. In comparison to the rest of the population, wrestlers’ run a higher risk of suffering heart disease, diabetes, or strokes. It takes most former wrestlers approximately six years to lose the weight they gained at the start of training.

Wrestlers’ careers are short, so it helps to start young: most professionals are recruited around age 15, and many retire by their thirties.

Community Connection

Still want to give pro sumo a go? Prepare for your move with 10 Japanese Customs You Must Know Before a Trip to Japan.

Photo: Ecnerwal

70-plus days of riding the Utah powder. Free lift tickets and early admission to the slopes. Olympic clinics in sports like biathlon and Nordic jumping. Maybe even a free pair of skis or snowboard.

You might as well call Salt Lake City’s Winter At Westminster program “Semester at Ski.” The program, which bills itself as a study abroad alternative for adrenaline junkies, pairs liberal arts education with some of the world’s best skiing and boarding.

Students in the program spend their afternoons taking classes at Westminster College, rated by Newsweek as one of “America’s Hottest Colleges.” Mornings, afternoons, and Fridays are for riding at any of the seven ski resorts that lie within half an hour of campus.

As part of the package, students get two lift tickets, one to The Canyons and one to either Snowbird or Alta. Students who applied early this semester also got their choice of a free Rossignol snowboard or pair of Dynastar skis.

In addition, Winter At Westminster students get access to extra-curricular clinics in various Olympic disciplines and backcountry techniques, as well as chances at internships with outdoor companies like Dynastar, Lange, and Backcountry.com. To cover the program’s costs, students pay an extra $3,300 fee on top of the normal semester tuition.

About 25-30 students take part in Winter At Westminster each semester, and the program generally gets good reviews.

Westminster graduate and Canyons employee Hannah Bowling said that she loved the program so much, she decided to transfer from her original school, Montana State.

“I actually started at The Canyons through an internship with the Winter at Westminster program, so I can completely attribute Winter at Westminster for me having a job,” Bowling told Examiner.com.

Besides helping students land jobs, Westminster has a reputation for turning out an incredible number of world-class athletes: out of the 36 members of the current US Freestyle Ski Team, 14 are Westminster students or grads.

Winter At Westminster is accepting applications for spring 2010 until November 15, with late applications considered for another month after that.

Community Connection

Learn more about study programs around the world at Matador Abroad.

Photo: hoyasmeg

Over 60% of our planet is covered by water. Most of us only skim its surface.

Scuba divers like to go deep and stay there for a while. They want to better understand the ocean environment, to feel as much like a fish as possible.

Any scuba dive course will teach you some crucial, potentially life-saving information. It just so happens that it can also give you a few travel tips to help you immerse yourself abroad as well.

1. Breathe

This may sound like a no-brainer. Breathing is the most natural thing in the world. If you stop breathing until you pass out, your body will pick it right back up again.

It’s more important underwater. If you hold your breath while scuba diving, sudden changes in pressure can rupture your lungs.
When you’re in a new environment, it’s easy to get sucked in and forget to forget how your body is reacting.

When the airline loses your bag or a cockroach sets up camp in your hotel room, take a deep breath: everything will be OK.

2. Go slow and steady

The easiest way to spot seasoned divers is by their movements – they don’t thrash around or race from one reef to the next. They move slowly and steadily through the water, working with the ocean currents to conserve energy.

They could cover more distance by swimming faster, but they would deplete their air supply quickly and probably swim right past some of the most unusual and sought-after marine life.

If you jump from one guidebook destination to the next, you’ll end up with a lot of pictures to show people back home, but chances are you won’t understand those people or places much better than you did before. You’ll get the most out of your travels if you take the time to slow down.

Photo: Andrew

3. Equalize often

Underwater, air pockets in divers’ middle ears are squeezed by water pressure. Divers need to stop every few feet and “pop” their ears to equalize them. If they descend without giving their bodies time to adjust, the increasing pressure can cause their eardrums to implode.

Cultural and language differences, rapid climate changes, and an unusual diet can wreak havoc on your body. You need time – both physically and mentally – to adjust to the pressures of travel.

Traveling may not seem like work, but it can be just as taxing. Plan a day to relax – read a book, write in your journal, or take a nap in a hammock.

4. Deeper is (usually) better

Anyone with a snorkel and mask can ogle some pretty fish from the surface. Having an air tank gives you time to get comfortable, and let the local fauna get comfortable with you.

At popular snorkel sites, the aquatic life may be used to human traffic. But in deeper waters, fish will be wary of intruders into their habitat. It also takes time for them to relax and accept you.

If you want to really understand another culture, you have to become a part of it. It takes time to earn people’s trust, but spending that time is well worth it. Not only can you develop meaningful, lasting relationships, but you will discover adventures and experiences only the locals know about.

Photo: DiveKarma

5. Don’t ascend too fast

Just as scuba divers need to be concerned about getting “the bends” by ascending too quickly from a dive, travelers should be cautious about reverse culture shock.

Leaving home for a foreign land can be daunting. As a responsible and conscientious traveler, you probably spend a lot of time before a trip planning for the journey ahead. You learn a few greetings, how to say “thank you”, and to take your shoes off before entering someone’s house.

Going home to a land of supersized supermarkets and designer jeans can be equally overwhelming. Plan your reentry just as you did your departure, and you’ll lessen the depression and discomfort that often sets in.

Community Connection

Take a dive with Matador Sports’ The Polar Plunge: 5 Cold-Water Dive Destinations.

Matador Sports editor Adam Roy shares some of his own stories of the sport in Emergency: 11 Memories From 8 Years of Scuba.

If the Big Top has any cred today, it’s all thanks to Cirque du Soleil.

With its artistic direction and nutty gymnastics, the Montreal-based company has been doing wonder’s for the circus’ image. Since 1984, it’s replaced the top-hatted ringmasters and lion tamers of yesteryear with acrobatics, live music, and nuanced plots.

This behind-the-scenes clip of Cirque acrobat Oli Lemieux practicing on a trampoline wall gives an idea of the caliber of performers in Cirque du Soleil’s crew. Lemieux’s act, for the company’s record-grossing Dralion tour, is just too much.

Make sure to watch to the end: Oli’s flips get progressively sicker as the video goes on.

Community Connection

Get a glimpse of what the final act looks like in the Dralion trailer, on Cirque de Soliel’s website.

Photo: K_Thomas

Hit the gym

Train your whole core with a variety of ab and lower back exercises – crunches, leg lifts from the ground, leg raises from a hanging bar or captain’s chair, and plank. Do some push-ups, even if you have to do wall or knee push-ups to start.

Building pull power can greatly increase the level of your climbing, so pull-ups should also be a major part of your training.

Photo: Tony Crider

Throw some cardio into your workout regimen: it will make your heart more efficient at pumping blood, allowing you to push harder for longer periods of time. Aim to jog or bike for 20 to 30 minutes, two to three times a week.

Technique, technique, technique

While you’re working on getting stronger, practicing your technique will help you climb better.

Learning how to use drop knees, backsteps, and heel hooks can make a huge difference (You can find definitions of those moves here).

You can practice your footwork by climbing slab (a less-than-vertical rock face), playing the “silent feet” game (move your feet as quietly as possible), and watching your feet for proper placement on footholds.

Respect the rest break

I know what it feels like to be so psyched on a route that you just want to keep trying as soon as you come off, but don’t: it would be a shame to injure yourself just as you started to improve.

The general rule is to rest twice as long as you’ve been on the wall, with a minimum rest time of 2 minutes. For example, if you spend 2 minutes on a route, rest for 4 minutes before trying it again.

When you’re on a climbing trip, honor the rest day – your muscles and tendons will thank you.

Get the right shoes

Photo: mariachily

You don’t need to go out and buy fancy shoes to get started, but once you become a more skilled climber, it will be helpful to have the right footwear. A good pair of shoes will allow you to place your feet on holds in such a way that you’re immediately ready to move off again.

Get climbing shoes that fit snugly and feel comfortable, usually 1-2 sizes smaller than your street shoe size. Shoes range in cost from $70 to $140 in outdoor sports shops such as R.E.I.

You can buy shoes at most climbing gyms as well, but the selection is usually limited.

If you’re lucky enough to live in Southern California, you can get shoes at a significant discount at the Evolv factory store in Garden Grove or the Five Ten in Redlands. You can still get good deals on their sites, but you need to know your shoe size.

As real rock tends to wear out shoes more quickly than climbing walls, many of the climbers I know have a cheaper pair of shoes for the gym and a nicer pair for outside.

Read up

My last piece of advice is to take advantage of all the tips, photos, and videos available online and in print:

-Momentum Video Magazine, frequently updated with videos of hard bouldering sends.

-Climbing Narcissist, a one stop blog for daily updates in the climbing world. Climbing Narc goes through all the other blogs and posts daily videos, photos, and other updates.

-Urban Climber magazine focuses on bouldering, and is my favorite climbing magazine in general. The magazine has giveaways, profiles, and feature articles about bouldering spots and injuries.

-Climbing magazine has been around since 1970, and focuses on the climbing world, with the occasional bouldering news mention.

- Training for Climbing by Eric Horst. Written by one of climbing’s old pros, this is a very comprehensive training guide, with exercises and training plans for inexperienced and advanced climbers alike.

-The Dosage and King Lines DVD series are all about strong men and women sending moderate to hard climbs.

Community Connection

Novice climber? Matador Sports’ First Timer’s Guide to the Climbing Gym can help you get on your feet.

Photo: Ben+Sam

The more sports I pick up, the more I feel like Imelda Marcos: my shoe collection just keeps growing.

I’ve got hiking boots, basketball shoes, and boxing shoes. I’ve got running shoes, wetsuit boots, and snow boots. Shoes are always the one piece of sports equipment I can’t avoid buying, and they’re all too specialized to be interchangeable.

The problem doubles when you take the kind of active vacations that I take. Since I can’t afford to carry an extra suitcase just for my footwear, I’ve learned to compensate by bringing shoes that multitask.

No matter what I end up doing, these three types of shoes almost always keep me covered:

Leather Oxford Sneakers

Pairing a flexible leather upper with a thick rubber sole, there isn’t much these kicks can’t do.

Their heavy treads and solid support make them great for hiking. They’re light enough for a pickup game of soccer, but comfy enough for just lounging. With a little bit of polish, they’ll even pass for dress shoes.

Many major shoe companies make versions of this design. Skechers’ model is comfy and cheap, but lacking in the durability department. Timberland’s are well well-constructed, though a bit on the heavy side.

Canvas Hi-Tops

There’s a good chance this super-shoe is already in your closet – just about everyone and their mother has an old, ratty pair of Chuck Taylors stashed away somewhere.

Besides working on the basketball court, Chucks and other hi-tops are great for the gym.

Their flat bottoms have the balance and traction to handle weightlifting and boxing workouts, and they’re packable enough to squeeze into a backpack.

While Chucks have the brand recognition, the knock-offs in Payless and other discount stores work just as well, and cost half as much.

Sandals

Flip-flops work for relaxing, but forget about moving in them. On top of being every bit as lounge-worthy as flip-flops, Tevas and other wrap-around sandals hike where sneakers can’t – across streams, through mud, or down the rocks at the beach.

When buying sandals, look for a pair that’s both comfortable and durable. You (hopefully) won’t be wearing socks with your sandals, so it’s extra-important to make sure that they protect your feet.

Community Connection

Matador Goods reviews another piece of multi-tasking gear in Less Bulk: Backpack and Photo Bag in One.

(Feature photo: Drift Snowkite Magazine)

Bouchenafa starts his run well, catching a good gust of wind that tugs him off the ground – and then proceeds to continue lifting him up.

At the end of the video, Bouchenafa appears to be unhurt, if a little dazed. How he got away uninjured is a mystery to us.

Props go out to Matadorian Joel Runyon for sending in this one.

From all of us at Matador, have an extreme weekend!

Photos: AppleSister

The Saints:

Guus Hiddink

Patron saint of underdogs

Guus Hiddink has a knack for getting remarkable results out of unremarkable teams. It was under Hiddink that South Korea became the first Asian nation to reach a World Cup semi-final in 2002. As coach of the Australian national team, the Dutch trainer not only led the country to its second-ever World Cup, but managed to clear to the second round of the tournament.

Hiddink is currently trying to work his third managerial miracle in a row, this time by taking Russia’s national team to South Africa 2010.

Luiz Felipe Scolari

Patron saint of attitude

Luiz Felipe Scolari’s temper does occasionally get the best of him. He frequently loses his composure on the field, on one infamous occasion even throwing a punch at a Serbian player.

Still, Scolari’s defiant side has done him some good. As Portugal’s head coach, he reshaped the team by demanding more freedom from Portugal’s meddling football association, eventually taking fourth place in the 2006 World Cup.

His performance in the tournament was so impressive that England later looked into hiring him as their new head coach, despite that fact that it had been Scolari’s team that had knocked them out of the World Cup just months before.

Dunga

Patron saint of rising stars

When Brazil hired him as head coach in 2006, Dunga had never managed a professional soccer team. Three years later, he’s injected new life into the selection, having won two FIFA trophies and easily qualified for South Africa. Call it beginner’s luck if you like, but Brazil under Dunga is playing more consistently than it has in a long time.

The Sinners:

Diego Maradona

For the cardinal sin of playing much better than he coaches

He may have done partial penance by qualifying for the World Cup, but Argentina’s national coach Diego Maradona still has a lot to repent for.

Under Maradona, the selection has been a tactical mess, losing to Paraguay and barely squeezing past Peru to stay alive in World Cup qualifying. Diego will need to rethink his strategy and perhaps shuffle around his team if he wants to win in South Africa next year.

Ricardo La Volpe

For the cardinal sin of being a hothead

Like St. Scolari, Argentine coach Ricardo La Volpe is known for his temper. Unlike Scolari, La Volpe has a bad habit of letting it interfere with his strategical decisions.

Perhaps his most notable flub was in 2006, when, as Mexico’s manager, he kept star forward Cuauhtémoc Blanco from his World Cup squad following a personal disagreement. Mexico ended up exiting in the second round, and La Volpe followed soon after.

Steve McClaren

For the cardinal sin of confusing “traditional” with “good”

After Sven Goran-Eriksson’s disappointing performance at the 2006 World Cup, the English Football Association decided it had had enough of foreigners coaching its team, and promoted former assistant Steve McClaren to the top job.

McClaren immediately cut David Beckham from the squad, and the selection returned to a time-honored tradition of English football – losing. He was fired after just 18 games, the shortest tenure in English managerial history.

Community Connection

Who are soccer’s real saints and sinners? Sound off in the comments section.

Photo: PrendeleUnaVela.cl

Chile has fallen hard for Marcelo Bielsa, the Argentine-born coach who on Saturday led the country in qualifying for its first World Cup is 12 years. President Michele Bachelet has praised Bielsa as “an example and role model for young people”, while model Pilar Jarpa has even called him a “sex symbol.” A recent poll in El Mercurio newspaper ranked him as Chile’s best trainer ever.

Now, two fans have taken the praise a step further with PrendeleUnaVela.cl, a website that asks the Vatican to canonize Bielsa as the “saint of Chilean soccer” and asks visitors to show their devotion to “San Marcelino” by lighting 100,000 virtual candles in his honor.

The idea of Bielsa as a saint may seem rather silly (though definitely more plausible than the image of him as a sex symbol), but the campaign has caught fire, with 66,479 candles lit as of Tuesday.

Besides lighting candles, visitors to PrendeleUnaVela can download worship-ready images of Bielsa, complete with red tracksuit and halo, or offer tongue-in-cheek prayers to “San Marcelino” asking him to bless the selection on the field.

“Glorious San Marcelino, powerful protector and savior of Chilean soccer, at your feet I lay bare my spiritual and sporting necessities,” begins one petition. “Throw your gaze of goodness upon my Chilean heart so that my soul might experience triumph. Amen.”

In return for all this veneration, the site asks Bielsa to prove that he’s worthy of sainthood by performing the “Three Great Miracles” of Chilean soccer: qualifying for South Africa 2010, advancing to the second round, and winning the tournament.

After Saturday’s 4-2 victory over Colombia, Bielsa can call the first miracle done. The two that remain may be a bit trickier: Bielsa’s one trip to the World Cup, with Argentina in 2002, ended with his team being eliminated in the first round. If he took Chile to the second round, it would be his best result yet.

Still, co-creator Felipe Abufele says that he has faith.

“He’s the only one who has made Chile good with the ball, and that’s a miracle, the unrecognized first one,” he said.

Community Connection

Who do you think will be working the miracles in South Africa? Tell us what you think in the comments section.

Photo: Thomas Faivre-Duboz

Ruggers everywhere can start rejoicing: rugby is going to Rio.

In an 81-8 vote this afternoon, the International Olympic Committee approved rugby sevens for inclusion in the 2016 summer games, giving another boost to one of the world’s most popular sports.

Sevens, the variant of the game approved by the IOC, is a faster version of rugby played between teams of seven players, instead of the traditional 15. The International Rugby Board said that it planned to cancel the format’s highest tournament, the Rugby World Cup Sevens, effectively making the Olympics the highest level of sevens play.

The sport’s campaign for Olympic status received a great deal of backing from top-ranked New Zealand, with former squad member Jonah Lomu traveling to Copenhagen to attend the committee´s meeting.

Photo: Paolo Camera

In an email to Matador Sports, New Zealand Rugby Union CEO Steve Tew voiced support for rugby’s inclusion and said that New Zealand is “committed to making the best athletes in our sport available for the Olympic Games.”

“Winning Olympic gold in any sport is important to Kiwis,” wrote Tew. “Our expectation is that we will see a lot more of our athletes wanting to try and make it into the sevens Olympic programme.”

In the United States, where matches are rarely broadcast, the agreement seems likely to introduce rugby to a much wider audence. Speaking by phone, USA Rugby CEO and former England captain Nigel Melville called the decision a “huge step forward.”

“It’s an exciting time for the sport,” said Melville.

Community Connection

What do you think of the IOC’s decision? Let us know in the comments.