Koto Again? Yep, Koto Again.

One more episode on Kotoshogiku, our Sumo hopeful, the Japanese rikishi who reigned the ring for the first time in a decade. I'm Nathan Shiga either running the risk of losing a reader or two or winning a welcome flock of fans of Sumo.

The Nikkei Shimbun ran a column on 11st morning covering his recent appearance in an NHK documentary made prior to his feat. I saw the program with fun and the Nikkei reporter recapitulated so nicely in the column to urge me cover him in my own column here for you folks to share. The film bared what had made Koto pull through the tournament to win the championship.

We have a retired girl figure skater Shizuka Arai by name who thrilled us all with a trick called "Ina Bauer" after West German skater - a 45-degree backward bend. That motion is one of Koto's routines and he does that immediately before the initial charge.

Throughout the last tournament, I kept reminding myself Koto appeared somewhat "improved" not knowing what.

In the documentary I found out what. Koto had added within an Ina Bauer a lot whole lot more juice - a mental motivation in the form of a "Koto Bauer".

The video first showed him in a tournament where his promotion to Championship (0zeki) was at stake. He stood at 9-2 and another two wins against his juniors should clinch his promotion to Ozeki the following tournament. He lost two in a row and missed the opportunity.

In desperation Koto consulted a specialist, an expert in sports mental training. He was put to all sorts of tests to gauge his mental capacity to combat stresses. In that process Koto was reminded of his habitual "routine" of staring at this opponents to the extent of making himself overly upset.

After the session Koto was awakened to the need of "unstaring" opponents, relaxing himself enough to smile, self-massaging from face to feet and screaming out aloud yawning. He now calls all that "Koto Bauer".

Good Luck, Koto.