Sasuke perfect attendance

[zoran]

What competitors had perfect attendance on the course?

Unknown competitors in Sasuke 2 will just be ignored.

Sasuke 1 - All 100 competitors

Sasuke 2 - Shingo Yamamoto, Yoshihito Yamamoto, Takashi Sakamoto,Tomihiro Tatsukawa,Ichiro Atarashii, Eiichi Miura, Yoyohisa Iijima, Takashi Yo, Kiyomi Inoue, Katsumi Yamada, Ken Hasegawe, Okira Omori.

Sasuke 3 - Shingo Yamamoto, Yoshihito Yamamoto, Takashi Sakamoto, Ichiro Atarashii, Tomihiro Tatsukawa ,Eiichi Miura, Yoyohisa Iijima, Katsumi Yamada, Ken Hasegawe, Okira Omori

Sasuke 4 - Shingo Yamamoto,  Ichiro Atarashii, Eiichi Miura, Tomihiro Tatsukawa, Yoyohisa Iijima, Katsumi Yamada, Okira Omori

Sasuke 5 - Shingo Yamamoto, Eiichi Miura,Tomihiro Tatsukawa, Yoyohisa Iijima, Katsumi Yamada, Okira Omori

Sasuke 6 - Shingo Yamamoto, Eiichi Miura,Tomihiro Tatsukawa,Katsumi Yamada, Okira Omori

Sasuke 7 - Shingo Yamamoto, Eiichi Miura,Tomihiro Tatsukawa,Katsumi Yamada, Okira Omori

Sasuke 8 - Shingo Yamamoto, Eiichi Miura,Tomihiro Tatsukawa, Katsumi Yamada

Sasuke 9 - Shingo Yamamoto, Eiichi Miura,Tomihiro Tatsukawa,Katsumi Yamada

Sasuke 10 - Shingo Yamamoto,Tomihiro Tatsukawa, Katsumi Yamada

Sasuke 11 - Shingo Yamamoto, Katsumi Yamada

Sasuke 12 - Shingo Yamamoto, Katsumi Yamada

Sasuke 13 - present - Shingo Yamamoto

[YourResidentKojiFan]

Good list, but Tomihiro Tatsukawa competed in the first ten tournaments, so he should be there from 2-10.

[brz0ny]

Had no idea Miura was around for that long lol

[salt]

Jeez, the Jump Hang and Warped Wall really murdered that man's career. For a while I thought he just retired early like Hasegawa Ken, but I guess not. I wonder if he would've ever figured out those obstacles?

[subtleagent]

Considering he failed them a combined total of five times and never really trained for SASUKE, I would guess no.

[dakohosu]

I heard somewhere that Omori quit because Shoei made fun of his failures in Sasuke 6 and 7. Shoei definitely did laugh at his fails as seen from the broadcast, though I doubt Omori would've retired because of one competitor mocking him, rather one can only take so many consecutive disappointments until they just hang up the towel. Especially after such a strong start to his career quickly going downhill.

Also, it's mad that out of the regularly competing competitors who haven't semi-retired/aren't just competing sporadically or for fun (hence not counting Yamada, Nagano, Iketani etc.), the next best attendance after Shingo is Yuuji with 20 tournaments, still only half of Shingo's. Just goes to show how impressive his longevity on the show really is, not to mention that his entire career of 25 years is bookended by two Stage 1 clears. Unlike Yamada who's competed 30 or so times but the less said about the latter two thirds of his career the better, lol.

[m4tt3r0x]

Shingo really is in remarkable shape for 48. Actually for any age. I didn't realize how much muscle he has built on him until he took on Stage 2 last year. Look at his upper back. I know he's a trainer now but he might be even in better shape now than he was when he was younger. And he hasn't slowed down either. If he really trains like hell for next year he has a legitimate shot of clearing Stage 2 like Suzuki or Yuuji.

After 25 years of perfect attendance I can't remember the last time he looked as confident as he did last tournament. Just look at his demeanor at the beginning of Stage 1. He had like a newfound swagger to him and was acting like a different person. He said once in 26, at least as far as G4 was concerned, that no matter how many times he's been at the beginning of Stage 1, he was never not nervous. He probably still feels the same nerves but he handled himself so much better in 40.

[dakohosu]

Feb 5, 2023 18:12:52 GMT -5 m4tt3r0x said:

Shingo really is in remarkable shape for 48. Actually for any age. I didn't realize how much muscle he has built on him until he took on Stage 2 last year. Look at his upper back. I know he's a trainer now but he might be even in better shape now than he was when he was younger. And he hasn't slowed down either. If he really trains like hell for next year he has a legitimate shot of clearing Stage 2 like Suzuki or Yuuji.

After 25 years of perfect attendance I can't remember the last time he looked as confident as he did last tournament. Just look at his demeanor at the beginning of Stage 1. He had like a newfound swagger to him and was acting like a different person. He said once in 26, at least as far as G4 was concerned, that no matter how many times he's been at the beginning of Stage 1, he was never not nervous. He probably still feels the same nerves but he handled himself so much better in 40.

He's almost reversed his aging process in terms of his abilities. He went from declining on Stage 3 from his late 20s and having a recurring shoulder issue, to being able to do a Crazy Cliffhanger transition and having not had a relapse in his injury in over a decade, at the age of 48. By comparison, Takeda's shoulder became way more of a chronic issue as he got older. He also went from a Body Prop fail when he was 30 to beating the Roulette Cylinder and Doorknob Grasper at the age of 40, so the man seems to be on an upward trajectory.

Honestly, his Stage 2 run was incredible. Sure, he had a Shingo moment before the SL, and he did time out a fair bit away from the goal, but seeing him STILL beast the Salmon Ladder, rapidly getting through the Spider Walk, and giving his best ever performance since Sasuke 23(!!!) kind of proved that his entire slump over the last 8 years was purely mental. A lot of people said he was done for because "he's almost 50" but it was never that, it was more he kept choking like developing a fear of trampolines etc. You could always tell he still had it in him to clear; he was fast, pretty agile, and when he was locked in mentally he could get through some pretty tough obstacles. It was always just a derp moment that got him. Trampolines from 32-34 and 37, the Fish Bone in 35 and 39, he definitely had some consistency as to where he failed and no doubt this was influenced by a fear of those obstacles. Almost similar to Yamada's relationship with the Warped Wall, though nowhere near as bad (obviously).

All it took was a bit of mental therapy, which I'd pay obscene amounts of money to get a full translation for the YouTube video about it. It clearly helped eliminate the main limiting factor (nerves/lack of confidence etc.) preventing him from reaching his former heights. 

Most importantly though, we can no longer make the joke that Shingo never cleared Stage 1 after he founded Bariante. Clearly his gym trainer responsibilities have worked wonders.

[salt]

Honestly, this really shows how not retiring can be a good thing unless you get a chronic injury that makes it dangerous to compete. Even if you're not putting up top-tier results in your 40s and 50s, keeping up with training still leaves you in really good shape. If I was a former top competitor, I'd much rather still be in a state where I'm not doing amazing on the course but still there, than growing a beer belly watching the tournament on TV.

[dakohosu]

Feb 7, 2023 16:39:55 GMT -5 salt said:

Honestly, this really shows how not retiring can be a good thing unless you get a chronic injury that makes it dangerous to compete. Even if you're not putting up top-tier results in your 40s and 50s, keeping up with training still leaves you in really good shape. If I was a former top competitor, I'd much rather still be in a state where I'm not doing amazing on the course but still there, than growing a beer belly watching the tournament on TV.

I get what you mean and I agree but some people don’t see it that way.

Nagano for instance started to no longer enjoy competing because he could only take so many disappointments and failures until he began to see competing as more of a chore/anxiety inducing than actual enjoyment. Granted he was a different case because he had a huge amount of pressure on him because of his reputation, Shingo by comparison had a lot less expectation placed on him.

You also have to bear in mind that most people’s overarching impression of someone is usually based on their last/most recent impression of them, so a lot of competitors don’t want their legacy to be a bunch of Stage 1 failures before they rage quit. That may well be why competitors like Kong decided to quit after his Stage 2 fail in 34, because it signified to him he was fighting a losing battle with age and didn’t want to inevitably tarnish his track record.

As you get older you also have more family and career commitments too, which makes training and competing less important to them in the grand scheme of things. I think Hioki’s family dynamic has sort of distorted people’s perspectives on this.

Shingo is an anomaly because he wants to uphold his reputation of perfect attendance, has been competing for so long the show is an integral part of his life, and is also very light hearted so doesn’t take failures anywhere near as to heart as other competitors do. Let’s also not forget he nearly did retire after 28, so even he’s not immune to burnout from poor performances.

I do agree with you in that i could never go from competing regularly to retiring and not training at all/getting out of shape like some former competitors have done, I’d definitely still exercise and train general fitness. But some people see continuing to compete when not at their best or in the right mindset as more of a burden, which it never should be.

[salt]

Wait, did he actually want to retire in 28? I thought that was just Inui forcing the All Stars into retirement.

[dakohosu]

Feb 7, 2023 19:09:09 GMT -5 salt said:

Wait, did he actually want to retire in 28? I thought that was just Inui forcing the All Stars into retirement.

Yeah I can’t remember where I heard this but apparently he was planning on actually retiring. I would imagine that was why he decided to run in the trials for 29, as a sort of fresh start.

I still find it baffling how the All-Stars took the top spots for Sasuke 40 and drove a significant amount of the marketing for the tournament (as they should given their legacy), yet only 10 years ago Inui was allegedly planning on no longer permitting them to compete, lol.