How would Omori do in the post-first Kanzen Stage 3?

[tns8597]

I'm making this post because I've genuinely been wondering this for a while.

Omori had a 3 for 3 clear on the Third Stage in his first three attempts at Sasuke but this was when the Third Stage wasn't known for it's upper body brutality, and was by large one of the easiest stages with mediocre obstacles like the Hang Move and Propeller Bars. However, he never got another chance to attempt the hardened version as from Sasuke 4 when the Cliffhanger and Pipe Slider jump etc. were introduced, he never made it past Stage 1 again. So we've never really got to see his upper body strength in action, which leads me to believe that the main reason he got to the Final Stage in his first three attempts is because most of the course was agility-based (and he is known as the 'Monkey' after all). Yes, he sucked at rope climbing the Tsuna Nobori which is an indicator, but that could be a technique issue (remember that he did quite well in Sasuke 1, then used a different technique in tournaments 2 and 3 and did much worse) rather than upper body strength.

I'm wondering how you guys would think he would've done on the more upper-body oriented Stage 3 if he'd made it there (which I think would've been possible if he'd cleared the First Stage as the Second plays to his skillset), with much more brutal obstacles like the Body Prop and Cliffhanger Dansa/Cliffhanger Kai etc. I'm going to abstain from voting as I genuinely have no idea, but I personally would guess not that well given what we've seen from him so far. 

[BigT]

Honestly, I don't see him getting past body prop. If people like Kane and Takeda had so many problems, there's very little chance for Omori.

[tns8597]

Yeah that’s true but the Body Prop is one of those weird obstacles that can either catch a really strong competitor off guard, or can easily be passed by a rookie, because it’s a really strange movement that doesn’t require just pure brute upper body strength.

So we’ve had people like Kane Kosugi and Isaac Calidero fail it, yet Daisuke Nakata who’s always had p*** poor upper body strength passed it 3 times.

If I had to guess about Ōmori, I’d say he’d probably fail the Body Prop but then if he trained enough he could potentially make it past. He wouldn’t go much further though, given that the Lamp Grasper and Cliffhanger were pretty brutal.

[Ninja Relaxer]

I've never done the Body Prop, but I imagine it's more about core strength than upper body strength, like planking. And the thing about core strength is that it's not easily detected from appearance alone, unlike upper body strength. So it's hard to know how someone will fare on the Body Prop until they do it.

Getting back to the main topic... My first thought when I considered the question was, "Well, what's the best obstacle for predicting Stage 3 success?" And I thought it had to be the Wall Lift, because it relies on upper body strength, and as we all know Stage 3 is all about upper body strength.

But then I remembered that Yuuji and Morimoto always struggled on the Wall Lift, and they are obviously amazing competitors. So maybe it's the other way around. Those who struggle on the Wall Lift do well on Stage 3. But that can't be right, can it...?

[tns8597]

The reason why that’s not true is because the Wall Lift is about brute upper body strength (as well as technique), while Stage 3 is about upper body strength to weight ratio. Hence we saw Paul Terek absolutely annilhate the Wall Lift but really struggle on Stage 3 as in the former his size doesn’t work against him but in the latter it definitely does. Yuuji and Morimoto by comparison have nowhere near the raw strength, but because they’re incredibly light they’re much more effective at Stage 3.

It also comes down to practice. Just because you lift heavy weights doesn’t mean you’ll be good at Stage 3; you can bench a huge amount relative to your body weight but if you don’t practice pull-ups, pushups, or Sasuke-specific movements then you’ll still suck at Stage 3 regardless. Yuuji and Morimoto aren’t the outright strongest competitors but they’re light and they train relentlessly to Stage 3 to the point that the familiarity really works to their advantage.