tns8597
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Post by tns8597 on Jun 7, 2021 14:29:22 GMT -5
Who do you think has delivered the most underwhelming performances relative to how much they train?
For me it’s gotta be Daisuke Matsuda. Guy literally built a Fish Bone and Dragon Glider and even then he failed the obstacle on the course, and has also never cleared Stage 1.
Kishimoto comes a close second due to having failed the first obstacle twice but redeemed himself through his Sasuke 30 performance (though he did finish with the slowest time out of 27 clears on a ridiculously easy Stage 1).
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Post by Ninja Relaxer on Jun 7, 2021 15:50:54 GMT -5
Daisuke Matsuda was my first thought as well.
My second thought was... dare I say it... Katsumi Yamada.
Although he had some very impressive results early on, including a Final Stage appearance, Yamada basically dedicated his whole life to Sasuke without achieving his goal of total victory.
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Post by subtleagent on Jun 7, 2021 20:15:05 GMT -5
I would probably say Kanno counts. While his injuries play into it, his lack of training other than bodybuilding in a First Stage that has become more agility focused as of late and as such his results have suffered.
Iketani too. For a pro-athlete his runs are horrible. None of his runs ever stood out and some did for the wrong reasons.
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Post by m4tt3r0x on Jun 7, 2021 20:30:03 GMT -5
My vote's for Kishimoto. He even practically invented the Vertical Limit and still failed it. To be fair he mainly trained upper body though. Otherwise I'd choose Yamada.
I give Matsuda a break because he's been about middle age for a while now, and he even came somewhat close to clearing last tournament at 46. At least for his own standards.
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Post by subtleagent on Jun 8, 2021 2:09:01 GMT -5
I think in Matsuda's case he's just gotten unlucky. He made an Orugoru to train for after failing it in 32 and it was replaced by the Fish Bone. He made a Fish Bone to train for, but it gets buffed twice in back to back tournaments. He made a Wing Slider to train for after failing it in 37 and it gets replaced by the Silk Slider (actually that one was probably a blessing since the Silk Slider was pretty pathetic).
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tns8597
Jordan Jovtchev
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Post by tns8597 on Jun 8, 2021 5:15:39 GMT -5
Ah yeah I can't believe I made this thread without mentioning Yamada, went right over my head lol. I mean the guy trained 6 hours per day, 7 days a week, so I suppose anything less than Total Victory would put him right up there as among the worst ratios of effort to success. Tbh even in his prime his strong performances were few and far between; 8 out of his 12 performances before his hiatus never made it past Stage 2. I'm even inclined to say it's BECAUSE he trained so much that his actual performances were subpar. The more of his time he devoted to Sasuke (and the less he devoted to his career and family as a result) the more pressure that placed on him to perform on the day, as he gave up everything for Sasuke and knew that if he didn't win then the opportunity cost wouldn't have been worth it. That wreaked havoc on his performances as he often overplanned, overfeared, overanalyzed the course which ended up backfiring more times than not, and the greater the number of times he failed the bigger his mental demons became which further affected his performances in this horrible downward spiral.
Also I wouldn't count Iketani really; his performances were pretty understandable as he never trained specifically for Sasuke which as we know doesn't go very far in terms of course success, though some of his fails were quite underwhelming for a pro-athlete, basically any of his performances from 16 onwards.
Kanno as well barely trains for Sasuke ever since his shoulder injury, both because of his injury putting him out of action and how he's just started to weight train instead, so I'm really not surprised that his performances have gone downhill and he has shown that if he trains in full form then he can do well. Similar with Shunsuke; when he actually used to train for Sasuke he consistently made Stage 3 in both the All-Star and Rising Era, but his interest has sort of waned due to other priorities and hence his performances have understandably suffered. Hence I'd say neither of the above fit into the 'training hard but never got anywhere' category.
And yeah I was shocked Shinya failed the VL. He always struck me as a kind of Ryo of the time in that if he made it past Stage 1 he'd make the Final. Granted he did come pretty close and came third in that tournament, but he surprisingly struggled a fair bit on the VL before failing; that said, I've practiced the obstacle before and one poor transition or grip literally lands you in the water immediately.
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Post by subtleagent on Jun 8, 2021 12:11:09 GMT -5
Can we count Hidenori Nagasawa? He built a rooftop of obstacles and only ever cleared the First Stage once (he also had a fair amount of trouble on the Jump Hang and Warped Wall). I know injuries kept him out for most of Shin-SASUKE and he retired after his painful HPA flub in 27 (though tbf most people did as they thought the show was over).
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tns8597
Jordan Jovtchev
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Post by tns8597 on Jun 8, 2021 14:06:16 GMT -5
I still think Matsuda’s track record is worse. Hidenori at least came close to clearing a fair few times and did so once, whereas Matsuda only outperformed rookies/novices in his most recent attempt. Both were also of a similar age when they were competing so the whole argument about Matsuda’s age doesn’t really fly here.
What puts Matsuda as number 1 for me (despite his age) is how he’s repeatedly failed obstacles that he’s built exact replicas of. Shinya by comparison struggled on obstacles/stages he arguably didn’t train for (Stage 1) and when he did reach Stage 3 he came semi-close to clearing.
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