If you're getting tired of football...
 

I present to you my new favorite sport, the Japanese game of Bo Taoshi.

Two teams of 150 face each other. Each team has 75 attackers and 75 defenders. The winner is the first team to get the other team's pole down to an angle of 30 degrees off the ground. Here's a clip of half of one game, and presumably the same thing is happening in reverse at the other end of the field.

I think I could really enjoy this sport.

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Oh **** YES that looks great

Wonder why it took them so long to rush.

I bet it's not going on on both ends simultaneously. I bet they take turns

That was awesome.

Looks like the head gear doesn't fit real well....most came off on the attack.....

How do people not suffer horrible injuries doing this?

I'd watch that in lieu of about 75% of NFL games.

That's what makes it awesome.

Oh they most certainly do. Which is what makes it awesome.

I've seen another vid of this sport, in that one you could see two of these going on at once.

That was awesome !

No Smiff??

Count me in.

Man, you would miss so much action that way.

Yeah, but the drama (in part) comes from seeing which pole goes down first. You could use a timer and do them separately, I guess, but that wouldn't be as exciting.

It would be impossible to appreciate both pileups, though.

I'm a dumbass.

That is totally right

Looks like Asian buck-buck.

Check out this one. I loved the guy on top of the pole starting at around 3:15.

Apparently the polesitters have a specialized purpose above and beyond what this guy was doing. When the pole starts to get off center, they shift their weight to keep it upright as long as possible.

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Why are they wearing underwear on their heads?

It's Japan. That's what they do.

This is awesome. How do I join?

First rule is you don't talk about it

Bo Taoshi looks like something I would watch and hope I figure out the rules.

I could roll with some team MMA too. Go to right about to the 2:00 minute mark and the action is getting started.

https://youtu.be/6VIWXWQutFw

Let's start putting together a team.

I think I could tie up 5 or 6 of those little guys for a while.

But I would rather play offense.

Offense does seem more fun. But I think I would enjoy defense for some reason.

Per wikipedia:

Bo-taoshi
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Bo-taoshi (Japanese: 棒倒し Hepburn: bōtaoshi?, "pole bring-down"), is a capture-the-flag-like game, played on sports days at schools in Japan. The game played by cadets at the National Defense Academy of Japan traditionally on its anniversary is famous for its size, where in two teams of 150 individuals each vie for control of a single large pole.[1] Each team is split into two groups of 75 attackers and 75 defenders. The defenders begin in a defensive orientation respective to their own pole, while the attackers assume position some measure away from the other team's pole. A team is victorious if it is able to lower the pole of the opposing team (which begins perpendicular to the ground) to a thirty-degree angle (respective to the ground), before the other team reaches this goal. Until a rule-change in 1973, the angle of victory was only forty-five degrees.[2]


Positions
Described here are positions seen in NDA of Japan, but usually the position Ninja is absent when played in other schools. On the defensive half, positions include: pole support, barrier, interference, scrum disabler and the ninja. Offensive positions include: springboard/scrum, pole attackers and general support attacks.

Defense
Pole support - to hold the pole in the upright position.
Barrier - the largest part of the defense, their job is to protect the pole.
Interference - harass and interrupt attacks that get within the barrier.
Scrum disabler - scrum is the offensive strategy in which the attackers use their teammates back to spring themselves over the barrier and onto the pole. The scrum disablers do whatever they can to eliminate this attack.
Ninja - this is the single man at the top of the pole. This is one of the most important positions on defense. The ninja must lean to the opposite side if the pole is being tilted to counteract the weight.

Offense
Springboard/scrum - the scrum acts as stepping stones so their offensive teammates can jump over the barrier and have easy access to the pole.
Pole attackers - in charge of taking the ninja down and using their weight to bring the pole down.
General support attackers - Do anything to make it hard on the defense.

The guy on top of the pole just face stomping everyone is the best.

^ We need more scrum sports.

I don't think we have a hand to hand "national defense academy", we need one of those too.

Pole attacker our scrum disabler for me

Just wait till television companies get ahold
Of this sport and fill it with bud light and Miller light commercials. Gonna ruin te integrity of the sport

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...ag_raising.jpg

I think this means we win because its still over 30 degrees.

I had always wondered exactly how WWII was settled.

We can't follow that rule. Rain Man was the first to mention it, and we need him at the top of the pole. He's got the calf strength required for those curb stomps the guys at the top are doing.

I'd prefer to play offense, but I'm a big guy, so I assume my strength would be on defense holding the guys off.

Also, are they just eyeballing the 30 degrees thing?

With all the effort these guys are putting in, you'd figure they would have a more exact science to the scoring.

Holy shit.

Japan is american as ****

That gave me the weirdest boner. Did anyone else experience this phenomenon?

Yes.

This can't be an American sport. How would we cheat?

Been looking for a new sig line. Thanks buddy.

:)

This is amazing! I love Japan.

I want to see Dontari Poe play this game.

This would be the best Super Bowl half time show ever.

That would be a great way to introduce this to the US.

Are there any rules? Eye-gouging, nad-kicking, simple punches, are these allowed? I imagine that in the middle of that scrum it can get pretty nasty.

Someone asked about how they determine when the angle has been met to end the match. I saw one video and it looked like a ref on the side had a protractor or something to tell when 30 degrees has been passed.

I'm not sure this would work in the U.S. We've got a lot more big people. It's one thing when 300 guys who weigh 150 pounds are doing this.

It would indeed. I bet the NFL would never allow it because football would instantly drop to the second-most popular sport in the country.

That was way more interesting than I thought it would be.

Pretty funny. Doe the winners all get new Toyotas?


Japanese beetles have been giving me fits so far this summer, they are raping.

Watch your corn hole bud.

Is it rigged like the NFL?

I am only mildly ambidextrous

Pretty much the whole world is rigged any more. But this may not be.