Vinesh’s defensive coup against Yui Susaki: Of octopus defense, an elusive knee and cerebral chaos | Sport-others News

The snap of the right knee that Vinesh Phogat had naively left unguarded against Sun Yunan and how she collapsed in a teary heap, had sent a wave of wincing through the Rio de Janeiro wrestling venue of 2016 Olympics as it showed up on the big screen. The Chinese had attacked Vinesh’s defenceless flanking limb cunningly, bent and mangled it, and left it flailing and limp. An ambulance was wheeled in right upto the side door, and Vinesh’s Olympic dream at the height of her prowess, left the hall, trailing the siren of the hospital van.Phogat would never make that rookie error in defense ever again. Against Yui Susaki, who’d not lost 82 times since her 5th grade, Vinesh pulled off nearly 5 and a half minutes of the most compact leg defense, that set up her eventual progress.
It took Susaki a while to comprehend just how resolutely Vinesh was intending to defend. But even when she went for a single leg attack around the 3:10 mark, Vinesh ensured her feet remained elusive and out of bounds for the Japanese ace, known for not conceding a single point in Tokyo.
The 4-time World champion in 50 kg, a mythical icon back in Japan, in fact got deceived having not conceded any point, and was completely lulled the 2 passivity points Vinesh cleverly gifted, before her last 10 second takedown, nudged Susaki out of gold medal contention.
The plan drawn out Vinesh and Waller Akos was brilliant in its simplicity. But it needed the Japanese, known for her speedy rampaging, to be kept at bay, before the counterstrike was unfurled. It was a defensive dazzler, Maldini’s backline and Popovic’s Spurs would have been proud of.
Vinesh knew any ground-grappling would go against her. She needed to stay on her feet. Deny Susaki reach, and dance, and a bunch of points that come from engaging actively.
“Ladki ne kamaal ka game khelaa. Naa point lena Hai, naa point dena hai. Yeh plan tha. Mazaa aa gaya,” explained wrestling coach and commentator Kripa Bishnoi. (Woman played a wondrous tactic, neither taking nor giving any point. Fun came.)
India’s Vinesh Vinesh, right, celebrates after defeating Ukraine’s Oksana Livach during their women’s freestyle 50kg quarterfinal wrestling match, at Champ-de-Mars Arena, during the 2024 Summer Olympics, Tuesday, Aug. 6, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP/PTI)
The two passivity points were ‘gifts’, Bishnoi says, and it would’ve dawned on Susaki – a technical superiority win hoarder rather belatedly, that she hadn’t earned any technical points for a full 5 minutes. It was bound to draw out a make in the end.
Susaki made one run for a single leg attack, post the halfway mark, and that’s where Vinesh’s power-defense came to the fore. The only significant daav, Bishnoi laughs, had been inciting a ‘galat-fehmi’ (deceptive lulling). But when Susaki went for Vinesh’s leg, from an arm’s length dance that Vinesh zealously guarded, the Japanese would lose attacking shape and her attack crumbled.
It was because of what Vinesh had been chipping away at from the start. The Indian’s grips on the arm and shoulder are known to be chokeholds with finger pressure. “People think defense is just footwork or holds. This is wrestling. The best pehelwaans exert pressure from head to toe, like an octopus. It’s a multi-pronged defense. Vinesh applied excellent upper body pressure and kept rotating the Japanese, so her power moves would constantly lose direction,” Bishnoi explained.
The most obvious element of the defense was maintaining a steady dance, and causing a muscle extension so Susaki’s holds never grasped. “Vinesh kept applying pressure on her shoulders, and forced her hips and neck to be bent. Usko zhukaa diya,” he said. Made her bow. Bishnoi added that Vinesh’s defensive pressure was also heaped during what were inopportune ‘breathing positions’ for the Japanese, a wrestling trick that needs years of observing.

Forcing Susaki to fight very close to the mat, on an exceedingly low stance, meant Vinesh used the upward force of the mat on Susaki’s body while lumping pressure on her looming over the top, to crush her balance and compelling her to attack from low centre of gravity. “It’s top defense, when you imbalance the opponent piling the force on them, pushing them down. Kamar tooti toh samzho, wrestler khatam, (when the wa breaks, understand the wrestler is finished“ he explained.
The points Vinesh eventually scored came from a standard push & pull, and a gentle nudge in the raid zone. Susaki kept angling for a hold, Vinesh guarded her knee, and finally completed a takedown from a ground position. “Atpataa movement tha,” he ended. That’s Hindi for cerebral chaos, with the clock ticking down.