Video Coach Mako Sakamoto's 163 HSPUs?

[Finn Frank]

I was reading BtGB earlier and this jumped out at me.

Coach Mako Sakamoto (former 1960s US national Champ and personal coach

of Olympic Gold Medalist Peter Vidmar) set his record of 163 consecutive (full

range of motion, free balancing on the parallel bars) handstand pushups when

he was 50 years old.

I do believe it because I know Coach wouldn't lie in his book. But this is something I'd really love to see!!

So are there any videos of this record or anything of his close to this amazing number? If so I'd hate to miss that.

Cheers

[Gregor]

Peter Vidmar American-Slovenian gymnast (slovenian parrents) :wink:

[rubadub]

Peter Vidmar American-Slovenian gymnast (slovenian parrents) :wink:

Have you a link to this video, or any other decent one?

Here is an old interview I found with Coach Mako Sakamoto

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/3220 ... .html?pg=1

OBSESSED WITH PERFECTION: Y. GYM COACH MAKO SAKAMOTO PUSHES HIMSELF TO THE LIMIT.

Published: Monday, Nov. 22, 1993

For the record, Mako Sakamoto retired from gymnastics in 1972, but exactly what that means no one is sure. Retired from what? Competition? Training?

Are you kidding?What other fortysomething retired athlete does dozens of handstand push-ups just for fun. What other man does one-armed handstands first thing after he gets out of bed in the morning. What other man climbs 30-foot ropes and performs handstands in restaurants and hotel rooms, and, well, . . . What man would want to?

"Hey, I broke my record for handstand push-ups today," he told his son Doug one day.

"Big deal, Dad. You're the only one who claims it."

He's got a point there, but it's also beside the point. Sakamoto isn't competing against anyone except himself, and heaven knows, that's enough. How would you like to be ruled every day of your life by a drill sergeant who is the same guy you see in the mirror every morning.

Sakamoto is a 46-year-old, father of two, with gray advancing on his close-cropped hair, but he remains ever a gym rat. It's just as well that he can earn a living there. He is the head coach of the BYU men's gymnastics team. Before that, he was a gymnastics coach in Australia. Before that, he was the head coach at UCLA, where he reared the likes of Peter Vidmar , Mitch Gaylord and Tim Daggett - half of America's brilliant 1984 Olympic team. Before that, he was a seven-time U.S. all-around champion and once ranked as high as 12th in the world.

Born in Tokyo, raised in the U.S. from the age of 7, Sakamoto competed in two Olympic Games for America. He retired after the 1972 Olympics, but only from formal competition.

"I don't think I've ever really stopped training since I was 8-years-old," he says.

He trains twice daily, including one session with his team. After watching Sakamoto go through one of his training routines, BYU gymnasts suggested that he train for a formal competition. Sakamoto gave it some thought and agreed. On Nov. 27, 21 years after his last competition, he will compete against the country's top collegians on the parallel bars at the Rocky Mountain Open in Colorado Springs. None of his rivals is older than 25, and some of them weren't even born when he ended his career.

When news reached other coaches of Sakamoto's plans to compete, their reactions ranged from incredulity to disbelief. "No, you're not. You'll get hurt. You're not really . . . ."

Even in an age of Spitz, Borg, Foreman, etc., there are no middle-aged comebacks in gymnastics. It's simply not a sport that one continues, like the gentler pursuits of, say, softball, golf and tennis. Honey, I'm going to the gym with the boys for a few rounds on the pommel horse.

Sakamoto's day starts with 50 to 60 push-ups, but that's just a warmup. Next he begins a series of exercises in which he never rests and his feet never touch the floor: 13 press-to-handstands in which, from the handstand position, he lowers his feet, legs straight and together, almost to the floor and back again repeatedly; a one-arm handstand, which he not only must hold for 5 to 7 seconds, but hold rock-solid perfect; and 21 handstand push-ups. If he wasn't happy with his one-arm handstand, he does it again until he gets it just so.

"I've got to feel good about about it," he says emphatically. "It has to be perfect. If I'm not happy with it, I just do it until I'm satisfied. It's neurotic. I'm obsessive. But I've just got to do it. It's got to be solid. It's got to be!"

The afternoon workout varies. There are endless possibilities with which he can challenge (torture?) himself. He climbs a 30-foot rope, without using his legs. He does one set of 41 handstand push-ups on the bars. He does 21 leg lifts, in which, while supporting himself with his arms, he brings both legs straight to his face, touching his nose to his knees. He does sets of situps and what are called scales, in which he must balance on one leg for three seconds while lifting the other leg skyward.

"I've done as many as 100 of those until I'm really satisfied," he says. "That's scary. I'm obsessive. I have to be satisfied. There can't be movement. I have to feel good about it."

Traveling is no excuse to skip a workout. Sakamoto completes the routine in his hotel room, sometimes using the backs of two chairs pushed together for makeshift bars.

On occasion, Sakamoto sets up various esoteric challenges and record attempts. During one three-day road trip, he did a total of 1,500 hand-stand push-ups in his hotel room. "It's just something to challenge my body and mind," he says. "It's me against no one else. I like the burnout feeling. It's such a great high. I feel so good afterward."

He also once completed 450 handstand push-ups in one hour. His record for holding a handstand, he tells you, is 11 minutes, "with no movement."

He can recite every feat and every challenge he has undertaken, including the exact date in some cases. Last June 24, he did 67 handstand push-ups in a row, with Vidmar as a witness.

"My goal is 70," he says. "It's going to take a lot of training. I just want to have done something no one in the world can do. What baffles me is that your physical peak is supposed to be 25 to 30 years old, but I'm stronger in my handstand push-ups than ever. I did 23 in 1984, and I thought that was a lot then. I once heard the Chinese could do 35. I thought, No way."

To train for his handstand pushup record, Sakamoto performs one set of 41 handstand pushups four times per week, adding two more to the set every six months.

"Fear of failure keeps me going," he says. "I haven't missed yet."

From the neck down, Sakamoto doesn't look a day older than 20 himself - 5-foot nothing, 120 pounds, 7 percent body fat, and disproportionately thick, rolling shoulders. "My shoulders are bigger now than when I was competing," he says, and he pops off his shirt to prove it.

His private hotel room sessions notwithstanding, Sakamoto has some ham in him. One day in the sports information office he was discussing one-arm handstands when he suddenly dropped his books and did one right there on the carpet. After his team finished eating Thanksgiving dinner together in a Provo restaurant last November, he executed 10 handstand push-ups on the back of two chairs while a stunned waitress looked on.

The Rocky Mountain meet will be just the stage Sakamoto needs, but clearly he has put his pride on the line. "I'm from a different generation," he says. Translation: the difficulty of the sport has increased dramatically since he retired. When Sakamoto competed, the routines were graded A, B and C, with C being the most difficult. Nowadays the difficulty rating extends to E. The rules require Sakamoto to include in his routine four "A" moves, three B's, two C's and one D.

"I went to the men's code of points book and looked for the easiest D I could find," he says. "My routine will be the minimum requirement. It took me three weeks to find the best combination. I eliminated things that I did when I was younger because of the fear factor. On one of the C routines I crashed, so I had to find another one. I will do a one-arm handstand. That's one of my trademarks. That's a C."

So far, Sakamoto has performed his routine more than 110 times this fall. His goal is to score 9.3 or better in Colorado Springs - "I think that would put me in the finals (the top eight)," he says - but that will be difficult. The one thing that Sakamoto's fierce training can't compensate for is nerves and the lack of competitive experience the last two decades. That much was in evidence in an intrasquad meet 10 days ago. With 200 people watching the old man, Sakamoto scored only an 8.8.

"I was so nervous," he said. "I stuttered at the beginning of the routine, and I had never done that before. I was trying too hard. It was good I had that meet. The next one is the one that's important."

Regardless of how he performs in Colorado Springs, Sakamoto has made his point. "It's coaching by example," says Todd Jennings, a graduate assistant coach. "He's awesome. It's very easy to look up to him - even though he's 5-foot-2. He does something every day that impresses me."

Darren Elg, a two-time All-American, agrees. "He always amazes me. He's 46 and he's in here every day. He's probably the strongest guy in here. No matter what happens in the Rocky Mountain meet, it's been fun."

[Finn Frank]

Nice find

[Cole Dano]

That was a great read rubadub!

[phken4343]

Coach Mako is a beast! I first read about him from Peter Vidmar's book "Risk, Originality, and Virtuosity". It's a pretty good read.

[ashita]

Thanks for sharing this rubadub !!

He is a legend ! he inspires me a lot !

He also once completed 450 handstand push-ups in one hour. His record for holding a handstand, he tells you, is 11 minutes, "with no movement."

:shock:

To train for his handstand pushup record, Sakamoto performs one set of 41 handstand pushups four times per week, adding two more to the set every six months.

i would have never thought he did only that.

[Julekman]

Very interesting, but this system for reps I saw also earlier. Many people who set record on pushups, chinups etc, do the same, intensity high rep only 1 set every day or 4 to 5 days, and then adding some reps after one or more months. System is boring, but obviously its work

[Bob Gauthier]

I was there for most of that. We use to compete all kinds of crazy strength challanges. Like the day we did over 60 pirouettes in a row on p bars. I think I did 427 handstand push-ups in under a hour with him one day. And I'm 100% sure he did 163 handstand push-ups in a row because the day I beat his record of 45 when I did 48. The next day he came back and did 52 . That's when I told him I'm done 48 will be my record Mako . I stoped training them but he just keep doing them . And when he did the handstand push up he went all the way down until his elbows touched his sides. Not half way down like most people.

[Toni Laukkavaara]

I was there for most of that. We use to compete all kinds of crazy strength challanges. Like the day we did over 60 pirouettes in a row on p bars. I think I did 427 handstand push-ups in under a hour with him one day. And I'm 100% sure he did 163 handstand push-ups in a row because the day I beat his record of 45 when I did 48. The next day he came back and did 52 . That's when I told him I'm done 48 will be my record Mako . I stoped training them but he just keep doing them . And when he did the handstand push up he went all the way down until his elbows touched his sides. Not half way down like most people.

cool story bro