# Retracting Sumo Balls **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [August 1, 2002, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/retracting-sumo-balls/121901 "2002-08-01T18:26:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Theobroma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b5a626/32.png) [@Theobroma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Theobroma)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2002, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/retracting-sumo-balls/121901/1 "2002-08-01T18:26:44Z")
If this posts twice, would the Mods please lock or remove one. The hamsters informed me that the first post didn’t go through. OK, here goes… In the retracting Sumo balls column, the Master discusses the near-impossibility of drawing one’s nuts up into the body at will. Maybe it is because I am female and therefore nutless, but I don’t see the big deal. My 7-year-old does this every night in the tub as a parlor trick (and to freak out his dad). He sort of sucks in his gut, and voila! --empty sack. Then he relaxes, and back they go. Big giggles. Can’t all boys do this? Or is my son a mutant freak, with a nifty (if totally useless) talent? Is he ruining my future grandchildren? Should I feed him lots and lots of rice, and see if I can set up a skinny white kid on the Sumo circuit? ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2002, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/retracting-sumo-balls/121901/2 "2002-08-01T19:29:15Z")
The fact that this freaks out his dad should be enough to let you know that this is not normal. Now, whether it’s nifty-parlor-trick not normal, or serious-pathology-and-he’s-never-going-to-have-kids not normal, I don’t know. Next time you have him at the doctor’s, ask. ---
**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2002, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/retracting-sumo-balls/121901/3 "2002-08-02T02:40:37Z")
Google, “retractile testicles” (I actually started with “retract testicles” but immediately discovered that the secret word is “retractile”). [http://webmd.lycos.com/encyclopedia/article/3609.13585](http://webmd.lycos.com/encyclopedia/article/3609.13585) > [@](#): > > A retractile testicle is one that has fully descended but which can be lifted up out of the scrotum by the contraction of the cremaster muscle (cremasteric reflex), which attaches to the testicle. In the retracted position, the testicle may rise as far as the superficial inguinal pouch, a small pocket under the skin of the groin just below the inguinal canal. It is actually a relatively common condition in young boys. > > \< snip \> > > The cremasteric reflex is strongest between age 2 and 7 years, and retractile testicles are most common in young boys about age 5 or 6 years. Because they are caused by a normal reflex of a muscle that occurs on both sides, retractile testicles also usually occur on both sides (bilateral). > > \< snip \> > > Retractile testicles do not require treatment. As boys reach early adolescence, the testicles enlarge and the cremasteric muscle reflex weakens, and the testicles usually descend back into the scrotum on their own. Retractile testicles appear to be otherwise normal and do not have the risks for infertility or testicular cancer that are associated with true undescended testicles. ---
**Author:** ![Theobroma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b5a626/32.png) [@Theobroma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Theobroma)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2002, 11:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/retracting-sumo-balls/121901/4 "2002-08-02T11:29:34Z")
Thanks, **DDG**! I wasn’t really worried…I just didn’t know until I read the column that this was in any way unusual. And, evidently, it isn’t unusual. I’m going to go google that site and read the whole thing…sounds interesting. ---
**Author:** ![MarkF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8797f3/32.png) [@MarkF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MarkF)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2002, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/retracting-sumo-balls/121901/5 "2002-08-02T11:39:04Z")
Hello **Theobrama** I was able to do this as a kid as well, I think it freaked Dad out because it’s (perhaps oddly) not something you remember. > [@](#): > > Or is my son a mutant freak, with a nifty (if totally useless) talent? Believe me, there are times when this would be astonishingly useful 🙂 As this is my first ever visit to COCS ::snicker:: can I ask **DDG** _not_ to use the \ abbreviation when C&P’ing items relating to testicles? Thanks 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Nametag](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nametag/32/406_2.png) [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2002, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/retracting-sumo-balls/121901/6 "2002-08-02T15:14:26Z")
> [@](#): > > As this is my first ever visit to COCS ::snicker:: can I ask DDG not to use the \ abbreviation when C&P’ing items relating to testicles? Yeah, and especially not _twice_! ---
**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2002, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/retracting-sumo-balls/121901/7 "2002-08-03T03:13:02Z")
Heh. :evil grin: ---
**Author:** ![beauxeault](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e9c0ed/32.png) [@beauxeault](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beauxeault)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2002, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/retracting-sumo-balls/121901/8 "2002-08-07T17:32:52Z")
My baby brother of two does this for his own amusement. He waves bye-bye, which cracks me up.