Originally Posted by
BBB
Late-comer newbie here... I'm reading a difference in the problems being discussed. Some people are talking about using a lift in competition while others are talking about strength training. The two are very different goals.
People should definitely practice sumo and see if it benefits their leverages for competition. However, SS being a strength program needs to emphasize strength. What this means, from a practical perspective is that sumo concentrates the stress on similar musculature as the squat and thus over-trains certain muscle groups. This could mean progress may slow sooner on the squat (recovery), but more importantly, there are large muscle groups which are ignored in this style of strength training.
If your exercise selection for strength training is squat, deadlift, bench and press then you must prioritize the conventional deadlift over sumo in order to stress the posterior chain.
If your goal is to compete, and you're able to pull more using sumo, then you should probably be training BOTH. Especially the further you are from competition.