Strategy has a broad scope and its not “Right now” or minute by minute kind of
thinking. Its more along the lines of setting specific goals, without setting
up how to get there. By specific goals it means a good strategy would NOT be
setting a goal like “I want to win” it’s a lot more defined than this, its more
“I will off win if I use explosive moves as the defender does not respond well
to shifting in speeds and timing”.
Thinking of it in military terms often helps with a basic understanding. A
strategy to win WWII was to take the beaches in France. The Generals all got
together and made strategies on a BIG map of Europe and they said “we need to
land in France, move to the boarders and then push back the Germans while
Russia kept them busy fighting in Russia. Then some lower level guys were given
their order “Take the beaches then push towards Germany”. Then the lower level
guys had to find tactical ways to take the beaches. As we know from history we
lost a tone of hero’s on those beaches implementing the tactics to work the
strategy of the Generals.
In order to have a successful run as a Kumite Competitor or to have good skill
as a fighter you need to have a few things. First you need to be strategically
thinking all the time. Find the best routes to win a match or take advantage in
Dojo Kumite. Is your opponent faster than you, Maybe more powerful but
slower, Doe they seem to bounce a lot on their feet or are they set firm on the
floor. Do they have more experience than you or are they Raw and new to Jiyu
Kumite? All these are fantastic first steps for your strategy
development. You need to assess your opponent right away. I have sparred with
COUNTLES guys that all have different skill sets that I have to be aware of
when doing Kumite.
So, now you kind of know what you are facing, the guy is say slower but much
more powerful and has great punching, but his kicks are slow and low. He has a
tone more experience than you and better timing. So, strategy development now
means that you need to find the weakness that you want to exploit and work
around other barriers that will throw you off. So, in this case you want to be
faster, throw off his rhythm by shifting yours around to confuse him. You don’t
need to worry to much about high kicks but you do need to keep in mind
that his timing means he may have great foot sweeps. You want to keep outside
his punching distance till you are ready to jut in and then out again. So the
strategy is “Broken timing-Speed and distance variation-explosive moves and use
of longer range fast attacks”.
Or, you are facing a faster fighter, he bounces a lot on his feet and his
center of gravity is higher than yours and he uses a lot of high kicks. He is
not as experienced as you and throws techniques without a proper target
selection. Okay, so tactics will be to possibly stay inside his kicking range
so he has to use his hands to fight, slow down the fighting with use of
pressure on the fighter and wait till he lifts his hips/center of gravity and
ashi barai the guy till he falls like a tree! Then pounce and finish him off.
Both of these are strategies that may or may not work depending on who the
other guy works his strategy but you would never do the complete opposite of
these and say stay in kicking range and try to out kick a quicker longer and
more explosive kicker or try and stay in the pocket with a power puncher who
has better timing….unless being unconscious is your actual goal!
Sadly we don’t do a lot of strategy work in Karate, We tend to train mostly in
tactics, which I will get to shortly. We miss opportunity to “Game plan” or do
some basic “how to” work, unless we are training in Goshindo style work and
then its “what would you do if a big guy grabbed you from behind” or “If a guy
swings a club at you this way what would you do”….even then we end up going
right to tactics and miss out on strategy.
A good strategy has a mental aspect of a big version of what and a very
distinct understanding of WHY. We did not just decide that storming the beaches
was a good idea because we fancied the beach as a nice spot to land,
their was a good why involved, just like we say “we will sweep at the legs and
get the guy when he is off balance” because the guy will fall and be on the
ground, shocked for a second so our second attack will finish him off.
Also, because of a lack of strategy most people panic when they fight against
someone they feel is bigger and stronger or faster and more athletic. I
remember a story that Sensei Dingman told me about his fight with Mr. Muller.
Sensei is not a big man, about five two or three and he was always about 120.So
he was tiny compared to Mr. Mullers near seven feet tall and probably 250! The
guy was a beast and Sensei had to face him down. The only words that Yaguchi
Sensei had told Sensei Dingman was “beat him” and that was the strategy his
instructor…the best Kumite coach in the world gave him for that fight!
However, Sensei Yaguchi…being the best Kumite coach that the JKA had produced
had taught sensei about Strategy. Sensei told me he knew that Muller was
slower, longer, had exceptional timing and used his length to keep the attackers
on the tip of his kicking and punching zone. Sensei knew to beat Muller he had
to break this all down, use his speed and explosiveness to beat the distance,
create a situation where Muller was uncomfortable and throw him off so his
timing was off. That was the strategy!
Dingman Sensei then went and created some tactics to implement, pretty much on
the fly. Dingman Sensei has always been better at using and developing strategy
to counter others strengths and use his own to his advantage and then
implementing tactics he had been training in or making up on the fly. He is a
master’s master at this as an athlete and tried to teach this to everyone he
coached.
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