Fighting in a tournament is always an interesting challenge in terms of the tactics you employ.
There are essentially two strategies you can employ. One, you can try and finish your first opponent as fast as possible to save energy for the finals. Two, you can pace yourself in the first round of the tournament so you (theoretically) decrease the risk of injury while saving energy.
Your choice of tactics will also depend on the opponent you are fighting. After the first battle you will go back to the locker room, cool down, treat your injuries and discuss the strategy for your next opponent.
Who that is will be determined by what happened in the other match that took place in your bracket. You will usually be facing the winner of that fight, but where he is too injured to continue you could find yourself facing the fighter who lost or a reserve alternate who you may not even be familiar with. It's all very unpredictable.
It was even more unpredictable for Joe Schilling on his road to the GLORY Middleweight Tournament Championship in his home city of Los Angeles recently. Initially he was to face England’s Stephen Wakeling in the first round.
But when Wakeling was pulled from the card last minute due to visa issues, he was replaced with Kengo Shimizu. The tough Japanese fighter has recently dropped down to middleweight from heavyweight so he isn’t at all impressed by power.
But a GLORY tournament fighter has to be prepared for everything. Intelligence and the ability to adjust tactics on the fly are as important as actual physical fighting abilities if you want to be able to win one of these championship tournaments.
Schilling vs. Shimizu: Breakdown
Both guys picked their shots in the first round. Schilling started with power kicks to the legs, body and face. Shimizu was trying to push forward with punches trying to counter Schilling. Schilling anticipating Shimizu's forward movement with straight kicks to the upper leg and front kicks to the face.
The straight kicks to the thigh (you hit him with your heel with your toes pointing outside) is not seen a lot in kickboxing but it is a very effective strike. It can actually really hurt somebody's leg and as a side effect prevent your opponent from moving forward.
In kickboxing there are 3 ranges: kicking, punching and clinching. As Shimizu passed ranges #1 and #2 he fell into Schilling's clinching range where he got attacked by knees to the body and face. Schilling's key to winning the first round was definitely his knees from inside the clinch. He kept catching Shimizu, who was trying to move in with punches.
The second round showed more of Schilling’s straightforward kicks to the legs and body of Shimizu, even trying some spinning back-kicks along the way.
This is exactly what you should do when you compete against a fighter who keeps pushing forward without changing angles. And there were even more knees from Schilling from inside the clinch. There was no answer from Shimizu, who did at least prove he can take a beating.
The third and final round started with Shimizu changing his approached completely. He knew he was two rounds behind and his moving forward with punches didn't work. He came out with a barrage of kicks.
But Joe knew he was ahead and thus could take it easy. He waited for Shimizu to get close and attack him with knees again. The lesson here is a good one - don't change your winning formula as long as it works.
Schilling won this fight comfortably, taking a unanimous decision and passing through to the final where he would meet Artem Levin of Russia. The win over Shimizu showed that the smarter and more versatile fighter won without taking injuries - Schilling emerged from the whole fight with only one hurt toe.
By Martijn De Jong
