Strategies in competitions

Competition is the place where you implement what you’ve learnt and practised for a long time.

Training hard is one way to get you to the top in Judo, but it is imperative you also train smart.

Many fighters train twice a day, everyday for years, come to a major competition and get thrown for Ippon in a few seconds. This happened to elite athletes like Keiji Suzuki and Illias Iliadis in Beijing, both Olympic champions and world champions, which prevented them from fighting for a medal.

Being strong and fast is not enough, as there will always be someone stronger and faster. Having a strategy, like in anything in life, is very important. Knowing how to apply yourself in different situations requires learning to strategise.

Fighting against a weaker opponent

This supposed to be easier, but only on the surface. If your opponent is smart and has a strategy, you still might lost. With this kind of opponent, it’s best if you work in the middle of the mat, where you can control your opponent, make him/her look passive and defensive, lose his posture, get exhausted and fatigued. If you can’t throw, at least you can get your opponent to be penalised.

If you’re strong on Ne-Waze and get to the ground, work and apply your techniques. I see a lot of players that get to ground but prefer to wait for Matte although they are very proficient on Ne-Waza. There is no shame to win on Ne-Waza.

Fighting against a stronger opponent

Now you are the weaker opponent! The above should apply for the stronger one, but how can you still prevail at the end?

When fighting against a stronger opponent you cannot let go of your Kumi-kata and subside to the inevitable and just give up. If you can’t fight on your terms, you should never fight on your opponent’s terms. You don’t like his grip? break it and reach for yours. Fill trapped? create movement to diffuse the situation. Many times a strong opponent will drop his guard for a second or two which you can capitalise on.

Another strategy, is to use the boundaries. Working on the edge, but still in bounds will give you an easier exit when you need it. Works the same for Ne-Waza. It doesn’t mean you can just step out or you’ll be penalised. Once you attack and step out (even if the attack was not meant to be effective) time after time, if you’re opponent does not attack, s/he will be penalised. Also, your opponent will start to lose their clam and will be prone to mistake.

This still doesn’t mean that you can’t lose.

Working against opposite grips

Lets assume you are right handed and you’re fighting a left handed opponent. Sometime it is very hard to work against a left handed grip, especially if their strong and extreme in their stand. One strategy would be to grip your opponent’s right sleeve with your left arm and pull to you so s/he is no longer in an extreme stand. Make sure that when taking the sleeve you are not following your opponent, or you’ll end on your back.

The last important note is to keep your head up. Many time you see weaker fighters drop their heads because they’re tired or weaker, inviting their opponent to take a higher grip to control them. One way to make sure this doesn’t happen is to create movement, fight for the Kumi-kata, even if you’re not attacking much, just a foot sweep every now and then, but don’t just let you’re opponent take their favourite grip on you.

Train smart, not just hard.

Keiji Suzuki Vs Naidan Tuvshinbayar