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Tactics VI
by Woody Long, Author of Martial Mind For Martial Artists
(For more information on Woody Long and where to find Martial Mind for All, please click on the above banner.)
The crowd a dull roar in the background, a cold breeze blows silently across the ring. Where the wind blows, the clouds follow, where the cold fury order is given, the action follows. In an empty, Zen-like mind state, there is no emotion but cold fury, and there is no thought but moving into techniques to weaken and crack the opponent until he is down or out. The bell rings, the wind blows, the fight actions are executed, the opponent is weakened, and the opponent is cracked. Cracks add up, the opponent goes down or out, and the combat sports fighter snorts contentedly, saying checkmate. These are the tactical basics of all combat sports, including mixed martial arts, kickboxing, boxing, and all other sparring sports.
I was playing a slow game of chess with a friend a couple of years ago, and I got to thinking. This game of chess is a lot like combat sports. Here I am on a mission, with one desire on my mind, to defeat my opponent, to weaken him, and to crack him with checks that lead to one thing and one thing only, crushing him into a checkmate. In the combat sport of boxing, the checkmate is the opponent down by KO or TKO, or the opponent out, meaning throws in the towel. So the boxer declares checkmate when the opponent is either down or out. What if we could build a complete combat sports chessboard which would describe all the fundamental fight actions available to combat sports fighters to achieve a checkmate? Well, a year later, using US combat tactics applicable to combat sports as my guide, I was able to build what I call the Long Tactical Chessboard.
It works like this. The goal, the mission, of course is to achieve a checkmate, down or out. To get it, the opponent is put into “checks,” or a cracked state, meaning a major disruption is caused, relative to the rules of the combat sport. In order to close to cause a cracked opponent, the opponent must first be shaped into a weakened state. So combat sports are very similar to chess in this general tactical way. As we have seen before, techniques are used to either shape the opponent into a weakened state, or close on the opponent to cause major disruption, called a cracked opponent. This is based on the fundamental rule of combat: “stacked cracks cause the checkmate.” So a weakened opponent (via shaping), leads to checks (via closing), which lead to the checkmate and victory.
Let’s take the simplest example of a boxer who knows only four techniques: the jab, reverse, hook, and uppercut. We set up his opponent as the white king, and the boxer as the black king, signifying the black-belted, total-range master of the mountain, the mixed martial artist. Tactically the boxer knows he will move into these four techniques on personal order (the wind blows) to either shape the opponent into a weakened state, or close on the opponent for major disruption or “checks,” until he achieves the checkmate. And he knows he will shape and close either in an offensive operation against a backed off opponent, or a defensive operation against an incoming opponent. So to represent these four fight actions we need four chess pieces.
 The rook, being a castle, makes a good symbol for defensive operations against incoming opponents. So one black rook represents defensive shaping to weaken the incoming opponent. And the other black rook represents defensive closing to crack the incoming opponent into a check (cracked state).
The knight, being a horse (riding out of the castle), makes a good symbol for offensive operations on backed off opponents. So one black knight represents offensive shaping to weaken the backed off opponent, and the other black knight represents offensive closing to crack the backed off opponent into a check (cracked state).
There are only three types of fight actions possible in combat sports: defensive operations, offensive operations, and retrograde operations, where you move away from the opponent to avoid or regroup. In other words the combat sports fighter is either fighting the incoming opponent, fighting the backed off opponent, or retrograding to avoid or regroup. So to complete the Long Tactical Chessboard, the black bishop represents retrograding.
And so we get the complete twelve piece Long Tactical Chessboard. For fans it makes combat sports very interesting to watch. Just as in chess, the fan watches the boxer try to shape the opponent into checks, or major disruptions, and then stack these checks for a checkmate. If a check (significant disruptive physical damage or weakness) is caused, the fan watches for what the boxer does next. Does he quickly "exploit" the crack and close hard, or did he miss this key point, and slow the pace. If the cracked opponent starts retrograding away to regroup or avoid, does he quickly "pursue" and close hard for another check, or does he allow the opponent to reset. It is also interesting to watch how the boxer shapes the opponent into a weakened position, for the close into a check or even directly into checkmate.
For the combat sports fighter the Long Tactical Chessboard is useful for designing game plans and studying the strengths and weaknesses of opponents. And if it is memorized, in an instant the wind will blow and the desired technique will be executed, for the desired effect. So the LTC's my claim to fame and its my mission to make it a teaching tool of every martial art school. Look for Tactics VII in next month's IronLife Online Magazine.
Note about the author: Woody Long has studied combat tai chi and US combat tactics since 1987. This article was adapted from his book, Martial Mind For Martial Artists.
IronLife Articles by Woody Long
On Combat Sports and Combat Tactics
Tactics II
Tactics III
Tactics IV
Tactics V
* Article by Woody Long, Author of Martial Mind For Martial Artists.
* Back to This Issue's Frontpage
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