“A 2 or 3-minute Karate Fight Is as Demanding as an 800-meters Race”

Champion of the world, champion of Europe and champion of France in karate combat (kumite), the Marseillaise girl Laurence Fischer has won everything on the tatamis of karate. In Finland, at thirty-two years of age, she is fighting her last world championship. Afterwards, this future graduate of the ESSEC business school will join the “labour market. Another contest”, says she. Before the World championships, she deciphers for us this martial art that appeared at the beginning of the XVIIth century in Japan - when the use arms was prohibited - and which means “the art of the empty hand”.

Two parallel worlds

Karate competitions are divided into two categories : the kumite, or fights, and the kata, i.e. the technical expression. A kata is a succession of movements of karate always carried out in the same way that condense the techniques transmitted by the Masters. Two “different worlds that communicate”, explains Laurence Fischer : “I cannot imagine myself on a tatami competing in katas. It would be a catastrophe. The kumite requires much more tonicity, flexibility and lightness. In kata, one must be well anchored to the ground, much heavier in fact. They turn, they jump, they are solid. When we try to do katas, it is almost funny, everything shakes… The practitioners of katas have different body structure ; they are much shorter and stockier, more powerful and more stable because they have a much lower centre of gravity. ”

As in football, each country has its little tricks and its funny habits, explains the individual world champion (1998) and current European champion since last May.

Laurence Fischer : “Strategy in karate is increasingly important, we even have specific training sessions on this topic. In fact, adjusting our tactics to each situation is quite a task. One works differently depending on the nationalities we are fighting against. One knows for example that the Spaniards will use attacking tactics, the English too. It is a little bit like in football, as if each country had its specific “genetic code”. Apart from this strategic aspect, physical shape counts enormously. In terms of effort, a kumite (two minutes for the women, three for the men) is a little like a 800-meters race in athletics. Except that one has gaps in the contest. Physically, we therefore do a lot of training on the athletics track.”

Stop your theatricals

In combat, only blows above the belt are authorized, and only those blows that touch the opponent but are controlled are accepted by the referee. That is the rule. “Then," Laurence Fischer adds, "tactics and cunning also form part of the panoply of the combatant. Certain karate experts practice a lot of play-acting ; they will throw themselves into an attack, in order to take a blow in the hope that the referee will penalise the attacker, and therefore award a point. Others try to make believe that they are no longer in the combat to force their opponent to relax their guard in order to take him by surprise. But these are attitudes that one sees in every sport that imposes duels.”

Nothing to gain, always winning

Refused entry last year just into the 2012 London Olympics, karate, like squash, is losing hope of integrating into the “Olympic family” and remains in the shadow of judo and taekwondo, which now have Olympic status. A regret for Laurence Fischer : “Legitimately, karate should be part of the Olympic Games. It would help us to be recognised, to get more support and then at least we would be talked about every four years ! Alas, attaining Olympic status takes a lot of politicking ! Taekwondo relied on the influence of some of its leaders to be admitted at the Olympic Games of Seoul in 1988. In spite of everything, there is within French karate a true winning culture ; we have always won medals in the great international championships. In a certain way, this creates role models among the young people. And then, there is a lot of creative thinking amongst the leadership, our training methods are flexible. We are not professionals, we do not earn money, but in our mind, we are strong and serene. ”

Frederic Sugnot