Last week was Rockers Rumble in Colorado, A 5v5 crew battle.  I did not come with a crew and had no intention to compete, but I ran into a few people I knew there and was drafted into their crew.

    The thing was not ready for was how large the floor was.  I had no idea how to get my moves to fill such a large space.  During my round it was almost like I was swimming in an ocean with no clear direction on where to place anything.  The ocean left me confused and stranded, and I think my rounds showed that.  My moves lacked a lot of the clarity that they had on my practice mat at home, and moves that I would only repeat once or twice I repeated more than I can actually remember.  When I tried to do moves near my opponents I got burned, pretty hard too.  I feigned confidence at the end, but who the hell cares about confidence in a round with zero substance?

    I thought a lot about how I could have approached this differently and executed my moves in a way that made sense in that setting and I have come to the conlcusion that I was not used to the space and was shocked into confusion since I had no idea how to approach it.  But I think I’ve found a logical way to approach my difficulty with space.   So today at practice I came up with this:

+--------------------+
|  The Killing Zone  |
+--------------------+
|                    |
|    The Arena       |
|                    |
+--------------------+
|    The Podium   |IB|
+--------------------+

    This diagram is to me the logical way battles can be approached while still maintaining that fight like atmosphere.  For the rest of this blog I will be explaining what kind of movement belongs in each and why I believe that.

The Killing Zone

    This is the place where you must directly address your opponent because you are in the most danger here.  You should always be making eye contact with you opponent here and your moveset is limited to moves that allow you to do that, this effectively limits you to toprock burns, directed blowups, and footwork that directly attacks your opponent (kickouts between your opponents legs or similar stuff.  The other thing about the killing zone is this is where the opponent has the most room to attack you as well.  If you are on the ground doing really technical footwork right in front of your opponent this is a very quick way to get burned or tripped up if your opponent makes a movement to a place you were trying to go.  Like in a fight everything here must be quick and able to react to what your opponent does in response.  Choosing to end a round here effectively limits you to only blow ups or a single quick burn since you must address your opponent with the end of your round.  Also ending a round here also gives your opponent the most leeway as the judges eyes are already closest to your opponent, so any movement they take to capitalize on the empty space in the arena or the podium will pull their attention away from you.

The Arena

    The arena forms the majority of the space in a battle and provides you the most flexibility in your approach.  In the arena you are free to throw most anything, but I believe this should slightly limited to only include directed toprock, technical footwork and power or transitions between zones.

    Im going to first explain why moves that work in the killing zone or at the podium/icebox dont make sense here.  Doing burns in this area doesnt make a lot of sense since you are very far away from your opponent and the judge must then split their attention, which is not something you should allow.  Doing really weirdly emotional rounds in the arena also doesnt make sense either, because at the point where you’ve left the podium and stepped in the the arena you are acknowledging you’r opponents presence within the round, so doing moves that are only about yourself here is werid.

    And now for moves that do make sense here.  First, technical footwork, power, or freeze combos work well here since you have the most room for error.  You’re not going to crash into your opponent, and you can use your technical moves to go between the Killing Zone and the Podium to change the pace of your round.  Yes, moves should generally face your opponent, but if they dont here that’s fine as your opponent has to take a greedy step to approach you that will most likely make them look bad.  If they try to make fun of you from a distance though its still pretty hard for them to steal judges attention since they are focused on you, a distant point from your opponent.  All blowups and power are safe at this distance as well, so long as it faces the right direction.  It’s also very easy to approach the killing zone wtih a well thought out move to close the distance, which could be anything from a roll, to just walking up to them.  Going back to the podium is ok to regroup, but you must return to the arena or killing zone very soon, otherwise the round loses its punch.

The Podium and the Icebox (IB)

    Like in anime when a villain makes some grand speech explaining new powers to the hero the Podium is where you can perform a soliloquy of your own and set the tone for the round.  The podium is the farthest zone from your opponent, and when you are dancing over here you are not addressing your opponent (unless you do some crazy long-range bazooka burn or something, but that’s a tricky tactic).  When you’re ove here the judges on a large floor will literally have to turn their head to see what you are doing over here, so this is where you can perform really expressionest uprock and maybe a little bit of downrock (but nothing substantial).  Here you act things out and get the judges mentally ready for what you are about to throw down in the arena.  Something my crewmate KJ told me was that people like to see “the gears turn”, so this is where that process of kicking thins into motion can begin.   Also travelling all the way from your podium to the killing zone is a strong play as it allows you to say “I’m not gonna talk shit, I’m just gonna take it to ‘em”.

    Moves that dont work here would include power, burns, or any very technical moves that should be used to adresss your opponent.  To me the rationale seems rather obvious, with power you could end up hitting spectators behind you, and anything technical should take place in the center stage where it is easy to change zones and capitalize on transitions between moves.

    Also in the Podium zone is a subarea I like to call the icebox.  The icebox is the furthest point from your opponent on the floor, and being here should quite litterally be a place to “chill out”.  If you’re in this corner you can stop moving for a second, scope out the field then make your entrance with something eyecatching in the arena.  Starting a movement from nothing is almost shocking if it comes suddenly, and thus the icebox can be a powerful place to begin your round.

    No moves should be done from the icebox, just chill there, but you cannot return to the icebox during your round, at the end of your round or during an opponents round.  Returning to the icebox during your round and not moving gives a sense of finality, and your opponent can take over the round after that without any punishment, this is a weak spot to be in.  Also ending a round here is dangerous because your opponent approaches you there is nowhere to go.  Being corenered in a fight never ends well.

Conclusion

    I believe grouping space on a floor in breaking provides an advantageous way to approach battles and allows you to group moves that make sense based on your placement on the floor and vary your approach to battles.  In the future I think that I will come up with new tactics that are rooted in this and explain them here.  I wanted to see how far this strategy can go.