Kick it like Gruber
Created: 12/13/2022, 6:00 p.m
By: Sabine Fleischer
Masterful fight: Benedikt Gruber (left) becomes German champion in K1 full contact kickboxing with the support of his trainer Ibrahim Karakoc.
The athlete has thus qualified for next year's World Championships in Munich.
© FKN
Landsberg – A Landsberger is German champion in kickboxing.
With full body contact and mental strength, Benedikt Gruber recently won this title at an international boxing event in Heilbronn.
Discipline, hard training and the coaching assistance helped the Landsberger to bring another champion belt home.
Gruber is a passionate kickboxer, but only discovered this sport at the age of 18.
Despite the late appointment, the first successes in the amateur field came quickly.
As early as 2015, the current student teacher in sports and English became South German champion in K-1 kickboxing, followed in the same year by the German championship title;
In 2016 he became world champion K-1 Light.
His next goal: German champion K-1 full contact at the German Open 2022 of the International Sport Kickboxing Association ISKA in Heilbronn.
With only a month of preparation time, he whipped his body into shape.
“I wanted to compete in the under 75 kg weight class and I still had two kg too much.
You just have to have your goal in mind and run into training every day, whether you feel like it or not," Gruber describes his intensive training time.
The diet was adjusted, there were no sweets, gyms in the area became a permanent place of residence.
When he wasn't "pushed to the limit in pad training" there, he was employed as a trainer at the "Kickbxn Landsberg" combat school, which also teaches K-1.
Potpourri K-1 boxes
K-1 is not a separate martial art, but combines techniques from boxing, karate, taekwondo, kickboxing and many other martial arts.
The letter 'K' stands for this, the number '1' is based on Formula 1.
K-1 matches in Tournament mode are set to three rounds of three minutes each, with the possibility of extension up to five rounds.
This relatively small number of rounds is due to the tournament rules, which are based on the principle of elimination, so that a fighter must complete up to three fights in one evening.
In addition to classic punches and kicks, the use of knee strikes and kicks against the opponent's legs (low kicks) are also permitted.
In front of a full audience, Gruber and trainer Ibrahim Karakoc waited for his first fight in Heilbronn.
"You step into the ring and have to be ready, the hard training of the last few weeks must have been worth it and there is only one goal in mind, the opponent doesn't really matter" was the motto now.
The first fight went according to plan, and the man from Landsberg had “tremendous respect” for the second opponent.
The motivation of his trainers helped here: "He just looks angry, but he can't do anything!
You're better!” Then the battle began: land action, seek distance again, work technically clean.
In the end, the opponent didn't stand a chance.
The second fight was won, Gruper in the final.
Technically clean
The last competitor was already waiting in the ring, a "nice guy".
We congratulated each other on having come this far.
"In the end it's just sport," Gruber put the necessary aggression in the fights into perspective.
But in the ring there was little sympathy again, you shouldn't give anything away.
And so it became a fast, hard, technically good exchange of body shots with foot, knee and fist.
The kickboxer from Landsberg was always a kick ahead.
He simply ignored his pain - a previously broken nose and bruised ribs - and gave everything.
Because it shouldn't be just "a tight decision", according to the orders of coach Karakoc.
When the bell finally rang for the last round after "infinite three minutes", Gruber was sure of his victory: the title of German champion in K1 full contact kickboxing goes to Landsberg.
