Shoto Kata Time

After watching Alex Gardner clinch the BUCS Dan grade Kata Gold for the third consecutive year with a superb rendition of Unsu, I was inspired to do a little bit of Shoto of my own in my usual stint in the steam room on Monday night at Burleigh Court Gym & Spa in Loughborough. 

Unfortunately Alex was not on my Tatami at BUCS so I missed all five or six of his qualifying kata to get to the final.  He was up against Chris Kawacinsci the brother of Kate Kawacinsci who got Bronze in Kumite in the Cadet/Junior Europeans (see previous reports).  I also missed all of Chris’ elimination katas, other than for his Semi-final bout against Lloyd Birt which I think he won 3-2 to get to the final.

Chris did a cracking rendition of Gankaku in the final against Alex.  The bout could quite easily have gone either way but for my money Alex’s Unsu was the better kata on the day.  The result was 4-1 with the very experienced panel of Euro Kata Judges Peter Bibby, Rab McQueen, Brian Jarvis, Mair Phillips & myself. 

In the steam room I therefore blitzed through Sochin, Gojushiho Sho, Nijushiho, Enpi, Gankaku, Kanku Sho & Unsu like a mad-man.  Steam room Kata or SRK is a technique I use 3-5x per week to give myself a blitz of a work-out in a short time period.  The stress put on the body at the elevated temp and humidity is profound and makes thinking really quite difficult.  I used the technique in preparation for my Euro Kata Exams in June 2012 doing all eight Shitei Kata one after the other in the hot steam & also in June 2013 – doing Unsu, Chatanyara Kushanku, Enpi, Paiku & Anan which were my potential kata for the exam. 

On Monday after being quite pleased with myself for managing to do all seven Shoto ‘Big Gun’ Kata without any mistakes, I then tried to finish with Asai-Ryu kata Roshu and totally bombed out – just could not recall the next moves – Agh! - However, back at room temperature no problem.  Quite a dramatic effect the elevated temperature has on the mind - why, I'm not sure but this does not bode well for the England Football team in Brazil this summer! 

On Sunday I will be going to Brian Jarvis’s KSE7 Champs in Gloucester, followed by Monday night training at James Martin’s Shoto Club in West Bridgford, Nottingham with Sensei Simon Bligh 5th dan WTKO Chair.  Hopefully we will do a bit of Asai-ryu kata to help reinforce those neural pathways for the steam room and maybe England will win the World Cup after all?

BUCS 2014 - A Couple of Kata Gems

A few comments and observations from the BUCS held over the weekend.  This is the most prestigious championships for students in the UK and this year attracted a record entry with 550 competitors.  The Male Dan grade Kata alone attracted 74 entries and the Female Dan Grade Kata 55 entries – an unprecedented entry even with restrictions of only three competitors per institution per event! 

Two unusual events occurred in the kata section, the first involving Team Kata run to WKF Rules and the other the Female Intermediate (Brown Belt) kata not to WKF rules.

The first interesting decision we had to make was in the Bronze final for the Team Kata with thirteen teams competing where Bunkai is a mandatory requirement.  The senior Euro Kata Refs for the Tournament had to be convened to come to a decision on an incident that does not appear to be explicitly stated in the WKF rules and is slightly ambiguous.  This Commission comprised Steve Coupland from England (Chair & Senior Euro Ref), Rab McQueen from Scotland (Euro Ref), Peter Bibby - England (Euro Judge), Brian Jarvis – England (Euro Judge) and myself - England (Euro Judge). 

The incident involved the belt of one of the competitors coming off during the Bunkai performance.

We were each asked in turn what we thought the decision should be based on our understanding of the WKF Rules.  Two of us thought immediate Disqualification and two thought that the belt falling off during Bunkai performance was acceptable and that the Disqualification requirement only related to the kata itself – I will not state here who thought Disqualify and who thought go to Hantei.

We therefore had a 2-2 and at this point decided to look at the exact wording of the WKF Rules. 

The Rules actually state ‘Belt falling off during the performance of kata’ so not exactly explicit.  Is ‘kata’ just the kata itself or the kata and bunkai i.e the whole package?

Again we were asked if this changed our opinion and again we were exactly evenly split 2-2.  Steve as Chair and Chief Referee for the tournament therefore rightly took the casting vote which was to allow the belt to fall off and therefore go to ‘Hantei’ or Decision with flags as normal. 

This the Judging panel duly did and the vote went 5-0 to the team whose belt fell off in the Bunkai – they were by all accounts the much better team performance so perhaps justice had been done.

 BUCS National Karate Championships - Very professionally organised and run, sponsored by Gatorade

The second interesting kata incident involved the Brown Belt Kata where a really good kata performer came up and performed the little-seen at tournaments Shiho Kosokun.  This kata is specific to Shitoryu and is effectively performed in a straight line.  It is a version of Kosokun Dai (Shotokan Kanku Dai & Wado Passai) specifically developed for performance in front of the Emperor of Japan so as not to present the Emperor with the performer’s back.

I myself have done this kata many times but still always have to think hard about which way to do the first Shuto Uke – to the right or to the left.  If you go one way but not the other, the kata does not work at all and you end up facing the wrong way for the Nidan Geri at the climax of the kata.

Well guess what – this competitor clearly had the same problem as me and started off doing the kata.  Sitting in Judge 1 Chair I immediately thought – she’s gone the wrong way but I was not certain until a few moves in when she realised that she was wrong and I also realised that she was definitely wrong.  Credit to her, she did not show it in the performance end kept going to the end where she duly performed a really good Nidan Geri but to the rear.  She subsequently turned and returned to the Yoi position to face the front not giving anything away. 

We were about to go to Hantei and I called the Judges in.  I explained what had happened, that the WKF Rules state that school variations are allowed, that she had probably made a mistake in setting off the wrong way, but that we could not be sure – this may be the way she has been taught the kata – unlikely but possible!  I asked the two rear judges if she showed anything in her face as recognition as she turned at the end and they said not.  We therefore went to Hantei and she clearly won 5-0.

The Brown Belt category she was in allowed repeats but not consecutively.  In other words the competitors could do for example; Bassai, Seienchin, Bassai but not Bassai, Bassai, Seienchin.

The next round this competitor again sailed through – she really was very good.  However, in the next round she chose to guess what………..repeat the Shiho Kosokun.

This time she came out and stormed through it but started the right way this time and ended up doing the Nidan Geri to the front and finishing entirely correctly.

Just as we were about to go to Hantei, I again called the Judges in.  My view was that she should be ‘Binned’ (Disqualified) since she had performed two kata with the same name, from the same school in two completely different ways.  The other Judges were split so we called Steve over and explained the situation to him.  He concurred and regrettably we had to disqualify her - a real shame!  The young lady accepted her ‘fate’ with magnamity – she knew she’d been rumbled but did a real good job at concealing the mistake.

Myself along with Brian Jarvis, Dona Marshall, Penny Williams, Tont Dent, Tracey Archer, Peter Bibby, Ivor Thomas & Nigel Langson

 

This could so easily have been avoided by applying WKF Rules in that no repeats are allowed – after all they are Brown belts and five different kata should not be beyond a brown belt.

Which way is the correct way to start the kata – Shuto to the right or Shuto to the left – I’ll leave you to work that one out……

Reffing a final of the Team Kumite on the Saturday with Peter BibbyJ3

BUCS National Karate Championships

I have just spent a full two days at the British Universities and Colleges or BUCS for short annual National Championships held in Sheffield along with a whole host of other sports.  I was Tatami Manager on Area 3 all weekend with a great team of officials including Tony Dent (Joint TM and my Senior), Ben Brown, Billy Haggerty (he's from Scotland but I'll forgive him that since he is a quality ref), Penny Williams (England) & John Munden (also from Scotland).

We judged a lot of bouts both kata and kumite and a full report will hopefully follow.  Suffice it to say that I am amazed at the lack of understanding of the rules by the competitors which must be entirely down to the coaches.  The WKF Rules are freely available on the net to every competitor and coach yet we as officials see fundamental failings such as multiple bows from competitors in the kata yet this is explicitly stated in the rules as a foul.  I really think that people are not aware of THE RULES for whatever reason.  The snippets of information that we as refs get from EKF (England) Referee's courses and the Euro Briefings at the K1's and European Championships are superb and more coaches should make an effort to attend EKF Refs courses and get the Coaches Badge.  If they cannot, then simple download and read of the rules would be a quantum step forward - as they say Knowledge is Power!

I had the real pleasure of watching Kate Kawacinsci current European u21 Bronze medallist up close in her elimination bouts on Tatami 3 and she stood out from the rest as a real class act.  Her opponent in the Finals did a real good job to spoil her techniques and fought superbly well but was soundly beaten.  The future is certainly bright for young Kate!

England Karate Federation Referees & Judges Course Sunday 16th Feb 2014

On Sunday I attended the above course organised and presented by Dale Gamble EKF chief Referee.  Dale is also BKF British Chief Referee and a World level Referee.

The course was for Refs, Judges, Table Officials and Coaches and was very well attended with myself along with the following other Kofukan officials - Tracey Archer (EKF Referee A, Kata Judge A), Chris Hoyle (prov EKF Judge B) and two of our Table Officials John and Shaun Brundrett.  These two guys have supported Kofukan competitions for many years in their roles as Table Officials and have attended Kofukan International Championships in South Africa, Japan and all over Europe to name but a few. They are both therefore well experienced and I always make a bee-line for one or both of them to work on my Tatami when abroad since I know I can 100% depend on them not to make a cock-up!

 Dale Gamble presents Christian Hoyle with his EKF Judge B Certificate, England Karate Judges Badge & EKF Licence Book

Dale Gamble presents Carl Jorgeson with his EKF Judge A Certificate.

Before the course started Christian Hoyle (my eldest lad) received his award for EKF Kumite Judge B and Carl Jorgeson from Aiwakai for Judge A.  These awards were based on the guys passing the written exam at the end of 2013 plus successful practical at the huge (900+ entries) EKF Kyu Grades Championships at Sheffield’s Pond’s Forge Sports Centre on the 26^th Jan of this year.  Congratulations to both of them.

Dale invited Ivor Thomas and myself to sit on the ‘Top Table’ along with RC member Tony Dent and help field any questions or points raised during the course. Dale took us through a read-through of a number of the articles in the current WKF Rules (v8 2013), often stopping to elaborate on differences between Europe and what we do in the UK for our Championships and various other details not specified in the rules.   I made a note of these but since people pay a fair amount of money to attend these course it would be unfair to present these here in this forum.  However, I will say that Dale stressed the importance of not letting procedural mistakes go through – the bout must be stopped and rewound back to the error.

 Dale leads the Refs and Judges in Referee hand signals

After the theory part was completed, Dale then took the Refs and judges through the correct protocol for Refs signals so that we all appear to have the same form – bit like kata training really – sharp, focussed and repetitive.

It was then the DREADED ‘Exam-Time’ for those renewing qualifications and for the Coaches to attain their EKF Badge.  Sixty questions are presented on a screen, automatically changing after 15 seconds and the coaches have to get 70% correct.  They are all TRUE/FALSE answers using the same format as in the Euro Examinations.  Papers were marked at the start of the Squad Selections and I am pleased to say that all Refs and judges achieved the appropriate pass mark.  The coaches will find out later this week if they have been successful or not.  An EKF Coaches Badge is mandatory for access & movement around the areas at the Nationals in March (29^th & 30^th).

The Referees team then moved downstairs to the hall for commencement of the Squad Selections.  Two areas were used and I was assigned as Tatami Manager on Area 1 and Ivor as TM on Area 2.  EKF Squad Coaches Willie Thomas, Paul Newby & Davin Pack were in attendance along with Mo the Squad Doctor.  Dale divided the refs and judges up equally between the two areas for deployment by the TM’s. 

Female Cadet & Junior Kumite was the first event on my area and I had at my disposal the following thirteen – yes thirteen personnel!  (we’re usually very lucky to have a full complement of four judges at tournaments):

Dave Robinson BKF Referee
Richard Burridge BKF Referee
Ben Brown BKF Referee
Geoff Dixon EKF Ref B prov
Sara Cotton EKF Ref B prov
Graham Mableson EKF Ref A
Brian Graham EKF Ref A
Ashley Peacock EKF Judge A
Dave Johnson EKF Judge A
Colin Broatch EKF Judge A
Denis Robinson EKF Judge B
Amy Coulson EKF Judge A prov
Shaun Brundrett – Table Official

Bearing in mind that there were EKF Squad Selections it was important to try and keep the more experienced officials on the mat whilst still giving the younger less experienced officials the opportunity to test and prove themselves at this level of competition.  This is effectively the highest level competition that any of these guys can get in England other than Bronze Finals and Finals in the WKF-category events at the EKF Nationals & BKF Four Nations.

I therefore adopted the Euro method of Ref deployment used in Lisbon, rather than the simple rotational method we generally use at tournaments.  In this way I could keep the very experienced people like Dave, Richard & Ben on the area in the key roles until I was confident that the panel were ‘pukka’ (which they all were!). The roles used were Ref, Judge 1 to Judge 4, Kansa, Kansa Assistant Aka, Kansa Assistant Ao, and Score Supervisor with Shaun as permanent Table Official.  In this way nine officials would have some involvement with each bout, leaving only three watching from the bench.

The cadet/junior bouts were complicated in that if Cadet fought Cadet, then cadet rules and face masks were used, whereas if cadet fought Junior then Junior rules were used with no face masks and clearly Junior v Junior was Junior rules.

This was great experience for me since I had to be responsible to ensure bouts were officiated as competently as possible - hence the Euro Tatami management regime.  One mistake I did make was in not ensuring that the judges were neutral for each bout – Doh!  However, I am sure that the guys would have indicated if there was a conflict of interest.  I have now amended my TM form to indicate Association/Nationality.

We ended the fighting with three male Junior Kumite bouts.

The only slightly contentious bits were:

1.     Two flags for Ao punch for Yuko missed and a Jogai given since she stepped out of the area after the technique.  One of the officials on the bench tipped me off to this and we had to stop the bout and rewind as per Dale’s briefing earlier.  It is vitally important for Kansa to be on the ball for this.

2.     An almost perfect Chudan Ushiro geri appeared to score to me, but only one judge signalled Wazari with no support.  When questioned it was mentioned that the kick was thought not to have Zanshin so perhaps a good decision – I would love to have seen this again on video!

3.     One fighter in particular scored with three terrific long range Gyaks using 1-2 footwork.  However, all three did not have Zanshin and Dale reminded us that the technique was somewhat leaning so deficient and should not have been scored.

4.     Support of the best-sighted judge was not always forthcoming leading to what I thought were a couple of good scores being missed.  This however comes with experience with this system.

My one regret and also Ivor’s was that as TM’s we both did not get to judge or referee even one bout.  Come back Peter and Vince as TM’s!

At the end of the Selections, Dale briefed the fighters and EKF Coaches with his main findings after observing the afternoon’s proceedings for such things as the leaning on Gyaks and importance of maintaining Zanshin.

We then re-convened upstairs for a ten minute debrief of the officials and review of the up and coming calendar of events.  Advice on the correct signal for Yame was demonstrated, the need to watch Ref positioning (eg in front of Kansa), attempted throws and Cat1/Cat2 differentiation and bowing protocol for competitors – quick nods of the head were observed and this is not good etiquette.

The next course is March 16^th in St Albans.  Put the date in your diaries – these are good courses to get valuable top-level experience and top tuition from a World Referee.

European Karate Championships for Cadets, Juniors & U21yrs - Day 3 Sunday Team Kata & U21 Kumite

Team Kata (Cadet/Junior)

The morning’s short briefing stressed that slapping of the arms observed in Gojushiho Sho the previous day is not karate and that we must all use the four criteria so that we are all doing the same job.

We started T4 with Male Team Kata and with Team England in the first round (Numan Nasim, Dahni Maisuria and Connor Hewitt) against Slovakia.  England performed Enpi kata which although being sharper and having more fighting spirit than their opponents suffered from a bit too much ‘stampiness’  for my liking (if that’s a proper word) which is used to synchronise and also to give the impression of power.  England went out 4-1. 

I then came on as judge 4 for the next round which went 5-0 – I think this was Uechi Sanseiru from Croatia but not absolutely sure.  We were then into the repechage territory, where I was picked as Judge 2 for the Bronze Final Croatia with Kanku Sho against a very good Suparimpei from Slovakia.  Both teams performed Bunkai but Croatia were disqualified for not completing the bow outside of the tatami before starting the kata.  This was a technicality but had been stressed in the Refs and coaches meeting on the Friday night – a hard lesson for the Croatians and highlighted the need for coaches to be exactly up to date with the application of the rules.

This concluded the kata for me and I then moved over to Tatami 1 for the Kumite, once again alongside Dale, but where the Female Team Kata was still ongoing. 

I therefore got the opportunity to watch up close the Female England Kata Team of Natalie Payne, Melissa Williamson and Abbie Cook.  I did not see them in the first round with Nipaipo against Italy where they went out but then they came back in the repechage against Ukraine which they won 4-1 with a very good Anan.  This took them to the Bronze Final against France.  England Did Paiku and the French did Gankaku, both with Bunkai.  The decision went to the French 4-1.  I missed the England Paiku performance and only saw the Bunkai which was very impressive.  My colleagues all confirmed that the French kata performance was better and deserving of the Bronze medal.

For the kumite we were reminded that since this was Day 3 then we had to stay at the top of our game since any tiredness can lead to an increased incidence of protests.  It was also stressed that contact still needs to be skin touch and not impact.  We were also reminded of the importance of the role of Kansa and the duration of two seconds only for holding.

T1 started with -60kg u21’s and I judged Bouts 3 & 4 which in contrast to the previous days scrappy affairs were clean fights with good clear points scored.

We then did Male -68kg where I did Score Supervisor for six bouts followed by two semi final bouts as J3 which were very tight one of which involved Garin Marvin of France – a very strong capable fighter.  Unfortunately, this fight was littered with penalties and he was eventually disqualified for Mubobi Cat2.

A special mention here to England’s third Bronze Medallist of the Tournament Kate Kawacinski.  I witnessed Kate in two of her fights including the Bronze Final and she looked a class act totally dominating her opponents -  a true credit to her coaches Willie Thomas and Paul Newby.

During a lull before the finals I opened my wallet and added two books to my collection – Taiji Kase’s Kata Superieur Shotokan Ryu at €43 and Hidetoshi Nakahashi’s Tradition Shito-Ryu Karate Do at €46.5, plus a really good white tournament Polo Shirt at €16 – Ace!

This just left the finals and then the final Referees debrief with the full Euro Commission where we were thanked for our efforts over the last three days.  The President of the Portuguese Karate Federations also made a special effort to come and thank us and leave us all with a gift of a bottle of Tawny Port which was much appreciated. 

The RC then presented awards to the long serving members of the Euro Refs Team one of which was an award for over 20 years’ service to England’s Billy Brennan.  The applause that he got from the entire Euro Ref Team was almost deafening and he himself admitted he had a tear in his eye as he collected his gold pin badge from Primoz Debenak the Euro Chief Referee.  This fantastic reception bodes well for his potential election to the Referee Commission at the Senior European Championships in Finland in May.

We then managed to at last get our act together and take the obligatory Team Photos by the tournament banner.  We even allowed team Scotland to make a guest appearance on some of the photos despite Scotland's push for dissolution of the British Isles.  Perhaps next year it may only be Team England, Wales and N.Ireland – who knows?

Steve Coupland, Peter Bibby, Paul Gunn, Me, Dale Gamble, Billy Brennan, Brian Jarvis, Nigel Blood

 

 

 Steve Coupland, Peter Bibby, Paul Gunn, Brian Jarvis, Grant Bonnar, Rab McQueen,  Billy Brennan, Dale Gamble, Nigel Blood, Me

We then braved the miserable cold wet Lisbon weather to venture into the Chiado district of Lisbon.  After drifting aimlessly around in the pouring rain for a while we struck lucky and found a superb traditional Portuguese restaurant – The Alfaia whose staff looked after eight manic Englishmen and two Scotsmen admirably.  What an evening!

 

 

The following day (Monday) a number of the guys all caught early morning planes – quite how I’m still not sure, leaving myself and Steve to take in the delights of Lisbon – Castilo de Sao Jorge and the city Centre.



With our flight back to Stansted and the best part of a two hour drive back home, so ended my sojurn to Lisbon.  Across the three days, I had judged sixteen kata bouts without being in the minority a single time including two Bronze Finals, judged fitteen Kumite bouts, Score Supervisor nine times and Kansa Assistant six times – Marvellous - some of us are easily pleased!

41st European Cadet, Junior & u21 Karate Championships - Day 2 Saturday – Juniors (16/17)

Reporting back again to T4 for Junior Kata and a rotation of the Tatami Managers panel.

It was stressed that ALL competitors are EQUAL and all have the same chance of winning Gold.  We were also asked us to raise our hands if our country was competing and we had been selected in error.  WKF Rules expressly forbid officials having the same nationality as any of the competitors in that bout.

I was selected for Bouts 3 & 4 as Judge 2.  This was Enpi v Kanku Sho which went 2-3 and a German Gojushiho Sho v Paiku which went 0-5.  Paiku is a Ryuei ryu kata originally developed by the Nakano family in Okinawa which is starting to make an appearance in international competitions, not quite so much back in England.  It culminates in a nice Yoko Geri followed by takedown of the opponent to the floor and three finishing techniques two punches and a Shotei (palm heel) strike. One of my favourite kata since I first did this with Shihan Tomiyama in 2001.

Next up as Judge 4 with Portuguese Annan v Kosokun Sho (1-4) and Gojushiho Sho v Unsu (4-1) followed by Judge 1 with Russian Nipaipo v German Gojushiho Dai (5-0) and Spain Annan v Belarus  Chatanyara Kushanku (also 5-0).  This completed my involvement in the Junior Kata 16-17yr judging and the repechage for the event then followed with Kanku Sho v Gojushiho Sho (5-0) followed by Unsu v Kosokun Dai (4-1).  Shito ryu Kosokun Dai is not a kata that I would normally expect a competitor to perform as their fourth kata in a European kata tournament but having said this, it was a very capable performance but not good enough to overcome an accomplished Unsu.

Fortunately, I was not finished with kata judging and was selected as Judge 3 in the Repechage for the Under 21 Male Kata.  The previous day saw the Under 21 Female Kata completed and Saturday was the turn for the males in the same category.  Unfortunately, I did not see our English competitor on the Friday Aimee Sell compete but she surprisingly went out in the first round on a 3-2 result with no comeback in the repechage - a real shame for Aimee who is a very capable English competitor and definitely one for the future.

 The first round of repechage pitched a Gojushiho Dai v Suparimpei followed by Anan v Gankaku (2-3) and this completed my kata judging for Saturday.

So again another good Kata day with a further six bouts judged and no decisions against.

For Kumite I was back to Area 1 alongside Dale again and again I did better than expected in terms of bouts officiated.

The briefing emphasised the need to be careful again with contact – Juniors 16/17yrs are not allowed to make any contact with punches to the head.  Also, to look for the positives i.e. points and not penalties and again allow only two seconds for holding then Yame.

The first event was the -61kg Male Jnr Kumite with an English competitor involved which again would restrict my involvement – in fact I managed two bouts plus two bouts as Kansa Assistant  checking Gi’s and protective equipment.  All equipment used in European & World tournaments must be WKF homologated, be in pristine condition and be WKF date stamped 2012-2015.  If not it cannot be used.

The second event on Tatami 1 was the -53kg Female Kumite and in this category I did not get on the mat at all but four bouts of Kansa Assistant and 1 bout (the pool final) as scorekeeper.  Scorekeeping is a vital task at this level since mistakes do occur and if not on the ball this can easily escalate to a serious incident if a score is missed. 

Back to the males – this time -76kg where I was involved in two scrappy bouts with lots of holding which made it very difficult for the panel to judge especially given the earlier briefing about looking for positives and not penalties.

I was then fortunate to get an excellent Repechage bout for females between Italy and France with a good level of scores ending 6-5 to the Italian and a superb Jodan Ura Mawash for Ippon (3 points).

In the debrief, we were again reminded about the importance of looking for Mubobi rather than the more obvious Cat1 for contact and also in the last ten seconds to show the level for the Cat2 signal to avoid any confusion over what it is for.  In the last ten seconds Attoshibaraku, the penalties for any time wasting eg stepping out of the area, holding, grabbing & passivity escalate to Hansoku Chui whereas those for eg mubobi, uncontrolled techniques do not hence the importance of differentiating between the offences.

The finals then followed with Peter Bibby having been selected as lead Judge 1 for one of the Kata finals (Gankaku v Suparimpei) and Steve Coupland also selected for two Kumite Finals – a terrific performance from both Peter & Steve.

 Peter Bibby - Chief Judge Kata Final

Back to the hotel for a quick freshen up and then off to Restaurant Republica for our evening meal and well deserved cerveja.

41st Euros - Competition Day 1 Friday 7th Feb – Cadets 14/15 years

Day 1 started for me with Female Cadet (14-15yrs) Kata.  I was picked to judge the third and fourth bouts as Judge 1 (lead Judge), both of which were fairly straight forward affairs to adjudicate.  The first was Gojushiho Sho v Kanku Sho which went 0-5 and then Suparimpei v Kanku Sho which went 4-1 to Spain.   

A Cadet competitor from England was on my area, which meant that I could not be involved in any bouts that might affect her either her main bouts or even the bouts in the same half of the draw since this could affect the repechage.  England came out and performed Chatanyara Kushanku against a Spanish Paiku.  The Hikite effect here on the Shutos (mentioned in the Ref briefing) was noticeable along with fairly noisy breathing and England was soundly beaten 5-0.   The English competitor came back in on the repechage against a Turkish opponent and she performed Anan which to my mind was again a little too noisy, not as sharp as her opponent and also used heel lift on the Shotei Uchi to try to create a powerful effect.  However, I did think that she was a good deal stronger than her opponent who took the decision 3-2 despite two minor losses of balance.  Overall a sound platform from young Team England on which to progress.

The morning ended with selection for the second Bronze Final with Bunkai which comfortably went 5-0. 

The key thing in judging these bouts is to use the WKF Criteria – Conformance, Technical Performance, Athletic Performance and Degree of Difficulty and the sub-criteria within to determine who complies with the criteria the best.  The criteria have changed in 2013 and possibly some coaches and competitors are not aware what we are looking for when judging kata – certainly this is the case in England.  All went well for me and I got to judge six bouts before the categories ended which all went the right way for me i.e. no 3-2’s or more importantly 4-1’s against which indicates that you are possibly out of kilter with your refereeing colleagues. 

At this level and also at the Senior Europeans, the difference between winning and going out can be as subtle as a minor momentary loss of balance so it is vital that coaches and competitor work on the tiny details.

This completed the Kata section and I then moved across to Tatami 1 for commencement of the Cadet (14-15yrs) Kumite.  I had been assigned to this tatami along with England Chief Referee Dale Gamble so I assumed that I would have few bouts to judge as the relative new boy on the block.  However, much to my delight, I was involved in six bouts plus scorekeeping on 2 bouts, which was much better than I anticipated.  The debriefing highlighted that Mubobi was missed on a number of occasions by the panel and also the difficulty of punches touching the face mask which by definition must be a penalty.  This is a really difficult area for officials to judge when under formal assessment since what seems like a perfect point from one angle can been seen to have hit the face mask from another angle.  To add to this is the difficulty of competitors giving the impression that the facemask has been touched by adjusting the mask on any return to the line, even if the punch was correct distance - a very difficult area to judge.

Dale was selected to officiate in two of the finals that evening which was a good fillip to the refereeing team, given the high standard of the officials on duty.

So concluded a most enjoyable day boosted by the news of two England Kumite Cadet Bronze Medals from Cadets Thorpe Mitchell and Francesca Hardcastle.

 

The 41st European Karate Championships for Cadets, Juniors & u21 Competitors Lisbon 2014

Last weekend I had the great fortune of attending the 41^st European Karate Federation Tournament for Cadets (14-15yrs), Juniors (16-17) and under 21’s held in Lisbon, Portugal.  This is the first time I have officiated at this particular tournament since becoming eligible through Euro qualification in June 2012.  The tournament was superbly organised and held over three days – Friday 7^th, Saturday 8^th and Sunday 9^th Feb 2014.  I attended as part of a Team England contingent led by Dale Gamble (England Chief Referee), Billy Brennan, Steve Coupland, Peter Bibby, Brian Jarvis, Paul Gunn and Nigel Blood.  We also met up with Scotish Referees Grant Bonar and Rab McQueen, Welsh Ref Jason Ashcroft, Northern Ireland Ref Violet Brown & Irish Ref Mike Hogan together with a whole host of European & World officials both new to me and familiar.

 

We arrived on Thursday, myself and Steve Coupland flying from Stansted by Ryanair whom we were both pleasantly surprised with.  They have significantly upped the ante in terms of passenger service and were a pleasure to fly with.  We met up with Billy, Brian, Paul and Nigel at Lisbon airport and transferred to the VIP Executive Arts Hotel just a ten minute walk from the very impressive MEO Arena in the Oriente Business district of Lisbon.

After checking in to the hotel we congregated in Steve’s and my hotel room to go through the Referee’s questions paper – 220 questions of varying difficulty with no published answers.  Steve was having to sit the exams for both kumite and kata which has to be done every two years.  After debating the answers to five difficult questions for what seemed an eternity, we retreated to The Fifty’s American Diner for a burger feed to give our brains some well-deserved nourishment at a very reasonable price.

Steve then departed for his exams at the headquarters hotel and the rest of us joined up with Dale and Peter flying in from Manchester.  After changing into officials gear we then joined Steve for the Referees meeting.  This time it was a joint briefing with the coaches as well and was well delivered by the EKF Referees Commission.

The briefing covered off in detail the requirements of the competition, one of which was the total ban on use of mobile phones any-where near the tatami’s by the officials.  One of the main points stressed was to allow only two seconds for any grabbing but followed by a further two seconds to allow a score to be made if the throw was successful.  In Kata one of the key points was the importance of correct Hikite or pull back of the fist.  All too many competitors hit themselves with the returning arm to try to demonstrate power in the technique.  This is always easily spotted by the referees but is all too prevalent often even at this level.

Tatami’s and Tatami Managers/Assistant TM’s were allocated – I was Tatami 4 for Kata and Tatami 1 for Kumite.

It was then off to a traditional Portuguese Restaurant for evening meal along with Team Scots Refs Grant & Rab followed by retirement for the evening.

Welcome - about this site

Welcome to the Diary of a Karate Referee.  My name is Gary Hoyle and I am a fifth dan black belt in Tani Ha Shito ryu karate with Shihan Tomiyama’s Kofukan International organisation.  I am also a third dan in Shotokan karate having passed this grade way back in 1989 with the legendary late JKA masters Sensei Kase and Enoeda and have been involved in karate since I started back in 1974.

I initially got interested in refereeing back in the eighties, encouraged by the late Sensei Derek Langham of the KUGB.  I passed my KUGB Judges Badge with Sensei Andy Sherry in traditional Shobu Ippon format and then promptly departed to Australia for nearly three years with my work.

I returned to England in 1994 and started training in Shito ryu with Sensei Tomiyama who came over to Rayne David’s Loughborough Kofukan Club each week to train us.  I also restarted my officiating career, but this time in the WKF style tournament karate recognised by the International Olympic Commission (IOC). 

Inspired by both Rayne, a British Referee and Steve Coupland 6^th dan a European Karate Federation Judge at the time I started on the long road to my European badge, progressing first as an EKF English Karate Federation Kumite Judge then on to Referee, and also Kata Judge under the watchful eye of Terry Pottage who was at the time the England Chief Referee then on to BKF British Referee.  I passed both kumite and kata qualifications with Terry who must have recognised a little bit of potential in me.

When Dale Gamble took over the role of EKF Chief Referee I was encouraged to try for European qualification and in 2012 I qualified as a double European Kata and Kumite Judge B and then in 2013 I managed to pass my Kata A badge with renditions of Shito ryu Chatanyara Kusanku and Shotokan Unsu in front of the Euro Refereeing Commission panel.

Although, very much a junior on the European circuit I have set up this blog to try and help others on the journey to Euro qualification whilst at the same time hopefully continuing to progress my Euro career on to Kumite Judge A then on to Ref B and Ref A status.  If I can provide a few snippets of information that might help others progress then this Blog will have been successful.  If not then at least it will remain as a diary of not only my refereeing activities but also my karate training.  The blog may also be helpful to both competitors and coaches since tweaks in the interpretation of the rules are ongoing and these are briefed out at the European and World events by the EKF & WKF Referee Commissions.

If you have clicked on this blog then you have at least shown the first step in pursuing a Referee career which is to have an open mind – Good Luck OSU!

 

Japan 2009 with Goju Sensei Shimizu and the late Goju Sensei Fujimoto both from Doshisha University, Kyoto, Japan.  Sensei Hiroshi Fujimoto is Shihan Tomiyama's Sensei.

 

Loughborough Kofukan Karate Club Sept 2013 with Shihan Keiji Tomiyama 8th dan Shito ryu, 6th dan Goju ryu, front row 3rd from left and centre guest from Doshisha Uni Takashi Mizuno