All Change at Hitchin

On Sunday 30^th November 2014, I journeyed to Hitchin in Hertfordshire to attend an EKF Referees Kata Course covering all the new WKF version 9 Rule changes.

The course itself was good consisting of a read-through and explanation of all the new WKF Kata & Kumite v9 rule changes coming into force Jan 1^st 2015.  The drive there was a pain – further than I thought and heading in to a low level autumn sun. 

The course was well attended and presented by Dale Gamble EKF Chief Referee (World Kumite Ref A, Euro Kata Judge A) with the assistance of Peter Bibby EKF Referee Commission Secretary (Euro Kumite Ref B, Kata Judge A).

World/Euro refs present included Steve Coupland (Euro Kumite Ref A, Kata Judge A) Ivor Thomas (Kumite Ref B), Tony Dent (Kumite Judge A, Kata Judge A), Brian Jarvis (Kumite Judge A, Kata Judge A), Nigel Blood (Kumite Judge A) & myself (Kumite Judge A, Kata Judge A).  Billy Brennan (World (Kumite Ref A, Kata Judge A) & Brian Noble (World Kumite Ref A, Euro Kata Judge A) joined us for the Kumite bit.

We started on the kata rule changes which are quite profound – a big turn-around in terms of bowing before and after the kata and the reversion back to styles and the new kata list - all of which are welcome initiatives certainly from my perspective.  If a competitor fails to bow now at the start and end of the kata then they will be disqualified!

One point clarified was that of bowing at the completion of the kata in Team Kata finals.  This is not needed – only the bow at the end of the Bunkai to stop the clock.

We all should know that a kata begins and ends with a bow so I and many others found it really difficult not to bow before the kata and at the end under v8 WKF rules - it is almost second nature to bow.

Uechi Sanseiryu now permitted (totally different to Goju & Shito Sanseiru)- This is an excellent version performed in the final of the Okinawa World Karatedo Tournament 2009, Budokan, Okinawa - From Karate by Jesse on Youtube

The kata list containing some 90+ kata is also a great idea. However, I am very surprised that no Asai ryu kata feature or even kata from Gensei ryu to which I was recently exposed to in Denmark (See Kaizen report).  Uechi ryu (Kanchin, Kanshu, Seichin, Seirui, Sanseiryu) and Kyokushinkai (Garyu) kata feature.  Also Ryuei ryu kata Ohan & Anan Dai the latter of which none of my fellow Euro Kata Officials nor I were aware of.  I have also not be able to find out much, if any actual detail on Ohan other than the mention of the name in discussions on the web.  If anyone knows and books and/or videos featuring this kata please let me know.

The reversion back to styles (Ryu-Ha) is also a good initiative and together with the kata list will mean that some of the more flamboyant moves in kata will be eliminated since kata judges will be once again focussing on the style detail as taught by bona fide ryu-ha instructors. 

One more terrific initiative is the making slapping the gi with the Hikite (returning hand or fist) a foul resulting in the score for technical performance being reduced to zero.  Now the English competitors have done this for a long-long time, presumably in the mistaken belief that it increases the perception of power.  Now us kata judges have been around the block a few times so for someone in the twenties to hit themselves repeatedly does not go unnoticed.  The only problem has been that many of the competitors in England do it – along with the heavy apple-eating, dog-barking breathing style and we judges were effectively powerless to do anything about it.  Quite often the person doing the slapping and heavy breathing was the much better performer so they went through – result; all the other competitors copy it.  Now though they will lose 33% of their marks for slapping! It is only then when they get to Europe that they come a cropper.  Perhaps now we will see a transformation in England to silent kata as exemplified by the Japanese – Marvellous!!!!

At the course we were due to do kata practical so all officials had their gi’s with them. However, the room was unfortunately considered to be too small to accommodate all of us so we elected to review the Kumite rules – I was disappointed since even the old fat blokes (& gals) in the corner like to dust down their gi’s every now and again - Strange but True!

So in Kumite, changes include the elimination of the two handed grab – this is now only allowed if the competitor catches a kicking leg and immediately attempts a takedown.  Even the person being thrown or swept can no longer hold on without being warned or penalised with a Cat2.  It will be interesting to see how this rule is to be applied at the Euro Refs briefings since previously it was ok to hang on as the throw is being actioned – an instinctive self-defence mechanism, but then the hanger-on had to release grip immediately on hitting the floor or a Cat 2 would be given to the hanger-on.

Two handed grabs and throws no longer accepted & to be warned or penalised - as shown here by Rafael Aghayev of Azerbaijan. Photo from Rafael Aghayev FacebookFanPage.

The other big change is that only the referee will indicate Cat 1 & Cat 2 offences (except Jogai which is the judges responsibility).  This system was operated at the Dutch Open in 2014 and I did like it.  The referee has now moved back from being a mere conductor to having much more responsibility so has to be on the ball for offences, leaving the points to the judges.

My next big tournament is the Karate1 Premier League in Paris, France over the weekend of the 24/25^th Jan 2015.  I am really looking forward to this to see how the new rules will be implemented.  I, along with Dale, Billie, Brian and Paul Gunn (Euro Kumite Judge B) will be in attendance on the Friday and most of the Saturday.  We then dash back to Blighty for the EKF Kyu Grades on the Sunday – a hectic weekend.  This is closely followed by the European Juniors/Cadets & u21’s in Zurich, Switzerland Feb 6/8 and then the Karate1 Premier League in Almere, Holland Feb 14/15.  A very busy three weeks. 

Federation of European Wadokai – European Championships – Reading, England 2014

On the weekend of Sat 1^st & 2^nd November, I had the pleasure of being invited to the Federation of European Wadokai European Championships held at the Rivermead Leisure Centre on the banks of the river Thames in Reading.  Some twenty five years ago I used to instruct at Reading Shotokan Karate Club (KUGB, now JKA-England) on Thursday evenings at this centre so it was a real pleasure to return to my old hunting ground. 



Officials at the FEW European Wadokai Championships 2014



I, along with fellow European officials Steve Coupland, Tony Dent, Ivor Thomas, Brian Jarvis, Nigel Blood, Dona Marshall plus top British officials Dave Robinson & Tracey Archer together with top English officials Rob Lambe, Sara Cotton & Phil Whyte were invited by Chief Referee Vince Parker on behalf of Sensei Sakagami 8^th dan, Peter May and the FEW.  We were joined by FEW officials Mauricio Sai (Euro Ref -Italy), Violet Brown (Euro Judge - Ireland), Siobhan Lecky (Ireland Ref), Mark Symmonds (British Ref – Eng), Csaba Bistrony (Ref – Hungary) Mick Ryde (Eng Judge), Sue Ryde (Eng Judge) and a number of other Wado officials from various European countries.



Saturday was the elimination day for the championship and kicked off as usual with kata across four areas.  I was assigned to Tatami 1 under the direction of Mauricio Sai from Italy (the most senior Ref at the tournament) as TM and Tony Dent as TM covering areas 1 and 2.  Kata judging was handled in the main by the senior Wado kai officials – I consider myself not to have the appropriate technical detail on wado kai kata to feel competent to judge the kata so I opted out of this.  This is the same at our Kofukan Internationals where despite having world kata refs we only use senior Kofukan officials even if they are not a national Kata Judge.  This ensures that we get only true Kofukan kata’s in the finals which have some differences in emphasis/feel & also moves to the Shito-kai/Itosu-kai/Inoue-hai Shito kata more often seen in open competitions.  Likewise with Wadokai kata I found that sitting by the side my vote was going in opposition to the other Wadokai judges – subtle differences that I was not picking up so I did not potentially want to cost someone a European medal.

Amelia Harvey (England competitor at the 22nd WKF World Champs in Bremen Nov 2104 & Mairi Kerrin  (Ireland competitor at same World Champs & MC for FEW Euro Champs)

All progressed well with the Senior Competition with no issues raised, this was completed and we headed to the hotel for a wash and brush up prior to going to Chinese restaurant just a few doors away from the hotel.  I have to say though that parking in Reading is an absolute nightmare – there are no free spaces anywhere whereas when I lived all those years ago it was possible to find free parking – not anymore!  Anyway the China Palace ‘all you can eat’ Chinese meal was brilliant and most of the tournament contingent feasted in there.

Tatami 1 Officials Saturday with Csabo, Sara, Tony, Mauricio, Siobhan, myself & Rob Lambe

Sunday was Finals day and the tatami’s were reduced to two and I was assigned to Area 1 again, this time under the direction of Ivor Thomas (Euro Ref B) and Tony Dent (Euro Judge A).



Tony Dent & Ivor Thomas show how a TM's job should be done.



One deeply regrettable incident occurred in the Cadet Kata Final and involved a table official not doing their job properly.  If we as Referees make an error then we put our hand up to admit the mistake, correct the mistake and take it on the chin along with all the embarrassment – not so some TO’s.

The kata sections were whittled down to the final two on the Saturday but they did not give their kata into the table after winning their semi-final bouts where this would have been immediately spotted.  On the Sunday, each final was called and the kata names were collected and added to the draw sheet by the other roving Table Officials.  The rules precluded any immediate repeats and one of the finalists nominated the same kata as she had done in the Semi Final.  In this instance the competitor was Ao (Blue), so would go on after Aka (Red) giving plenty of time to spot the error and advise the competitor to change their kata.  Now we all know that the WKF Rules state that it is the responsibility of the competitor or coach to ensure that the kata nominated is correct for the next round but here we are talking under 14’s who are possibly not renowned for their short-term memory or awareness of the detail of the competition rules concerning repeats.  Table officials have a vital role to play and are there to assist both the competitors and the referees, but in this case neither competitor nor the TM were assisted as they should have been.  The error was spotted by the Table Official but not communicated to the TM until they had both completed their kata – TOO LATE!!  Despite this competitor being far better that the other finalist, she was disqualified and clearly distraught to be Hansoku’d in a European Final!  This is reprehensible and in England we never disqualify children under 14 in kata events never mind finals.  It could so easily have been avoided if only the table official concerned had:

1. Recorded the kata name immediately after the semi-final - I advised this on the Saturday,

2. Checked the draw sheet before the final started and the kata eligibility i.e. for repeats.

3. Advised the TM immediately and NOT at the end of the two kata performances. 

Dona Marshall (Euro Kata Judge B, Kumite Judge B) and I sitting at the side watching were absolutely horrified that this had happened and that effectively the Table Official had cost this young girl a EUROPEAN GOLD MEDAL!!

Anyway on to more positive stuff and when we got onto the Kumite finals one good point from Ivor was that if the competitor chasing a score after a successful takedown steps out then he is in Jogai and not the other competitor. An important one to look for that a lot of inexperienced judges would miss.

Another unfortunate incident was the disqualification of Curtis Harvey for contact.  Curtis is one of the best young fighters in England and a rising star of the European Wadokai.  Unfortunately, in his fight, that I was refereeing, he became a little frustrated after not having about three kicks scored (by any of the judges or myself) that he clearly thought should have scored.  He duly caught his opponent’s leg and punched him in the head way too hard (in my opinion as the ref).  The fighter went down for longer than 10 seconds and the very experienced medic immediately said he was gone.  The only options when the 10 second clock has timed-out are KIKEN, HANSOKU or SHIKKAKU.  The fighter was certainly not in mubobi so Hansoku was administered to Curtis.  A real shame since he then went on to fight in the team finals brilliantly and hopefully he will no doubt learn from this incident.  The refs are there to administer the rules fairly and equally and a technique must have all six criteria to score.  No quarter is ever given to any competitor, whether they are a favourite or not and if the rules are violated then a penalty must be given.  This is exactly why Vince and the FEW invited the top English and European Officials to the tournament.  As the rules state a worthless technique is a worthless technique and will not score.  Jodan kicks must have all six criteria just the same as punches and strikes and it is not just a case of getting the foot to the target to score as many spectators seem to think cheering every time a foot reaches jodan.



Curtis Harvey in the Team Kumite Final has just pulled back after scoring a gyak as signalled by Tony Dent in the chair.  Lisa Bhajwaj (Tournament Organiser) on the camera



With no further incidents to report, the competition concluded late Sunday afternoon and it was back to the hotel for the Sayona party featuring a Jim Gladwin’s rock band – ‘Backlash’.  Jim is a 5^th dan Wado and used to be the instructor at Loughborough Uni retiring at the end of last year.  I trained under him on many occasions and I have seen this superb band perform on a few occasions.  Needless to say they were excellent and really got the crowd going – a fitting way to end an international tournament.

The accommodation / tournament was really well organised by Lisa Bhardwaj and the FEW Executive committee and with England squad numbering some seventy competitors, they took the lion’s share of the medals.  The Penta Headquarters hotel was excellent and very comfortable.  I would say however, that Rivermead Sports Centre is not really a centre befitting a European finals – the toilets were often reported by my colleagues as being in a very poor state and with no arena spot-lighting the finals did not get the atmosphere that they richly deserved plus competitors/spectators have to pay to park - outrageous!  The refs got complimentary parking so perhaps this could be extended to all next time. Maybe one to consider by the FEW for next time?

Thanks to Vince and the FEW Exec for the invite to referee and the kind hospitality offered by FEW.

Lisa has put hundreds of photos on Facebook taken throughout the tournament.  Search for her on Facebook if you are interested in viewing them but set aside a few hours to do so.

Sensei Kuniaki Sakagami 8th dan JKW



Peter May 6th dan with Tracey Archer British Referee



Kaizen Open International Tournament, Kolding, Denmark 2014

Over the weekend of the 25^th & 26^th of October I had the very real pleasure of attending the above tournament in Denmark, hosted by the Danish Karate Federation and superbly organised by husband and wife team Henrik Katborg and Merete Katborg.

I, along with refereeing colleagues Billy Brennan (World Referee), Tracey Archer (British Referee) and Andy Cornish (British Referee) travelled out from Stansted airport on the Friday at 7.35am which meant a 3am start to get there from Loughborough and park up.

Henrik had invited me to the tournament whilst we were at the British International Open in Glasgow in late September.  Billy had already been invited and was telling me about it over lunch at the British, so I was pleasantly surprised when Henrik, whilst still sitting in a judges chair, invited me along as well as I was walking out of the tournament near the end. 

Tracey has aspirations to get a Euro badge so was quick to contact both Henrik and Dale Gamble (England Chief Referee) to see if it would be ok for her to go along and get her first taste of open international tournaments.  She has of course officiated many times at the single style Kofukan International tournaments in places as varied as Japan, South Africa, Denmark, Portugal, Slovenia, & Russia so is no stranger to international tournaments.

Andy is a student of Billy and has similar aspirations so this competition was ideal as a starter for both Tracey & Andy on the open international circuit which may ultimately lead to Euro Judge qualifications for both of them in the future.

All was going spiffingly well despite the early start until I got to the other side of airport security and realised I’d left my phone on the car seat so for the full weekend was completely Marillion! (Incommunicado for all you non-rockers)

Henrik kindly agreed to pick us up at the airport and ferry us around which was brilliant of him.  After checking in and playing a quick game of ten pin bowling (at which Andy was supreme) the first port of call was the castle in Kolding (pronounced Kolling) – apparently ‘d’s’ within a word are silent in Danish.  Henrik dropped us off in the city centre and we spent a good couple of hours walking around the castle which was magnificent and well worth the 10 Kroner (about £11) entry fee.

After completing the castle tour and taking many photos, we headed off to central Kolding for food at a café recommended by Henrik – the Blue Café where we succumbed to the temptations of huge burgers.

Back to the hotel and another game of bowls at which Andy was again supreme – he really is a dark horse(!) followed by meeting up with one of our Kofukan colleagues from Denmark Sensei Lars Sorensen who is based in Copenhagen.  Lars is a superb referee having officiated with him on many Kofukan International tournaments and it was really good to catch up with him again.  The setting up of the tatami was completed by Henrik and his team of parent helpers and all was ready for Sat morning.

Saturday dawned and we assembled post Breakfast for the Referees meeting conducted by Henrik and Lars.  Lars was appointed Chief Referee by the DKF for the tournament.  Rules were as current WKF with a couple of  points stressed to the TM’s briefing that no hard contact would be allowed, scorpion kick would be allowed to score, not to support colleagues on penalties (only points) and C2 for dangerous techniques would be ok signalled by judges (eg for punches past the head). 

I was assigned as Tatami Manager (TM) to Tatami 3 along with Lars as TMA, Sven Ferner (Germany National Ref), Dina Kjong (Denmark National Ref), Katrine Voigt (Denmark National Ref B), Jutte Heinrich (Germany National Ref) and Phillip & Linda as table officials.  Henrik took Tatami 1 and Nilgun Springer an excellent Euro Referee from Germany took Tatami 2.  I had previously seen Nilgun on the Euro circuit (Cadet, Senior & Regional Champs) but never had an opportunity to work with her or socialise.

The main issue for me as TM certainly for the Senior Competition (all WKF categories) was to try and preserve neutrality.  The vast majority of the entrants to the tournament were either German or Danish.  Hence for a large number of the bouts I had to have two Danish and two German officials and either myself (or Billy if available) as the fifth official.  This kept me extremely busy in refereeing kumite bouts and judging kata bouts.

One pleasantly new experience was to be exposed to Shinen Gensei Ryu  a school of kata that I had never seen before, let alone judged.  Again this proved a challenge as TM since I could not determine whether the kata they had given in to the table was the same as the one performed.  The table officials helped as best they could as did Katrine as a Gensei ryu practioner and Lars as a previous exponent of this style.  I therefore made a resolution to try to find out more about this style and in particular the katas to a point that I could at least tell the difference between a Chi-I, a Jen-I and an Ten-I (more of this later).

All senior bouts passed off without incident with Freja Katborg (Henrik’s daughter) taking Silver in the U21 Kata and the Senior Kata losing out each time to the very strong Rikka Lincke from Itosukai Karate in Denmark who represented Denmark in the 22^nd World Karate Championships at kata.  Freja also took Bronze in the Senior Female Kumite so this was a good day at the office for Henrik’s daughter.

After the tournament all of the officials were treated to a marvellous evening meal in the restaurant of the Tre-For sports centre.  The buffet food was excellent with smoked salmon & steak amongst the delicacies on offer.

For evening entertainment a group of us travelled by car into the centre of Kolding to the ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ bar an excellent English pub started some ten or so years ago by an English geezer.  The pub offered a selection of beers from around the world and was very popular.  Here I met Steen Mundos a senior of the JKS (Japan Shotoremnei of Kagawa Sensei).  Steen had spent many years in Japan and regaled us with his stories of the JKA hierarchy and the numerous requirements to do the same gradings with different groups.  We were also exposed to a game of ‘Mayer’ a dice game of fibs taught to us by Nadine one of the Danish officials who worked on tatami 2.

The clocks went backward this weekend meaning we had an extra hour of sleep time.  However, this almost backfired on us.  I was up immediately at the sound of Andy’s air raid warning alarm, jumped in the shower and then got dressed.  When we finally worked out it was only 6am, the other two went back to sleep and I sat by the wardrobe for half an hour or so until I got cheesed off with it and climbed back on to the top bunk-bed.  The next we knew was when Trace knocked on the door in full refs garb to say everyone had gone down and we collectively said she was an hour early.  Needless to say when Billy checked his world clock, it then became something of a mad rush to get ready in time for breakfast and the refs briefing.

The ref’s briefing clarified a few bits – specifically contact rules for children and neutrality requirements.  Billy also rotated the TM’s and TMA’s as done at Euro championships.  This kept everyone on the toes and stopped complacency setting in – a good initiative by Billy.

I was rotated to Tatami 1 with Andreas Kjong (Denmark National Ref), Jan Hesse (Germany National Ref), Tracey, Ingrid Heinrich (Germany National Judge), and joining us later for the kumite Jan Martin and without the requirement to maintain neutrality meant I could give all the other officials a good run-out at judging, reffing and Kansa-ing (if that’s a proper word?).

One puzzling issue was that the Table Officials did not have score sheets to manually record the scores as inputted into the electronic scoreboards.  Apparently, these have never been used in Denmark even at their Nationals Championships but are mandatory in England as a permanent record of the scores and also used at Euro championships where the qualified Judges are assigned to keep score.  Needless to say these were implemented for the Sunday competition courtesy of Tracey who had the files with her and to Marete for printing them out.

Sunday was the Non-WKF categories i.e. the 10 to 13 years.  Again we were exposed to Gensei Ryu kata and immediately from the outset it was clear that they would feature heavily in the junior sections with some superb examples of this style of kata presented particularly by Stefanie Pederson of Gladsaxe Gensei Ryu karate club who eventually took Silver.

Again as TM I had the same problem again with these kata and with Katrine, my only source of Gensei ryu now on T3 and me on T1 I had a problem.  Moreover, the runners who were getting the kata entrants ready were not recording the name of the katas to be performed.  Needless to say this soon changed.  I also managed to collar Katrine and she gave me the correct spellings of the kata and also pointed out the Gensei Ryu squad coach a 2^nd dan Thomas Benzon.  At a convenient break I went over to him and picked his brains about his style and got a full listing of the kata.  These are all based on Shotokan and are:

Jen-I, Teni-I, Chi-I, Sansai, Naihanchin, Bassai Dai, Bassai Sho, Shokumine Bassai Dai, Seienchin, Kosokun Sho, Kosokun Dai, Chinto &  Wankan

One notable competitor to watch was the winner of the 12 to 13 Male Kata – Veselov Hermann from Germany who performed Shotokan kata extremely capably.  He is from Jan Hesse’s club who was an official on my tatami.

An interesting point that cropped up was on the kata.  Billy had asked us to try to reduce the number of 4-1’s in kata judging (eg 4 red flags to one blue flag at Hantei).  As TM he had asked me to keep a note of the number of 4-1’s on my area which I had done the previous day.  As it was one of the judges was involved in a 4-1 so at a convenient break in proceedings I asked why they had gone for the other competitor.  The reply was that the wrong flag was put up!  I was then asked what should the judge do if they put the wrong flag up.  My immediate view was that they should stay with the flag since it looks decidedly ‘iffy’ if they change to follow the other four.  However, I decided to defer this question to Billy Brennan who said that you must change it immediately since if it was a 3-2 situation then it would send the wrong competitor through if the judge did not change the flag.  Either way the judge is in for a hard time from the TM since he will get grilled for the 4-1 and also for the change of flag!  I have only ever seen a judge change their flag once and that was the Chief Judge in the finals at the Karate England 2005 Championships and it did look ‘iffy’ at the time.

The tournament went on to finish with a cracking final of the boys 12-13 -45kg kumite.  This was ref’d by Billy with judges Nilgun, Tracey, Henrik and Lars as Kansa and myself as Scorekeeper.  Three times Aka looked to have scored with very fast jodan kizami’s with three flags shooting out but each time Billy correctly over-ruling them for the glove having touched the face and awarded Aka a Cat1 penalty instead.  Aka then immediately went to Chudan and scored.  The exciting and very fast bout went to a 2-2 draw and then 3-2 to Aka on Hantei – this was a fitting finale to the tournament.

Group Referee photos were taken and once again, the DKF treated all the officials to a buffet meal and we then said our Sayonara’s to everyone.

Henrik, Marete, Billy, Tracey Andy and myself went back to the centre of Kolding to the Irish bar and had a very sociable evening putting the world to rights over a beer or two.

Monday was departure day for Team England Refs but first we were treated by Henrik to a terrific visit to the historic Jelling Stones in the town of Jelling.  This was preceded by a second visit to the Blue café for more burgers for Billy and Andy and for those whose bodies are temples - a mere chicken salad!

Just prior to leaving for the airport in Billung for our Ryanair flight we visited Henrik’s dojo in Kolding where we saw the start of the session.  This was well attended by children whose behaviour was exemplary with Freja as sempai and Henrik as Sensei.  We said our goodbyes and set off on the 45 minute journey to the airport with Merete.

The rest of the trip was routine at least Ryanair now allow two bags per person as hand luggage which is a welcome initiative.

At Stansted we said our goodbyes and journeyed back home. 

Thanks you to Henrik, Merete and the Danish Karate Federation for a fabulous weekend of Danish hospitality and great karate – Sayonara - arigato gozaimashita.

KSE7 - A Day Trip to Gloucester

Sunday 2^nd March saw my first ever trip to Gloucester and a day spent at Brian Jarvis’s KSE7 (Karate Shitokai England Comp #7).  Brian is a fellow Euro Kata A and Kumite Judge A and head of Sensei Murayama’s branch of Shitokai in England.  He is a superb referee and destined for great things on the world refereeing circuit.

The competition is held at the GL1 arena in Gloucester and attracted in excess of 300 competitors with events for very young beginners up to the usual WKF categories attracting English internationals such as Emma Lucraft, Curtis Harvey & Amelia Harvey.

The Chief Ref was Ivor Thomas a very experienced Euro Kumite Judge A and he assigned me to manage Tatami 3 along with Dona Marshall BKF Kumite & EKF Kata A Judge, Tracey Archer EKF Kumite Ref A, Kata Judge A and Barry Mathews a WKU Association Official.

Kata was uneventful and of a good standard.  However, there is in my opinion way too much heavy breathing from some competitors along with slapping Hikite (withdrawing hand/fist) and stomping of the foot to create the perception of power.  This is common, also seen internationally and does not fool experienced judges.  However, it can bring results in this kind of tournament between competitors of similar ability where one competitor appears stronger due to the aforementioned tactics (as it did here in some instances).  This is regrettable

Kumite was a little more eventful, with a near brush with my first ever Shikaku as a Judge, Ref or TM.  Shikaku is the most serious penalty that can be given and is invoked when a contestant’s actions’ brings the art of karate into disrepute. 

This incident occurred remarkably in one of the childrens’ events where boys were fighting girls.  Now I’m not a fan of this whatsoever – a recipe for disaster as far as I am concerned with the combination of macho pride, adrenaline, pressurising parents, medal-seeking coaches and a shortage of officials (two corner judges).  In this particular case one quite stocky lad from a very capable club came up against a mere slip of a girl.  However, the girl concerned was very proficient, no push-over and she took a narrow lead in the bout.  The stocky lad, pride under assault came at her to get back the point deficit and ended up getting caught again.  This just annoyed him even more and he went steaming in, caught the girl once and then hit her full in the face with a very strong mawash that knocked her to the ground.  Whilst the young girl was receiving medical treatment, I called the Judges in and asked them if they thought the lad went in maliciously with the mawash.  All agreed that the lad had a look of anger about him as he stuck the last kick in that knocked her to the ground.  We were therefore in agreement that the lad acted maliciously and that the punishment for this is Shikaku – Disqualification from the kumite part of the tournament – individuals & team.   

One of the six criteria for a score is that the technique is delivered with a ‘Sporting Attitude’ of non-malicious intent.  In other words, not in anger or not designed to hurt or injure the opponent.  This appeared to be not the case in this incident.

Given the age of the competitors, I decided to check with Tournament Chief Referee Ivor, who not having witnessed the incident and as a voice of true reason suggested Hansoku rather than Shikaku.  This was duly administered and I subsequently mentioned to the coach that his fighter (young as he was) was only a whisker away from Shikaku possibly in his first ever tournament and that he was only saved by the Chief Ref.  I guess I’ll just have to remain a ‘Shikaku Virgin’ for a while longer!

After this, things hotted up with the hotly contested Senior bouts, both kata & kumite.  Emma Lucraft stormed thought the Female Senior kata to take the title. I saw her Paiku and thought it was very good. 

The Senior male kumite followed and had some very capable fighters, with some really terrific bouts.  Curtis Harvey was on fire – he has really matured as a fighter and manages to turn fights around even when all seems lost.  He went on to win the -75kg category.

The final event was the Senior Team Kumite with a Boy – Girl – Boy format in operation which I think is a great initiative by Brian.

However there was a contentious bout in the Semi Final on Tony Dent’s area involving Curtis & Amelia's team.  Tony is also a Euro Kumite Judge A with a lot of experience and I know he was well miffed since a fighter deliberately stepped out of the area in the last ten seconds to stop from being scored upon.  The rules state that this is Hansoku Chui but competitors are now starting to use this tactic quite deliberately, since they know this is the worst that can happen to them in order to preserve a slender lead – it just stops the bout and uses up valuable time.  I also saw it happen at the Euro Juniors/Cadets in Lisbon recently.  The HC penalty is totally ineffective in this situation.  Removal of a point from the competitor, like in Boxing though would be a much better penalty and would force the individual bout to Hantei, if only a single point lead.

Curtis & Amelia's CEWKA team took the title after beating WKU in the final, not an easy task in any tournament.

So ended a most enjoyable day at a superbly organised tournament.  Well Done Brian, Dona and Murayama Karate Shitokai England.

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.