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.