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.