New referee standards unveiled

Regular readers of this site will know that I have often commented on the sometimes woeful standards of refereeing at tournaments, and campaigned for better training and higher standards. That goal moved closer this week following the trial of a completely new refereeing course hosted by Sensei Gavin Samin in the UK.

In the past, many competitors had complained about inconsistently applied rules, a poor general knowledge of the rules, greatly differing interpretations of acceptable contact, bias, and regional interpretations. At the same time, referees had expressed disappointment about courses in which their qualification was awarded merely for attendance, with no testing of their competence.

Most of these issues were either specifically or generally covered with the new course, which was structured somewhat differently to previous courses.

The most notable difference, was the fact that the course was a full 5 hours long, rather than previous courses which often only lasted two hours. Although this slightly turned it into an endurance event (and it would have been nice to have a formal lunchbreak), it did enable Sensei Gavin and the Zone Directors to teach in far greater detail.

Divide and educate
Those attempting their first refereeing level were taken off to a room where they underwent a thorough reading and discussion of the refereeing manual. Attendees who already held a level 1 or higher, remained in the main hall with Sensei Gavin. Although this group did read through sections of the manual, the session concentrated primarily on clarifying the very many grey areas in refereeing - what Sensei Gavin described as "reading between the lines of the manual". I personally found this section tremendously valuable in clarifying many issues, and I only hope that the results of this session will be written down so that the RMs and zone directors from around the world who were not present, can benefit from Sensei Gavin's vision and generally common-sense approach. I say generally, because I found it disappointing that we must still take the view that contact of any sort, is ALWAYS the striker's fault, in spite of the fact that it is sometimes physiologically and scientifically impossible to prevent contact when the other person behaves unexpectedly. I understand that Sensei Gavin's reasoning for zero tolerance is not to allow contact loopholes, but he's already done that by providing a sliding scale of penalties for levels of contact.

Practical experience
After this discussion session, everybody was returned to the main hall, and divided into rings, where they went off to get practical refereeing experience. I believe that it was hoped that everyone would get as much actual ring time as possible, and whilst each person on my ring at least, did get to referee and judge at least one bout each, it seemed to me that we would all still have benefitted from considerably more practical time. Perhaps in future events, we might introduce a mentor system, where one RM or level 4, coaches just 4 people, enabling far greater personal tuition.

I would suggest that the easiest way to accomplish more practice time in future, is to make the manual so comprehensive that most of thevery time-consuming questions being asked, could be avoided. Perhaps there could be a core skills manual, and a technical addendum, addressing the limitless number of once-in-a-career incidents, that the majority don't need to sit and discuss.

During the practical session, I was supervised by Zone Director (Senior Sensei) Bob McCracken. After every ruling I made, Sensei Bob asked me to explain my thinking, and he then clarified the issues or corrected my thought process as needed. Personally, I found this section tremendously valuable, and I really felt as though I was guided towards becoming a much better referee.

Oddly, there were no practical kata judging sessions, although I am certain that many may also have found that useful.

Written test
At the end of the day, we were all asked to fill in a 50 question test in order to gauge our comprehension (well done Sensei Mitch for getting the top score!). It covered technical and administrative issues, and some of the questions seemed a little ambiguously worded, whilst others seemed like a matter of interpretation. This was just a trial quiz, and some people (even of novice levels) suggested that it could have been more difficult, so I expect that anything used for future courses will be tweaked.

It is planned that all referee seminars from next year will include a written test, like the sensei training program, and it will be required for students to attain a certain mark to graduate. Even better than that, there will also be a practical test, with a minimum level of competence required. This seems absolutely vital, because even on this course, there was at least one person who outright refused to do any refereeing, yet was awarded a level 2 certificate.

The issue of certification levels is still somewhat contentious. It was sad to see one person being awarded a level 3 certificate based on her belt grade, although she has never refereed, and this was her first course. Sensei Gavin said that as from next year, all attendees will only be able to progress one ref level at a time, regardless of their belt grade. This is excellent news, but it would also be nice to add a stipulation in there that they must also have a minimum amount tournament experience between grades - perhaps one tournament per grade that they are attempting, since the last grade. Thus someone attempting a level 4 will have officiated at at least 4 tournaments since the previous referee level (at least 10 tournaments in total). This will provide a reason for referees to attend tournaments, rather than simply rubber-stamping each new referee grade.

I would also like to see regional managers have to go through the same, or a far stricter accreditation process, simply because they have the most influence at tournaments.

Overall, Sensei Gavin has outlined a format for future referee courses that will not only provide greater validation of the referees, who will actually have had to earn their certificates, but it will also raise standards across the board. It wasn't perfect, but it is a very positive step in the right direction, and is just one more move towards ensuring that GKR attains the standards and professionalism that will enable it to hold its head high alongside any karate style or tournament circuit in the world.

11 clarified rules that every competitor should know

1. Contact to the head is dealt with much more severely, and can result in an instant disqualification.

2. Strikes to the front or back of the shoulders do not score.

3. Hook kicks, sweeps and spinning back kicks are only permitted at brown belt and above.

4. Any unblocked, legal, head level kick delivered with good form and control will score an ippon (a full point).

5. Circling movement IS allowed in the ring, and must not be stopped by the referees unless it is pointless and time-wasting.

6. The difficulty of a kata IS a scoring criteria, but choosing a more difficult kata will not automatically gain bonus points - it is the performance that counts.

7. Adults who decide to restart their kata may NOT choose to perform a different kata.

8. Junior black belts ARE allowed a restart if they mess up their kata.

9. Variations in kata moves, from one competitor to another, or to the judge's expectations, are not to be penalised.

10. Teams may NOT change the basic timing of a kata for artistic effect or easier synchronisation.

11. Team kumite teams may change the order of their fighters at the start of each new round.