World Cup Report
GKR’s third world cup karate tournament took place on the 29th and 30th of October at the NSW State Sports Centre in the Olympic Village in Sydney Australia.
It was a thrilling and action-packed event attended by well over 1700 competitors – almost double the attendance of the previous World Cup in
On day one, the opening ceremony and all of the singles events were held, across all age groups and grades up to black belt. On day two, there were demonstrations and the team, and prestigious Opens divisions were held.
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Nearly 2000 competitors made for a rousing and rowdy opening ceremony!
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The opening ceremony was a rousing event during which all of the competitors and officials marched into the stadium. The venue offered deeply tiered seating on all four sides. The seating started perhaps 25 feet above the arena floor enabling all spectators to have an excellent view of the action. The opening procession was lead by the
After the national anthems and speeches, the tournament was quick to begin, and as usual, the kids’ events were the first to start, followed early on by the veterans and senior vets. So huge were the number of competitors, that many events were conducted over four, even six rings. This meant a mammoth piece of co-ordinations, as the various rings finished at different times, in some cases staggering events over a period of several hours. In order to achieve this, Regional Senseis took a generally pro-active role in administrating the rings, whilst Senior Senseis tightly co-ordinated three rings each. This was a complex piece of orchestration, which for the most part, ran remarkably smoothly, although there were some exceptions.
With so many rings, competitors had to place first or second on each ring in order to move forward into the finals. The finals then generally consisted of eight people, who essentially had to compete all over again. That meant that in the case of kumite, some competitors had to win anywhere from 6-12 fights in order to rise as the victor. This truly gave value to the title “World Champion” in each division. Kata competitors were able to achieve victory with as few as two performances of their kata – one in the heats, and one in the final.
Because of the time constraints imposed by such a huge number of competitors, medals on the first day were presented on the individual rings, rather than in a central ceremony. Whilst this did somewhat diminish the fanfare of these presentations, the winners were nevertheless, warmly applauded by vast numbers of spectators as they claimed their medals. The medals were special heavyweight ones that are only awarded at World title competitions.
It was particularly gratifying to see that every single division had an abundance of competitors – even the senior veterans which is open to competitors aged 45 and over. I heard many people suggesting that in future World Cups, it would be fairer if GKR were to add a further veterans division for students aged 60 or more. Given the vast difference in mobility between a 45 year old and a 60 year old, this seems like a sensible suggestion, which would further demonstrate to the World that GKR Karate really is for everyone. It was a truly inspiring sight to see so many students of both genders in their 50s and 60s competing, and I’d like to take this opportunity to salute their spirit and attitude.
The other thing that I heard competitors suggesting time and time and time again, was the exclusion of black belts from the 3rd kyu and above division. Considering the fact that a 3rd kyu may have only been training for a couple of years, whilst his black belt rivals could have 10 or even 15 years under their belts, allowing all black belts into this division was a little like letting sharks into the minnows pool, and almost without exception, the prizes were taken away by those of Shodan grade or higher. It seems incongruous that the black belts can choose whether to enter the Opens or the far easier 3rd kyu and above division, whereas the 3rd kyusI would suggest that a division of 3rd kyu to shodan ho might make the fairest division, whilst anyone above that grade must enter the Opens.
The standard on the first day was excellent across all grades and divisions, and whilst there were clearly many, many competitors who had not put in particular practice on their katas, there were a number of competitors in every division who had prepared long and hard for the competition, and they stood head and shoulders above the rest, deservedly walking away with the medals.
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There appears to be a dramatic difference in the way that the Aussies learn and practice kata to the way that we learn it in the UK
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The way that the Aussies and Kiwis perform kata seems drastically different to the way that we do it in the
When it comes down to kumite, solo practice is much harder to do, and then it was clear which students had trained under experienced senseis, and which had not. A number of competitors, particularly from the UK, expressed disappointment that they’d never been taught how to fight in a way that could deal with opponents of this calibre, and it was a viewpoint that I had complete sympathy for. The honest truth is, particularly in the higher graded divisions, the Australians and New Zealanders by-and-large were in another league to the English competitors, and this is can only be explained by a difference in training regime, as the English competitors are certainly no less dedicated.
On the second day, the vast Opens division events took place. Unlike regional and National events, these were preceded by the team events, which served as gentle warm ups for some teams. It was no surprise to see the State teams were the ones that made the finals.
Sensei Gavin Samin conduct a lengthy officials’ briefing during which he set out GKR’s intent for the refereeing and judging of the tournament, as well as clarifying a few administrative issues. His speech was largely common sense, but we all appreciated the clarification of a number issues. Of particular interest during this briefing, was the definition of what constituted contact, as well as unequivocal instructions on how to deal with it. The essence of it was this: GKR is a non contact style. Most contact will immediately be penalised. All contact to the head will be penalised with points awarded to the opponent. Contact which splits the skin over the eyes or nose will attract a more severe penalty – most likely an ippon or disqualification. For many experienced referees, it was great to hear one of GKR’s most senior managers and instructors defining the rules, which by inference, will also be used to judge all national and regional tournaments. However, the application of this was sketchy at best with some senior refs apparently choosing to disregard it.
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Glenn Hutchison came 3rd in the Opens and was delighted simply to be placed at last
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In one incident, a competitor struck his opponent in the face hard enough to stun the man, leaving him completely out of it for five or ten seconds. The perpetrator was penalised by a half point, but by the victim’s own admission, he was afraid to fight on properly after that point for fear of further hits. The practice of intimidating opponents with a hard blow early on, knowing that the penalty is worth accepting, is one practiced (consciously or unconsciously) by a number of competitors at the highest levels, and it seems to me to be completely against the spirit of GKR.
Conversely, one British Shodan competitor was disqualified for looking too aggressive. Looking aggressive?! He spent £2000, travelled 11,000 miles, never touched his opponent, never broke a rule, and was disqualified for looking aggressive? That’s bull - pure and simple.
The root cause for many problems is the practice of allowing greater contact by higher grades. Now don’t get me wrong – I’ve made (and received) my share of contact, but by having a sliding scale of contact, it means that every contact is down to the judgement of the individual referee. Some allow a great deal of contact, whilst others don’t permit any. This sends confusing messages to the competitors as they move from ring to ring, and tournament to tournament, and it makes a mock of our claim to be a non-contact style...
Anyway, to more positive matters - after the team events, there were a number of demonstrations. These were the best choreographed, most exciting demos ever put together for a GKR event, and were the result of 8 weeks of hard practice, and boy did it show!
The demonstrations opened with an example of kata bunkai. Three dan grades lined up and performed a few moves from three different katas. Behind them, three instructors then showed how the moves could be used against opponents. Each sensei faced four opponents, and the entire event was highly choreographed and performed to the sounds of a live Japanese musical trio, consisting of a hand drum, a stringed instrument, and a flute.
Following this, two senior senseis performed two of the higher graded katas.
Next, Shihan demonstrated how kata Sepai might be performed in a sword form. He performed the kata against two opponents – initially in a step-by-step form, then subsequently in a continuous faster version. Again, rousing music accompanied his performance. This time, the music seemed strongly reminiscent of Ennio Morricone’s heroic themes from the old Clint Eastwood spaghetti westerns.
Then Kancho Sullivan entered and demonstrated the kata that he made up over a number of years. It’s simplistic and repetitive, and seems similar in places to to Kanku Dai and Seisan. He then showed the bunkai for a few of the moves.
The demonstrations concluded with Kancho 'fighting' against a number of opponents. I put ‘fighting’ in inverted commas there because it was actually a very good-natured kind of deal where neither side was trying all that hard to win. I guess this section was included so that we could see that Kancho can still move it when he wants to. He even managed a head-height round kick at one stage. Kancho fought against three high graded black belts, but for me, the highlight was when he fought against a red belt student from the Texas Honbu. This is the first World Cup since GKR opened in the
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It's frustrating to see so much emphasis placed upon the adult male opens, when the standard in all divisions was so impressive
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Bringing the day’s events to a close were the Opens finals. There were four divisions – Junior Male (under 16), Junior Female (under 16), Open Male (16+), and Open Female (16+). Each division began with kata, and in general, the competitors stuck with the higher kata, starting from Sanseru, and going all the way up to 4th dan Sochin. It was interesting to see that some Australians were masters of kata that
Given the emphasis placed upon the Opens divisions, it was frustrating to see that title fights in different divisions were held simultaneously on two rings, making it impossible for spectators to film or even concentrate on all of the finals. Furthermore, the finals were not even announced in most cases, and that meant that some finals came and went without most spectators realising the importance of the bout.
The male Opens were billed as the main event, being run as the last event of the day. In the kata, Glen Strike performed Kanku Sho and tied for first place. He won the kata off with Kanku Dai. Click here to download a video of his performance (13MB). See the full tournament on DVD from your sensei soon.
There were eight kumite finalists and the finals were run on an elimination basis, just like the qualifiers. Although the event is open to competitors aged 16 upwards, the finalists seemed to range in age from mid 20’s to early 30’s. I would think that, given the level of contact, GKR might want to reconsider allowing 16 year old boys to compete against full-grown men. Sure, the boys want to prove themselves and not enter the more appropriate 16-20 division, but GKR ought to take a leadership role in guiding these brave but light-weight students.
Every elimination fight was of an extremely high standard, and points were not awarded easily. Techniques had to be crisp and complete to score. One thing that did seem to pass uncommented, was elbows far out on the punches. A number of competitors were using so much hip work in order to increase their reach, that their elbows were flying out from the sides - or maybe it was just the angle I was standing at...
The fighters ranged in style from extremely aggressive to flamboyant. Some attacked a lot, whilst others were primarily counter-attackers. The final bout was between two-times GKR World champion Anthony Ryan and former NAS Champion, Alex Pereda. Alex had already despatched his protégé Glenn Hutchison in the previous round, but Glenn was delighted with his bronze medal, having previously only ever come fourth.
In the last World Cup, Anthony Ryan was very circumspect in the way that he fought, rarely committing himself to an attack, preferring instead to be cagey and strike only when the odds were totally in his favour. This time, he was much more pro-active, presumably deciding that against the fast, aggressive, hard-hitting Alex Pereda, that the best defence was a strong offence. For his part, Pereda became more passive than he had been all tournament, and he dazzled me with the sheer speed of his blocking and his transitions from block to counter.
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| Pereda must have been kicking himself after he fell for Ryan's classic opening gambit within the first three seconds | |||
Ryan opened the bout by immediately launching into a low punch, followed by an impressive waza ari round kick, that had Pereda lucky not to be giving away a full ippon within three seconds of hajime. It was a classic combination, and Pereda fell for it hook, line, and sinker, committing to block the punch with both hands. Both fighters then settled down into a real game of cat and mouse, with lots of twitching and faking as they attempted to prooke a reaction that would present an opening. This saw the fight drawn at the end of the three minutes. Hikiwake – it couldn’t have been better if it had been scripted, and the crowd’s excitement was at a fever pitch. After a tense exchange, there was no score, but then Pereda launched an attack and over-extended himself. His punch was just short, but Ryan’s retreating counter-punch was not. The point was given. The crowd went wild. Ryan had won for the third time running, making him GKR’s undefeated World kumite champion. Click here to download an excerpt of the fight (11MB). Buy the full thing on DVD from your sensei soon.
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World Opens kumite champion Anthony Ryan talking to some adoring fans
Weird how kata doesn't attract the same hero worship, yet it's so important at gradings... |
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The day finished with the presentation of trophies to the Opens winners. There was no closing ceremony, which most people were grateful of given the fact that it was just coming up to 8pm! The crowd and the other competitors seemed like me, to be very appreciative of the achievements and sheer quality of the victors, but it was generally a fantastically good natured tournament, with the Australians revealing what warm and generous people they are.
After the tournament, a fortunate couple of hundred went on to a dinner with Kancho. The buffet meal was delicious, but it was the camaraderie that really highlighted the event. It was also an opportunity for many to mingle with their heroes and role models. Kancho was presented with a caricature painting that had been done by English caricature artist Ric Machin, but for me, the highlight was an inadvertent joke that Shihan made as Kancho returned to his seat after the presentation. He turned to Kancho and said “Perhaps if you could remain close, so that you can say a few words in a moment.” Kancho’s back was to Shihan, and he appeared not to hear, so he continued on to his chair. Shihan smiled wanly and continued by saying, “Or not, you’re Kancho, you can go wherever you like!” It was just a cover to an unexpected event, but it brought the house down!
Shihan also announced at the dinner, that the next World Cup is to be held in
It was rumoured that a whole bunch of other competitors went off to a steakhouse restaurant for an entirely different kind of celebration!
Whilst there is always room for improvement, this was definitely the best World Cup yet, and it only serves to emphasise that GKR is a style that stands proudly on the World stage. The winners could enter any tournament, in any style, and do well, and it shows that when GKR is taught and studied properly, it produces World-Class karate!
Five things that were done well at the World Cup
The demonstrations
These were a fantastic and exciting example of GKR Karate at its best.
The sensibleness of the refereeing
My ring was co-ordinated by Sensei Grant West, and he repeatedly urged the officials to be friendly and helpful to the competitors. He appreciated how nerve-wracking the event was, and he wanted to do all he could to relax the competitors.
The officials’ briefing
Sensei Gavin Samin talked the most sense I’ve ever heard at the start of the tournament. If only the referees had all abided by what he told them...
No low grade referees officiating events beyond their grade
Finding enough referees and judges to run eight rings is a challenge that often results in refs judging competitors beyond their own grade. Finding enough for 21 rings was a monster task, but so far as I saw, most rings were judged by those with experience appropriate to the division.
Excellent selection of merchandise
There were mugs, two types of T- shirts, jewellery, mouse mats, key rings, and more. People want memorabilia of such a terrific weekend. Most stuff sold out by
Five things that could be improved at the next World Cup
The consistency and impartiality of the refereeing
As always, there were many claims of poor refereeing and bias. Most of these can be attributed to disappointment or lack of understanding, but the more consistent the refereeing criteria are, the easier it will be for all competitors to understand how they are being scored.
The level of contact
Do we permit contact or not? I fail to see how we can claim to say that we are a non-contact style when, at our premier competition, competitors are repeatedly battered, only to see the perpetrator rewarded. The fact that one of the Open males finalists was competing in a head bandage says it all...
Start events roughly on time
World class athletes cannot raise themselves to a peak of readiness when they don’t know when their events are starting. On one ring, the event started 30 minutes early, stressing out all of the competitors, and denying them warm-up time. On another ring, there were three or four groups, which meant that those in the last group were kept waiting ring-side and getting cold for over two hours.
No ring-side coaching
Parents were repeatedly ordered back to the spectator stands from the ring side, denying them the chance to coach their children. Many senseis could not attend, whilst others were officiating, or obeying the rules and remaining in the spectator area. However, some senseis and team mates remained ring side and shouted instructions to their students. Those, whose senseis were ring side had an unfair advantage. Ring side coaching should be disallowed for all, as it makes a significant difference.
Better informing of finals and situations both to competitors and spectators
People want to know how far they are progressing, and the audience wants to know what’s going on, especially in unusual circumstances such as a 3-person final, or a kata-off.