On Saturday, October 5th The Dojo of Karate hosted their second tournament of the year for 2013 called the Fall Classic Karate Tournament.

We had a ton of kids competing in kata, sparring, obstacle courses and best junzuki.

The result…

A bunch of medals and trophies were awarded, kids displayed some amazing confidence and focus, a few tears were shed, but everyone left with huge smiles!

But, before we go any further, I need to thank all of our volunteers, including parents and students, for helping this karate tournament a success.  Without your help we wouldn’t have been able to host this tournament or allow our students see how deep their perseverance really goes.

Lil’ Ninjas Obstacle Course

The Dojo of Karate has been doing an Obstacle Course Race for students in the Lil’ Ninjas Karate Students as a way to help develop their coordination, motor skills, balance, reaction, focus, and confidence.  The best part about the Obstacle Course Race — parents cheering their kid, and all of the other kids when running through the course.  Their support really helps with their confidence and focus.

We ended up doing a couple of different courses during the Obstacle Course Race, with one of them taking the format of the old TV show American Gladiator.  If you recall some 2o years ago, one obstacle required the participants to run from station to station shooting various weapons at a Gladiator, while the Gladiators were shooting tennis balls with a gun.  Probably one of my favorite events…

Anyways, we have something similar… minus all the danger!

Kids loved it.  Parents loved.  Everyone loved it!

Here’s a picture of all the students after the Obstacle Course Race.

 

Winner For Best Junzuki – Beginners

This division was for all students that have been training in our beginners Karate program at The Dojo of Karate.  Basically, anyone that has been training for approximately 1 to 9 months.

We broke students up into groups of 3 or 4 students and had them perform 5 junzukis down the floor in one direction, turn with a block, do 5 more junzukis, and turn with another block.

From there, I chose the person that had the best junzuki for each group.  And, some groups were very challenging to select winners because our students really took their training to the next level!

After the smoke settled, there were two students battling it out for the coveted 2 foot trophy.  It was between Lara L. and Madeline W.

This was a VERY difficult decision to make between these two amazing students, but in the end Madeline W. was able to slightly edge Lara L. for Best Junzuki in the Beginners program.

Congratulations Madeline!

Winner For Best Junzuki – Intermediate / Advanced

Now, for best Junzuki in the Intermediate and Advanced students, was even tougher to make the decisions.

I approached the format the same, separate students into groups of 3 or 4 per group and have them perform 5 junzuki’s in one direction and 5 in the other direction.

After all groups performed, the winners of each group were as followed:

• Tyler V.
• Lauren W.
• Madeline P.
• Ethan Wa.
• Anna S.
• Ethan S.
• Sydney S.
• Asha S.
• Frial K.
• Hawk S.

The final competition was between Frial K. and Madeline P., and honestly, Frial could have taken this from Madeline.  But, in the end Madeline was able to keep her title as Best Junzuki for an Advanced Student.  The best thing about this was that Frial took a 3 month break to heal her back, and she’s doing better now then she’s ever had before.

Kata Divisions

All students competed in kata, performing their most advanced form that has been taught in classes.

Students needed to do a presentation to the judges by stating their name, what kata they will be performing, and permission to begin.  This is the first step to grading and evaluating a competitor.

After they had been granted permission, the begin to perform their kata, with yells in various spots of the kata.

Students are graded on their focus, confidence, power, speed, stances, and precision.  In the end, the are awarded a score that hopefully holds up to give them 1st, 2nd or 3rd place.  But, ultimately, the competition is designed to help students build their self confidence.

In the Junior Advanced Division the top 3 finishers were as followed:

1st Place – Ethan We.
2nd Place – Ethan Wa.
3rd Place – Tyler V.

In the Teens and Adult Division the top 3 finishers were as followed:

1st Place – Madeline P.
2nd Place – Tim M.
3rd Place – Connor M.

In the Junior Intermediate 10 years old and up, the top 3 finishers were as followed:

1st Place – Anna S.
2nd Place – Sydney S.
3rd Place – Trevor M.

In the Junior Intermediate 7 to 9 years old, the top 3 finishers were as followed:

1st Place – Hawk S.
2nd Place – Connor M.
3rd Place – Tom A.

Now, some of you may be asking who placed for our beginners and lil’ ninjas divisions, but for some reason I have misplaced those results.  Nonetheless, the winners looked great!

Spar-A-Thon Winner

As many of you know, our Spar-A-Thon is the format we take for our Karate Tournaments.  This gives students the opportunity to fight as many matches as they wish, score as many points as they wish, and set a goal to get a Bronze, Silver, or Gold medal — depending how many points they score at the end of the day.

The winner for our Spar-A-Thon for scoring nearly 60 points was Tim M.  I think Tim M did a great job sparring with various students, including his two kids — Connor and Ryan M.  The Dojo of Karate is proud of Tim M. and how his family performed at the Fall Classic Karate Tournament.

If you missed this Karate Tournament, don’t worry, as we will be hosting another tournament in February or March next year.  So stay tuned!

Again congratulations to all of our winners and competitors.

Parents,

As you probably heard over the past few days, I need your help!

The Dojo of Karate’s Fall Classic Karate Tournament won’t run by its’ self, and therefore I need several parents to step up and help us make this a smooth tournament.

Where Do We Need You?

Judging Kata

When you judge a competitor in Kata, you will be looking for the following characteristics.

• Confidence – Do they enter the ring with confidence?  Do they say their introduction with confidence? Do they perform their kata with confidence, or are they hesitant in their moves?
• Balance – When the set forward to punch, block, kick, or strike, are they landing their moves with balance?  Are they wobbly when they transition from move-to-move?
• Focus – Are they looking around the floor when performing, or are they engaged in their kata?  Do they look you in the eye when they do their introduction?  Are they easily distracted?
• Power – Do their moves actually have power behind their technique?  Or are they just going through the motions?
• Precision – Are they landing their stances correctly, and not readjusting?  Are they punching down the center of the body?  Are they looking the correct direction when executing techniques?  Are their kick, punches, blocks, and strikes hitting the same location at all times, or is it always changing?
• Continuous – Did the student start over at any point?  Did the student make a mistake, realize they made a mistake, looked confused, and started over? Did the student ask you to start over again?  Did the student do their kata, continuously, with no hesitation?

As a judge, you can not judge them if they did their kata incorrectly, because you are not a Black Belt in Wado Kai Karate — even though you watch nearly all our classes.

Scoring Kata

I will be giving all judges a range of 7.50 to 8.50, with a baseline of 8.00.  What does all this mean?

• 7.50 = The competitor either made a mistake and started over, didn’t attempt to finish their kata, or kept starting over multiple times.  If any of these things happens, then you have to give them a score of 7.50 or slightly higher.  They can not be in the running for 1st, 2nd or 3rd place.  It would be unfair.
• 8.50 = The competitor basically did the best kata in the ENTIRE world.  They are so amazing, they should be teaching classes at The Dojo of Karate today…  Judges, no one gets a score of 8.50.  Now you can score close to it, but this is the highest score you can give.
• 8.00 = This is the baseline for all competitors, meaning you start them off at 8.00 and either go up or down from there, based on the characteristics that you are suppose to follow for judging.  Usually, all students should score above an 8.00, but in certain circumstances, it is OK to score below an 8.00.

Please make sure you use your one-one hundredth of a point freely.  This prevents ties.  We only do tie breakers for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place.  That’s it.  Everyone else will get a finalist medal.

Judging Sparring

When judging sparring, there will need to be 3 judges.  1 center judge and 2 corner judges.  The center judge controls the match by saying “start”, “stop”, “call point”, etc.  The corner judges do not control the matches, rather follow what the center judge asks the ring to do.

This is what I mean…

If a corner judge sees a point scored, they yell “point” and raise their hand in the air.  If the center judge see’s that movement and hears their corner judge, then they will stop the match and call for point.  Even if the center judge NEVER saw the point, they can simply call “no see” by placing their hand over their face, while the corner judge points to the direction of the competitor that scored.

Keep in mind, you need a majority of points a competitor to get the point.  So, if one judge points to the ‘Red Competitor’, one judge points to the ‘White Competitor’ and the final judge points to the ‘Red Competitor’ — then the ‘Red Competitor’ gets the point.

If you are a judge and you DO NOT see a point scored, simply place your hands over your face, which means “I didn’t see it”.  If you know for a FACT that it wasn’t a point, or BOTH competitors hit at the same time, you make an ‘X’ in from of you with your arms, meaning “clash” or “no point”.

Judging sparring is probably one of the best things to do because you are right in front of the action.

Score Keeping & Time Keeping

I won’t go into too much detail for these two volunteer positions, but it’s probably one of the easiest tasks to do when helping a ring out.

Score Keeper either keeps track of the score for sparring competitors or adds up the scores for kata competitors.

Time Keeper keeps track of the clock when a sparring match is going on.

Very simple…

If you have questions, please email or ask me personally at the Karate school, and I’ll try to make sure I can answer and clarify your questions.

We TRULY appreciate all of you help in making the Fall Classic Karate Tournament smooth!

Sensei Lozano