Well done to the Karate England Board for coming up with Hillsborough Leisure Centre for their second National Championships.  A great venue , superb facilities and comfortable viewing.

 

This years event was to be a first on several counts:

 

1) The first ever English nationals with kata sections for different styles !

 

2) The first ever Nationals to earn ranking points for its competitors !

 

For the first time in decades English Karate seems to be moving on !

 

Of course not everything went perfectly and there is room for improvement and all sorts of feedback was duly noted.

 

The kata events went very smoothly with five tatamis running throughout the morning despite a delayed start due to closure of the M1  (yet again!).

 

The refereeing commission all got involved in refereeing and judging and were happy to muck in with the rest of the officials.

 

After the lunch break the senior male and female team rotation was put on in front of a full house  in order that newcomers to this event might see it first hand for themselves.

 

(Just a quick explanation for the uninitiated.

 

A team of three fighters fights for 6 minutes with a running clock (no stopping the clock for yame unless the referee asks specifically).

 

The team coaches can call `change` and have three seconds to get their fighter off and another on the mat.  Once a change has been made then no other change can be made for 15 seconds.  (I can already hear you thinking tactically about that).

 

You can have as many changes as you like !

 

No limit on score unless one team gets three ippons ahead at which point the match is won.

 

If the match runs for the full six minutes it is the team with the highest score wins. But beware!!  If the clock runs to a full six minutes then your team must have fielded all three fighters at least once !!  If only two have fought you will be disqualified).

 

After the final of the mens team rotation in  Odessa ,Ukraine between Ukraine and Romania (Ukraine won 7-6)  Ian Cuthbert (Shikon coach) was heard to say  `that was the most exciting thing I have ever seen at a Karate competition`

 

This coming from someone of his experience was pretty unusual !

 

What makes it so much more interesting than the usual team ??

 

A 3 or 5 man team is not really a team event its just a series of individual fights linked together.  The only real tactic is which order you put your team out in !

 

In team rotation you have to think tactically  all the time , who starts , who is your key player , defence or attack etc etc.  Its potential as a spectator event is huge.

 

At the nationals we saw Shikon beat BKO in one semi final and Leeds University coached by Matt Price beat Cambridge to take the other place.  The final saw Leeds Uni take an early 2-0 lead with Jason Marquis unable to deal with Ryan Tuckers speed , World WUKF Shobu Ippon Champion Leon Martin replaced  Jason for the Shikon team but looked out of sorts and let Leeds go 4-0 up.  Shikon coach Dean Tilley switched and sent on Dan Cuthbert and finally found a winning streak with on form Cuthbert scoring ten straight points against  the three members of the opposing team .

 

Of course Shikon have had more experience at the rotation event than Leeds but Leeds coach Matt Price thought it was great fun and seemed very interested  in a return match.

 

We hope that all the Karate England 2010 competitions  will include this event!

 

Anyone interested in Karate Englands calendar of events for 2010 , which includes the Senior Europeans in Santarem , Portugal and Junior Worlds in Sao Paolo , Brazil ,  should go to www.karateengland.org  

 

Anyone fed up with karate  politics , restrictive rules , dinosaur ideas  but who would like to  join a forward looking  , democratic and unrestrictive  Karate England (clubs , groups and Associations welcome)  please go to www.karateengland.org .