For those wishing to compete is the South Australian Open please let me know.and It is run by the Australian Karate Federation. For a contact the AKF website is:

www.akf-sa.com.au

For an entry form, please contact Vice President of the competition:

wilson.michelle@heartfoundation.com.au

As some of you know the AKF is the only avenue if you have interest in international competition and the governement pays you via the Australian Sports Commission and Australian Institute of Sport.

So if you like competing or want to watch please come along with or without your gi.

For the first time this competition is open to all styles and is an alternative to the National All Styles competitions. This is the largest Karate-do competition in South Australia and offers you a chance to compete against others whom you may never have met before.

There will both Kyu Grade and Open divisions for Children, Cadets and Seniors. This competition series (with the exception of the state titles) will be open to non-AKF affiliated clubs to participate and will be conducted with W.K.F rules.

The SA Open will be held on Sunday 30th October 2005 at Ingle Farm Recreation Centre, Beovich Ingle Farm. Please distribute through your clubs and networks.

Please note the following:

1) There is a discounted entry fee for entry forms received prior to Friday 7th October 2005.

2) ALL ENTRIES CLOSE last mail Friday 14th October 2005 - no entries will be accepted after the mail has been cleared on Monday 17th October 2005.

3) There will be NO LATE ENTRIES or Entries on the day of competition - so please do not ask!

Thank you for that - Ive moved it to 'News' as it seems to fit.

For interests sake, what is the criteria where kata is concerned?
Anything goes or does it have tobe from a 'pool'? Do you know how it is assessed?

Thanks - and welcome back

Kata under WKF rules is done via the flag system which was devised 5 years ago to eliminate decrencies between the first kata and the last kata. This was most apparant when there was a large pool of competitors. Some AKF/WKF competitions have over 100 kata athletes in the mens and women open. Thus there might be a disadvantage being first or last.

The flag system is quite similiar to kumite. Two competitors go head to head. One athlete performs their kata, then the other one follows. Judges do not score...instead they select the superior kata and the winner move to the next round. The lose is either eliminated or may be involved in reperchage if they have been defeated by one of the finalists.

Kata have to be of Shoto, Goju, Wado or Shito origin. Therefore a self made kata where you do a dive roll preceding a punch in the splits is not kata. It is for the demonstrations.