The Annual Madison Traditional Karate Tournament

Every fall, the Madison Japanese Karate Club holds a tournament open to traditional karate practitioners - adults above the age of 18. Our goal is to provide everyone with a fun, safe and exciting opportunity to enhance our karate training.

The 2007 25^th annual tournament will take place on Saturday, November 3, 2007. The tournament will take place at the UW-Madison Natatorium, 2000 Observatory Drive, Madison, WI 53706. Check-in will start at 9:30 a.m. Please print out and fill in the registration form (PDF, or HTML forms). You will not have to pay the late registration fee if either the forms are mailed by Monday, October 29, 2007, or if you send an e-mail to Vassil Peytchev before 5 pm Central Time on Thursday, November 1, 2007 with the registration information. Please check here for more details and announcements.

We have divisions based on rank in the following events:

• Individual kata (mixed men and women)
• Individual kumite (separate men and women divisions)
• Team kata
• Team kumite
• En-bu

The rank categories are determined for each tournament depending on the number of competitors with different ranks. These categories for individual events are usually:

• Beginners (9 to 7 Kyu)
• Intermediate (6 to 4 Kyu)
• Brown Belts (3 to 1 Kyu)
• Shodan
• Nidan and up

The En-bu event is a two person pre-arranged encounter where an attacker and a defender demonstrate the use of karate techniques for self defense. The encounter should last for about one minute, and participants are judged on the same principles as kata.

This year we will again use Ko-Go kumite (alternate sparring) as the kumite event for competitors holding 4th kyu and lower. The rules are based on the ITKF rules available here. We will also have a one time attack event for white and yellow belts (9 and 8 kyu). Competitors holding these ranks may choose between one time attack and alternate sparring.

Last year we donated half the participation fees to the McArdle Laboratory for Cancer Research. This year we are planning to donate one third of the participation fees to the McArdle Laboratory for Cancer Research, and one third of the participation fees to the Great Lakes Region of the AAKF (a non-profit educational organization).

We hope that you can join us in November! Please send any questions to Vassil Peytchev.