Events

Annual UW-Madison Karate Tournament

Every fall, the Madison Japanese Karate Club holds a tournament open to traditional karate practitioners - adults above the age of 18, and youths 6 to 17. Our goal is to provide everyone with a fun, safe and exciting opportunity to enhance our karate training.

The 35th Annual Tournament will take place on Saturday, November 11, 2017, at the Gymnasiuum of Our Lady Queen of Peace Middle School, 401 S Owen Dr, Madison, WI 53711. Check-in starts at 10:30, and the tournament is scheduled to start at 12:00 pm.

This year we are going to donate 50% of any registration fees above the cost of the tournament for hurricane relief in Puerto Rico. We will be also gathering donations at the event.

Location

The easiest access to the parking lot is from South Owen Drive. Since this is a home football weekend, there will be heavier traffic than usual, so make sure plan for som extra time if driving.

Hotels

We have several recomended hotels, a Super 8 Motel (starting at $93 per night) and Best Western East Towne Suites (starting at $110 per night), and Comfort Inns and Suites, Madison North (starting at $88 per night). Please note that due to the Badgers home football game the rooms may get sold out, so please make any needed reservations ASAP! If you would like to view a wider variety of available hotels, you can view all available options at Hotels.com and adjust your search based on your preferences.

Registration information

The registration form for the tournament is available online, and you can also install an app on your phone or tablet to register. The form is also available in PDF format. Online registration will be available without late registration fees until 10 pm Central Time on Wednesday, November 8th. If you choose online registration, you will have to bring the signed registration form (which will be e-mailed to you) and your payment when you check in. If you use the PDF form, please print it, fill it out, and mail it by Monday, November 6th to avoid late registration fees.

The registration fee is $25 for one event, $35 for 2 events, and $40 to 3 or more events. The late fee is $25 in addition to the regular fees.

Adult events

We have adult divisions based on rank in the following events:

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

Check in for competitors will start at 10:30 am, the referee and judges session will start at 11:00 am (competitors are welcome to participate), and the tournament will start at 12:00.

The tentative order of events will be:

  • Individual Kata
  • Team Kata
  • Enbu
  • Break
  • Fukugo
  • Individual Kumite
  • Team Kumite

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. For adult brown belts and up, the event is separated into Man/Man and Man/Woman categories. For everyone else, there is a single category for same gender or mixed gender partners.

The Fukugo event is a single elimination event where the final round is free sparring (Jiyu Kumite or Kogo Kumite for youths), and each preceding round alternates between performance of the Kitei compulsory form, and free sparring. This event is for brown and black belts only.

The adult participants will have the following choices of individual kumite events:

  • Beginners (7th kyu and below) may chose either One Time Attack or semi-free style sparring (Class B).
  • Participants in the Intermediate category (6th to 4th kyu) will compete in semi-free style sparring (Class A).
  • Brown belts and above may chose among Ko-Go kumite, Jiyu Kumite (free sparring), or both.
The Ko-Go kumite rules are based on the WTKF rules. Please also review the one time attack rules and the semi-free sparring rules.

Youth Events

This year we will have youth divisions (under 18 years old) as well. In addition to rank, there will be divisions based on ages as well. The youth events are as follows:

  • Individual kata (mixed boys and girls)
  • Individual kumite event
    • 7 kyu and below: One time attack (Kihon Ippon Kumite)
    • 4 kyu to 6 kyu: Semi-free sparring, Class B (Jiyu Ippon Kumite)
    • 3 kyu and above: Kogo Kumite
  • Fukugo (using Kogo Kumite)
  • Team kata
  • Team kumite (using Kogo Kumite)
  • En-bu (same gender or mixed gender together)

We have pictures and videos from previous years' tournaments available on the media page. Results going back to 2000 may be found here.

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