Currently Licensed Officials

Click here for a list of officials and their respective qualifications as of September 1, 2024.

Path to Officiating

The path to officiating Karate NL endorsed events in starts with a kareteka who has achieved a blue belt or higher, is at least 13 years of age, and is interested in giving back to the sport of karate. Interested individuals should discuss their interest with their club sensei who will then pass along the karateka’s information to Karate NL.

Depending on demand and need, Karate NL will hold a number of in-person training sessions covering the fundamentals of both kata and kumite, application of the WKF rules, and provide practical experience in ring officiating before putting the new official into an actual competition.

Kata training will focus on the following:

• review and understand the 10 criteria for evaluating kata,
• organization of competitions,
• operation of matches,
• organization of the judging panel,
• kata competition scoring system.

Kumite training will focus on the following:

• structure of the referee panel,
• flag signals for judges,
• hand signals or referees,
• conducting (starting, stopping, restarting, etc) matches,
• organization of kumite competitions,
• scoring system and how points are earned in a match,
• warnings and penalties,
• attire and protective equipment.

Following the training period, participants will undergo testing which involves answering a series of True/False questions based on the WKF tests (see references below). Between the kumite and kata questions there are over 400 questions. The prospective officials will be expected to answer a random subset of these.

Prospective officials who pass the testing and perform well in a provincial competition as determined by the Karate NL Chief Official, will be certified as Judge Level “C” for kata and/or kumite. Subsequent training, testing, and officiating will be required for the Judge “C” official to move up in ranking to “B” level and “A” level. Officials may also be certified as Referee “B” and then “A” for kumite.

Karate NL will support Officials who are interested in attaining National or international (Pan-American or WKF) certification. Modest financial assistance is also available to help offset the cost of extra-provincial travel within the available budget of Karate NL.

Resources

Karate Canada Officials Website

World Karate Federation Judges/Referees Website
This website contains links to the kata and kumite test questions and answers as well as other useful documents on becoming an official with the WKF. The kata, Para-Karate and kumite test questions can be found here, here, and here.

Technical Officials

Successful competitions cannot happen without volunteer technical officials who operate the scoring tables and marshal athletes to the tatami. Karate NL regularly holds training sessions for technical officials to ensure they are familiar with conducting competitions, operating the N-Pro scoring software, manually marking up the draw sheets, and scoring competitions.