Karate

I

The following set of rules is the result of a work in the sport sector aimed at the social inclusion of disabled and non-disabled people and their full sharing of competitive sport activity in karate field.
This sport discipline has been performed by disabled and abled-bodied athletes together in Abruzzi Region for 10 years and is regulated in order to hold singular and team competitions among disabled and non-disabled athletes 
      

 Karate competition specialties according to disabilities 

Key:
 
1) A kata team is made up of three members, as follows:
 
- two disabled athletes and one able-bodied – male and female mixed category
- one disabled athlete and two able-bodied athletes – male and female mixed category
 
2) a Kumite team is made of three members (as for Kata), with no weight categories (open modality), the only distinction is between male and female.
 
3) kata = form (pattern) of Karate
       Bunkai = technical application of a certain kata

       Kumite = fight with relative protections 
 
4) the broad categories for disabilities, physical, intellectual and relational (IRD), sensorial, will be split according to actual psycho-physical skills of the performing athletes. For a examples, among athletes with IRD, an athlete with Down syndrome will not compete with a brain-injured athlete; among the physically disabled, a paraplegic athlete cannot compete with a quadriplegic one, etc. For the correct subdivision of the DIR, physical and sensorial areas, please refer to the table, under “classification of disabilities”.
5) the master or escort technician can give vocal or gesture suggestions to his/her athletes both in solo and in team Kata. Suggestions do not influence the final assessment of the execution.
 
KATA
Regardless of disability categories in the competition and team or solo modality, kata competitions foresee a panel of 3 to 5 judges (minimum and maximum). Every kata is assessed through scores; with three judges, scores are added, with five judges, the highest and lowest scores are not considered.   
Kata is assessed considering the following criteria:  
       - technical assessment  
       - expression assessment  
       - assessment of kime  
       - assessment of strength  
       - assessment of balance.   

Parameters will vary according to age and type of disability; judges will be experienced ones, capable of flexible and objective assessments.  
  

SOLO/INDIVIDUAL KATA
 
Each athlete is required to compete with two kata trials; the competition is “inter-style” and katas can be freely selected by the athletes without any reference to kata shitei, sentei or tokui.
The two individual katas will be performed both by disabled and able-bodied athletes of the various teams.
In case of adapted karate, individual karate will have a specific ranking order; scores will be summed and will also be summed to team scores for the final ranking order; this method is chosen in order to favour a group spirit, in which everybody is called to put the maximum efforts, the result of the individual is beneficial for the whole team, increasing cohesion among team members is favoured; furthermore, this method allows individual athletes to compete only in individual competition in case a team is not created.

 
TEAM KATA
 
Each team is required to compete with a Kata trial and the execution of its technical application, Bunkai.
As indicated in the table, teams are made of disabled and non-disabled athletes executing the chosen Kata at the same time.
Team might be composed by two disabled athlete and a non-disabled one or by a disabled athlete and two non-disabled; in case of two disabled athletes participating, they must belong to the same broad category, for example: in a team with a non-disabled athlete, two athletes with a physical disability can participate, but not one with a physical disability and one with a sensorial disability together.
Teams will then compete but respecting the subdivision of the broad categories.
The Bunkai execution must demonstrate the athlete’ mastery of at least three Kata sequences,  till the execution of a complete Bunkai; therefore it might be sufficient to execute at least three applications belonging to the Kate. The master can compete with his/her trainees; exceptionally, an able-bodied athlete can belong to more than one team.  
Criteria for team Kata assessment are the same as for individual Kata with synchronization and Bunkai in addition.
 
FINAL RANKING ORDER
 
As mentioned before, the final placement will be established by adding the scores of the two individual matches of each team member and the team score. For example:
 
Red team  
Individual score of A + individual score of B +  individual score of C+ team score = FINAL TOTAL SCORE
 
Green team 
Individual score of A + individual score of B +  individual score of C+ team score = FINAL TOTAL SCORE
 
Blue team  
Individual score of A + individual score of B +  individual score of C+ team score = FINAL TOTAL SCORE
 
AGE AND GRADE CATEGORIES
 
SOLO/INDIVIDUAL KATA
 
Same-age disabled and non-disabled athletes will compete in the same category but will be awarded separately; therefore, two ex-equo first winners, two ex-equo second winners and two ex-equo third winners will be on the podium

(draft-)

Pre-agonist (sole category) : White/yellow - orange/green - white/brown/black
Agonists : Eso A+B - Cadets - Over 18 - Master
White:  - Yellow/Orange – Green/Blue – M/Black
Agonists : Eso A+B - Cadets - Over 18 - Master
White – Yellow/Orange – Green/Blue – Brown/Black     

TEAM KATA
 
In this section, age categories are unified and therefore subdivided into 5 bands.
  
The category is defined by the age of the oldest athlete and by the belt of the athlete with the highest one, with two exceptions:  
 
- in both cases, except for a master that leads and is also in a team with two athletes of lower category.  
 
Example for the age: master aged 35 – A athlete aged 12 –  B athlete aged 15 will belong to Cadets because of 15 years of age of B.
  
Example for belts: Master with black belt, A  athlete with green belt, B athlete with yellow belt will compete in Green/Blue category because of the green belt of A.  

CATEGORY BASED ON GRADES
 
Team Kata foresees three category based on athletes’ grades:
 
Category  no. 1    WHITE-YELLOW-ORANGE
Category no. 2   GREEN  – BLUE
Category no. 3   BROWN – BLACK
      
CLASSIFICATION OF DISABILITIES
 
  - F.D.   – Athletes on wheelchairs and with generic physical disability generica                                                                                                                                
  -S.D   - partially-sighted   – blind –   hearing impaired –      deaf                            
  - I.R.D.   –Down Syndrome   -- brain-injured   -- A.D.H.D.