USKA Rule Change Proposals
The following rule changes proposals were submitted to the United States Karate Alliance for consideration. The proposals were voted upon at the General Assembly Meeting on Thursday, March 28, 2019 and then voted upon through the various committees.
Proposal No. 1 – FAILED – Rules 4.2(e), 6.4 and Rule 13.2. Change the required national points weapons divisions and tournament weapons divisions for under the age of 18 years as follows:
Male & Female (16-17)
Male & Female (14-15)
Male & Female (12-13)
Male & Female (10-11)
Male & Female (8-9)
Male & Female (6-7)
Male & Female (5 & under)
Proposal No. 2 – PASSED – Rules 4.2(e), 6.4 and Rule 13.2. Change the required national points weapons divisions and tournament weapons divisions for under the age of 18 years as follows:
Male & Female (14-17)
Male & Female (10-13)
Male & Female (7-9)
Male & Female (6 & under)
Proposal No. 3 – FAILED – Rules 4.2(e), 6.4 and Rule 13.2. Change the required national points weapons divisions and tournament weapons divisions for under the age of 18 years as follows:
Male & Female (16-17) Beginning and Advanced
Male & Female (14-15) Beginning and Advanced
Male & Female (12-13) Beginning and Advanced
Male & Female (10-11)
Male & Female (8-9)
Male & Female (6-7)
Male & Female (5 & under)
Proposal No. 4 – Passed at General Assembly, but FAILED Committees, due to the increased expense for promoters by making it mandatory. If there are sufficient numbers of competitors, the divisions can, at the option of the promoter, be divided further into beginning and advanced.
Male & Female (14-17) Beginning and Advanced
Male & Female (10-13) Beginning and Advanced
Male & Female (7-9) Beginning and Advanced
Male & Female (6 & under)
Proposal No. 5 – PASSED – Rule 11.14(8)(a)(8) is revised as follows:
11.14(a)(8) – No wrestling, no intentional pushing, butting or ramming with the head or body to the opponent’s head or body; no choking, biting, or hair pulling. No elbow strikes or knee strikes. No throwing your body at your opponent so that your body makes contact with your opponent before a legal hand or kick technique.
Proposal No. 6 – PASSED – Rule 11.15(b) is amended as follows:
11.15(b) is amended to add the following as the last sentence – If the tournament medical personnel examines a fighter for an injury during the fight and the fighter, at the time of the examination by the tournament medical personnel, is not bleeding or does not have apparent bruising, and the medical personnel clears such fighter to continue fighting, in the event bleeding or bruising develops after the match has been terminated and the fighter leaves the ring, the outcome of the match may not be changed.
Proposal No. 7 – PASSED – Rule 2.2(a) is amended to provide that a written request must be submitted ninety (90) days prior to the date of the proposed maximum point tournament.
Proposal No. 8 – FAILED – Rule 2.3(3) is amended as follows: Other Alliance sanctioned tournaments may not be held either three weeks prior or two weeks after the USKA Nationals or World Championships within the country.
Proposal No. 9 – PASSED – Rules 5.7(a) and 5.8(a) are amended as follows: Parents of competitors may score keep in the same ring as their son or daughter provided that during the kata divisions, the parent performs the role of calling out the scores only, and during the kumite divisions, the parent performs the role of turning the score cards and does not keep the time.
Proposal No. 10 – PASSED – Rule 4.2(e) is amended to change the division names as follows: All age divisions below 11 shall be referred to as Youth, with the ages noted.
Proposal No. 11 – FAILS – Rule 7.2(b) is amended when only beginning and advanced divisions are offered as follows:
A beginning student is a 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th… kyu, gup, kup or grade (usually white, orange, yellow or blue belt); OR is a student who has been training for 2 years and under – whichever is most restrictive.
An advanced student is a 6th, 5th, 4th, 3rd, 2nd, 1st kyu, gup, kup, grade (usually green, purple, or brown belt) or a black belt OR who has been training more than 2 years continuously – whichever is most restrictive.
Proposal No. 12 – PASSED – Rule 11.8(2) is amended as follows: The Corner Judge will raise the flag directly in front and execute small circles immediately upon seeing a penalty and call “Penalty”. If the Center Referee does not see or hear the Corner Judge calling for a penalty, the other Corner Judges shall stop time to alert the Center Referee. The Center Referee MUST stop the fight and confer with the Corner Judges to determine if a majority vote exists that a penalty occurred.
Proposal No. 13 – FAILED. Note, it is not mandatory to have Judges seated at each of the corners, but such may be done at promoter’s discretion. Rule 11.1 is amended to include the following: 11.1.c – The Corner Judges shall be seated at each corner of the sparring ring.
Proposal No. 14 – PASSED – Rule 12.2(c) is amended as follows: Form Judges shall be seated with four Judges at each corner of the ring and the Center Referee seated on the line between two of the corner Judges.
EXECUTIVE ACTION TO RULE 7.2.b–
Due to the difficulty created in the National Points Competition, the following addition to Rule 7.2.b is deleted from the Rule Book as of May 5, 2019:
“At the promoter’s discretion, in the 8-9 and 10-11 Boys Kumite Division, the divisions may be split so that the blue through green belt is intermediate and purple, brown and black belts are advanced.”
The remaining provisions in 7.2.b remain in full force and effect.
EXECUTIVE ACTION TO RULE 11.4.f
The third sentence of 11.4.f is changed to: The current National Black Belt Kumite Grand Champions, the defending World Black Belt Kumite Grand Champions, and the National Black Belt Kumite point champions are seeded into the Grand Champion Kumite rounds at World.
The remaining provisions in 11.4.f remain in full force and effect.
