News
'Do as I Say, Not as I Do'.
Thursday, 18 March 2010 09:47
Hi,

I am e-mailing you in support of this website.  I'm not a member of the recognised SKGB therefore over the past two years I've not been able to enter the tournaments that I was otherwise entering for over ten years beforehand under the same criteria.

The application of article 21.9 seems fairly strict in Scotland, however I'm sure this is inpart due to the formation of the EKF.  It's not very refreshing to see some high-placed EKF members drop the ball, since the formation of the EKF was what seemed to be the game changer in the first place. 

I'm sure there are many people out there breaching 21.9, both knowing and unknowingly, but it certainly seems like it's a case of 'do as I say, not as I do'.

Good luck with the Championships and the website.

G
 
21.9 rule 'Who's in or Out'?
Tuesday, 16 March 2010 17:10

Dear Editor,

Thank you for putting together this site to represent the current views of many practitioners / parents / coaches involved in English karate.

The EKF’s response to the setting up of the EKA was expected and does exemplify how non-sensical their interpretation of S. 21.9 really is.
With the EKF’s income solely dependant on its members and supporters, the board fail to recognise that respect generated through guidance, using fair and honest policies, is the most suitable method of governance; not dictatorship.

Having reviewed the EKF’s EGM / AGM agenda I followed a few links that made me question the relationships between some groups that may be more ‘dissenting’ than those of the ‘EKA’s’. The EWF (English Wado Federation) has put forward several agenda items with the backing of WBKK (West Bromwich Karate Kai) which caught my interest.
Looking into the groups a little further, WBKK does not appear on the EKF member list so using the EKF’s interpretation of S. 21.9 this surely makes them a ‘dissenting group’ (?).
The WBKK’s Chief Instructor is standing for election to the board so as I am unfamiliar with this group I will give them the benefit of the doubt, and assume they are full members of the EKF (having assumed the EKF would only allow member’s of member groups to apply (?)).
However, the WBKK does appear to be a member of the EWF resulting in the agenda items having been proposed, and seconded by members of the same group.
This may be acceptable, I am not sure.

The agenda items that the EWF has proposed are liberal and are not likely to rock any boats; however, look further into the EWF website and relationships with other groups confuses the situation further.
I can only assume that all of EWK’s English clubs (16 in total) have membership with the EKF and all members have EKF slips, but what of their international groups? Germany, India, Italy (7th Dan), Japan (6th Dan), Madeira, Oman, Philippines, Portugal (6th Dan) and Thailand many of which do not appear to have direct links with their own countries WKF representative.

Does the EKF’s interpretation of S. 21.9 mean that groups can have relationships with dissenting groups as long as those groups are not within England??? Can we assume the international club members have EKF slips also and are governed by the same child protection, national indemnity insurance, and first aid requirements of other EKF members? Another case of double standards?

I decided it best not to research any other names from the EGM / AGM as ignorance was bliss…

Perhaps the point I am getting at is that the EKF does not fully understood it’s membership. It does not appear to know who is in and who is out, who is dissenting and who is just trying to earn an honest day’s work. Yet it continues to make poorly thought out decisions without fully understanding the diversity of its members and the effects their decisions will have on associations that have been in existence far longer than the EKF.

For the EKF to claim a collection of their own groups (the EKA) that are full members of the EKF in their own right are ‘dissenting’, does show how little they know about themselves…

Yours,

JS
 
EKF Regionals Event, are you safe?
Tuesday, 16 March 2010 16:33

Dear Editor,

The more times the BOD (Board of Directors) refuse to answer questions or address the serious issues that have been raised over recent weeks the more I will continue to look in greater depth into their affairs and their decisions.

It didn't take more than a few minutes to uncover yet another breach of our old friend, Article 21.9, and this is so serious none of us can ignore it or even possibly avoid it.  The Vice-President, the National Coach and now this, our membership to the WKF is at risk.

On the 23rd December 2009 the EKF posted some 'Latest News' following interviews held on the 20th  December by the BOD. They announced the appointments of a new Chief Referee and a new Events Organiser, and wished them every success in their roles within the EKF.  We would have expected the BOD to carry out full and thorough checks on all applicants before they were interviewed, fairly basic, fairly standard practise.

The problem is on the 20th September 2009, just a few weeks before the appointments, our new Events Organiser held the UNITED STYLES ASSOCIATION BRITISH OPEN 2009, you can visit his web-site at www.pckarate.co.uk.  If you then take a look at the results of this competition, you don't have to look too hard, you can clearly see this was a true open event.

There were many competitors present from outside of the EKF including the SKI, the KDA (FEKO) and, a favourite of the Vice-Presidents club, the NKA from NAKMAS.

I have already taken copies of these results from the web-site, as we all now know what happened to the results from the Vice-Presidents club.

If you visit the web-sites of a couple of the competing clubs you can clearly see the confirmation of their attendance at the United Styles 2009 competition.

www.karate.perth.co.uk - Take a look at their competition results pages. The same for the KDA from the Midlands under their blog spot.

 

For any EKF members that did attend this competition you will need to 'watch your backs' as you, albeit inadvertently, were in breach of Art 21.9 and can be subjected to disciplinary sanctions.

Now apart from being extremely embarrassing for the BOD in appointing an Events Organiser with links to dissident groups, a breach of 21.9 beyond any doubt, and a competition that was advertised on the EKFs' own web-site leading us to believe it was an approved and sanctioned competition, the much larger issue and one we cannot avoid is the EKF Regional Competition on the weekend of the 20th/21st March.

The BOD, because of previous actions taken against our members, has absolutely no choice but to suspend the Events Organiser with immediate effect.  Because of his dissident links to non-EKF associations we, under the Statute 21.9 cannot have any sporting relations with him, should we do so we, too, would be in breach of this article.

So if you are a competitor, a coach or an official you will have to make certain yourselves that it is safe for you to attend such an event, it is your responsibility to ensure this is an approved WKF or EKF competition or face disciplinary sanctions.

The BOD could put out a statement confirming they will sanction attending this event (completely ignoring 21.9) organised by the Events Organiser, but having just read the EKF clarification statement on 21.9 and the official WKF Statutes I know they do not have the authority to do so. I for one will not be attending.

It also raises the question, remember the Events Organiser is an employee of the EKF, as to whether the whole BOD are also in breach of Article 21.9 by their associations with the Events Organiser.  By virtue of the way this Article 21.9 has been applied by the BOD my opinion is they probably are but this will need clarification from any one on the board or even possibly it might be worth contacting the WKF for some guidance. I don't need to remind you all of the many statements made by our WKF representative on our WKF membership and Article 21.9, it is crystal clear.

It's ironical that the EKF Chief Referee (Dale Gamble), and forgive me if I have heard this wrong, sought assurances on behalf of the EKF referees that they could attend the competition held by the AMA in Sheffield on the same weekend as the United Styles, in the end I don't believe any of them attended.

The assurance was that the referees would not be inadvertently putting themselves at risk of disciplinary action by coming into contact with a dissident.  I wonder how many travelled to the Midlands for the United Styles competition and inadvertently came into contact with a dissident.

The results of the United Styles Competition on the 28th Feb 2010 have just been published and it comes as no surprise to see non-EKF members were in attendance, (again I have taken copies of these results). We therefore have two competitions organised by the EKF Events Organiser, advertised on the EKF web-site and sanctioned by the EKF Board, both competitions contained non-EKF members.

At this moment I'm beginning to wonder whether the BOD is very unlucky or is it possibly something else.  How they handle this current situation will answer my question.

 

FC
 
BASKA Club Results Vanish? 'Your Views'
Saturday, 06 March 2010 15:12

Dear Editor,

A strange thing happened today (26/2/2010), just one day after you reported the attendance of the BASKA(MD) affiliated club, Honto Shin KC. to the NKA Jarrow Open.

The report on their success at this competition has mysteriously vanished from their web-site, it appears they may not be quite as proud of their success as we first thought.

Unfortunately visitors to your site will no longer be able to read the content of this report, and the success of this club at the NAKMAS NKA Jarrow Open 2009 so as not to let your readers down the report went as follows:

JARROW 2009

"Congratulations to all who entered the NKA open in Jarrow on 11-7-09, a good day for all who entered and for some a first time competition experience.

Out of 8 students who entered we brought back 13 trophies which included 3 first places, 7 second places and 3 third places.

Very proud day for the club, keep up the good work in future!!"

Mr Editor they should be proud and be able to celebrate such an achievement in competition, it's a sad thing their moment of glory has been ruined by Article 21.9.

It's time for some grown-up debate.

FC
 
Karate or Taekwondo 'Your Views'
Saturday, 06 March 2010 14:58

Hi Ed

can you publish my questions in response to Ian Cuthbert's post whichI have read with interest.

1, Why if theWUKF or WUKO is what you say it is why do 3 former instructors chose to stay with the EKF surley if you cant convince them then you can expect to convince us.???

2, why does KE slag of the EKF on there site but the EKF saying nothing on there about KE???
When you dont see rugby union slagging off rugby league. As they are proffesionally run

3, why doKE not publish ther AGM minutes?

4, why doKE not publish its "elected" BOD?

5, Why do the WKF have 29.1. if we trust what you say then only England inforces it? if thats the case then why do they have it in the first place?

6, why do you feel the need to slag of the EKF and WKF if the WUKF is so much better?? This will be seen as un-proffesional.

7, what is your possition if the WKF gets into the olympics.
There is no place for politics in sport. soon there will be no one left in karate for the polititians to fight over.

rgds
Mike Day

Hi EKA

Interested to see the comment on my letter and take opportunity to further the conversation.

I can assure FC that Alex Sell was at the Taekwondo selections with his father.

I can also advise that according to the WKF they consider Taekwondo can be compared with Ten Pin Bowling in otherwise it is a completely different sport. When I heard this I almost fell off my chair with laughter. Are they all barking mad ??

Taekwondo must surely be the sport that has kept Karate out of the Olympics over the last decade or so.

Karate skills are directly transferrable to Taekwondo hence so many EKF and KE athletes attended. Karate skills would not seem to have much bearing on ten pin bowling , at least not the wayI practice my karate.

On top of this, surely the very fact that EKF athletes were rubbing shoulders with non EKF Karateka should have been enough to get the EKF `internet thought police` fairly hysterical,I would have thought judging by past events.

Meanwhile I was at Karate England's squad training yesterday at Loughborough. Spectators welcome by the way !!!!

KE will be sending a squad of 22 to the WUKF European Senior Championships in Portugal.

We were also pleased to welcome back John Anderson (father and son) ,Glen Middleton and Trevor Justin and their excellent squad of fighters. John junior will be travelling to Portugal with us.

Other faces returning back to Shikon and KE were Mitchell Roberts and Hollie Roberts formerly of the EKF Kata squad (they both took Gold in the WKF Championships in Copenhagen last year) but are now looking forward to the WUKF World Junior Championships in Brazil in July.

I can hear the jeers of EKF people claiming this and that about standards between WKF and WUKF but the loudest shouts seem to come from people who have never been to either organisation's events .

Having been to over 20 WKF events over the last 15 years and having been to the last 4 WUKF events ,I can say that the top fighters at WUKF are as good as I've seen anywhere. Not surprising really as so many of them actually are WKF members as well. We even had the Danish WKF President take part in the veterans in Ukraine last year!!!

As far as size of event is concerned the WUKF Worlds in Italy in 2008 had 12 tatamis and 1500 entries . I had never seen anything so huge , you couldn't find a seat in the house on the finals day. The only comparable event was the WKF worlds in Munich in 2000 and maybe Madrid.

The real question people should be asking is :- `if WKF is so great , why are they implementing 21.9 so vehemently?? Who are they scared of ?????`

Ian

From: Fenton Carnaby

It was an interesting letter sent in by Ian Cuthbert of Shikon on the EKF Squad Members choosing to attend Taekwondo selections rather than attending the squad training in Rippon.

Obviously Ian will have a bias towards KE against the EKF and I don't always agree with his views but on this occasion I have to say he is absolutely 100% correct and yet again the Board of Directors must give an explanation as to why they let this happen.

From the athletes point of view with everything that has been happening this past year there is a part of me understands why they are abandoning the EKF, nevertheless it should not have been allowed to take place.

For those unaware several EKF Squad members decided to try their hand at Taekwondo including Davin Pack, Tom Canham, Gavin Bailey, Natalie Williams and Jonathan Mottram. It was the worst kept secret so far this year. I am not certain Alex Sell was there on that day as stated by Ian, I'm fairly sure I saw him in Rippon.

The serious issue which must be addressed is why they chose not to attend squad training, especially as they have been selected for the EKF team to travel to Greece very shortly. For me it brings into question their loyalty to the squad and now whether their positions on that squad should be reviewed, especially the two who are in coaching positions. This could mean our squad maybe slightly weaker but surely loyalty to theEKF is far more important.

If it comes to light the Board or the National Coach were fully aware of their attendance and gave their blessing then that raises another more serious issue, as highlighted by Ian Cuthbert.

One final question which is certainly relevant relates to the published 'Squad list' which was updated on the 25th February. We see the red 'A' next to a few absentees noticeably Reece Taylor and Rachel Newey who if I'm not mistaken have just returned from representing the EKF in Spain and would, justifiably, deserve a rest period. But what really jumps out is that not one of our EKF Taekwondo triallists are marked as absent from squad. WHY?

Lots and lots of questions of this EKF board but sadly no answers, is anybody actually in charge.

FC

 

Hi EKA

first time I have looked at your website and glad to see other people taking an interest in the apparent hypocrisy going on at the EKF.

Something not mentioned was the fact that half the EKF squad went to the selections , recently , for the National Taekwondo team for 2012 including John Mottram and Alex Sell (Alex being the son of the Debbie Sell who appears to be the head of the EKF internet `police force`).

My point is (and its one I have raised with Carl Lindley the EKF Chairman) how can the EKF discipline its members for going to non-EKF events when it allows its own squad members to go for try outs with the very World Body that helps exclude Karate from the Olympics?

The fact that Taekwondo are rapidly changing their rules to match the WKFcould be an extremely clever way of excluding WKF karate from the Olympics permanently. Yet here we have the EKF supporting that same group.

Madness on their part or is it just stupidity??

Personally I blame the EKF members for the continuing chaos , so long as they stay within the EKF it will continue to exist as it is. Anyone strong enough to change things has already left in my opinion.

Meanwhile as Shikon Head Coach I have to say that being in the new Karate England and going to WUKF events over the past three years has been a breath of fresh air , the result for us has been increased membership and a larger than ever squad ( we recently took 75 competitors to the British Open at K2).

No restrictions, back to solid traditional shubo sanbon (or Ippon if you prefer) , Kata in different styles instead of all lumped in together and best of all team Kumite rotation, which is possibly the most exciting format I have ever seen at a Karate competition.

Good luck with the web site.

Best regards

Ian Cuthbert
 
More Articles...
<< Start < Prev 31 32 33 34 35 Next > End >>

Page 32 of 35