BOKA preach new regulations

Calistus Kolantsho | Tuesday February 3, 2026 10:58

The event, which was held at BOKA hall, was meant to introduce the officials to the new World Karate Federation (WKF) rules and regulations which will be applied this year. They will start with the BOKA Senior first leg national team selection and team championship set for the February 7. BOKA vice president-technical, Union Kgafela, told Sport Monitor that it is always important for technical officials to be taken through refresher courses annually because rules of the game keep changing and improving.

He explained that there is nothing like knowing every rule in karate because that can be dangerous and lead to disqualification of athletes during the competitions.

“We want our referees and coaches to be at aware of the changes because we cannot have our competitions being spoilt by officials. WKF comes up with the new rules to improve our sport, the idea is for all of us to be at the same wavelength,” Kgafela said.

“We do not want a situation where there is a protest because of a bad call by a referee, a protest can be there but it should not be a result of not knowing new rules.

“Right now there is count down during kata, an athlete is given 35 seconds to start, there is also an issue of how many times one can bow. Of course some of the participants were a bit uncomfortable with it, and we had to explain until they understood the change,” he added.

Kgafela explained that under the new kata system competition, the winner of a kata bout or match will be determined by number of votes in favour of the winner.

He said the purpose of the kumite rules is to provide standardized rules for all levels of championships promoted or recognised by WKF.

He also said the plan is to start giving the new referees a chance to apply what they learnt during the junior national team selection. He said understanding of rules will make competitions to flow and it is also important for coaches to also know what is happening and teach their students.

Kgafela added that some of the amendments might seem small or without much impact like how a karate uniform is worn during competition, but that can be flagged.

He said those are the things they expect coaches to teach their students during training, not during competition.