The Premier Tournament Circuit in North Texas

Updated August 30, 2023

General Rules 

1. All competitors must wear a traditional karate uniform.
2. Sparring gear is required for all levels and age divisions. No open insteps or open toed shoes are allowed. Gloves must cover back of hand, knuckles and all the fingers when fist is closed.
3. Mouth piece must be worn during all sparring matches for all levels and age divisions.
4. Groin protected is required for all male competitors.

Forms Traditional Forms 

1. A Traditional form is required for this division, techniques must consist of traditional martial arts movements. (no flips, cartwheels, ect)
2. Forms are judged on technique, intensity, and consistency. (No personal Bias on how you or another instructor teaches the kata)
3. The first competitors to register will always compete last in their division.
4. Announcements are optional. The competitor’s announcement should consist of their name, school’s name, martial art style, and name of form, before beginning their form.
5. The first three competitors will do their form and then sit down until being called back up to be scored. 
6. In the case of a tie the competitor should do a different form unless it’s in the beginner or specialty division. (If one student only knows 1 kata give the person, they are competing against the option to run the same kata)
7. Jr. Black Belt Kata divisions will be judged by judges with not affiliation to any competitor. 
8. If there is one competitor in a division, they are allowed to compete with the next division up. If the competitor decides to compete against the division run them as part of the group. HOWEVER, if they want to run an exhibition kata they will be rewarded 1st place for their performance since they did not have any one to compete against.
9. First 3 competitors will be judged with a score of 9.3, 9.5, 9.7. All other competitors will slide in between those scores.
10. We will split divisions at 8 competitors for intermediate and under belts and 17 years old.
11. We will keep divisions of 15 competitors for advance and BB Divisions   

Specialty / Weapons / Musical Forms

1. This division is for specialty / weapons / musical forms (non-traditional). Music and weapons are not required.
2. Adult Black Belt weapons division will consist of Specialty and Traditional divisions
3. Forms are judged on technique, intensity, and complexity.
4. The first competitors to register will always compete last in their division.
5. Announcements are optional. The competitor’s announcement should consist of their name, school’s name, martial art style, and name of form if applicable before beginning their form.
6. The first three competitors will do their form and then sit down until being called back up to be scored.
7. In the case of a tie the competitor CAN perform the same kata that they competed with the first time. In specialty and Traditional   

Sparring

1.  The first competitors to register get the byes.
2. Sparring divisions are single elimination.
3. We will fight for 3rd place
4. Side coaching is allowed in any language.
5. Fights will be 2 minutes total
6. The match will consist of 1 minute sparring a 10 second break and then 1 minute of sparring
7. There is no 7-point spread, however if the coach or parent wishes for the competitor to end the fight, they can speak to the center judge, and they will stop the fight.
8. There is still a 7-point spread, however if the coach or parent wishes for the competitor to continue, they can continue for the duration of the fight.
9. The same rules will be applied to Adult Black Belt Sparring Divisions.
10. Legal target areas are the stomach, chest, ribs, groin, and head gear. Face contact is not allowed in the Beginners and Intermediate divisions.
11. Light face contact IS allowed in ALL the Advanced and Black Belt divisions. No matter the age
12. Even if a fighter is wearing a face shield, face contact is still not allowed in the under-belt divisions. The legal target area is anything covered by a Century student headgear.
13. Warnings are given for face contact, for excessive force, or for intentional leg or kicks to the back.
14. 1st warning no point is awarded to the other fighter. 2nd warning ONE POINT is awarded to the other fighter. 3rd time for face contact you are disqualified. 
15. No warnings for knocked out of bounds.
16. Warnings given for fighter running from fight. (Same point system as above.)
17. Kicking to the legs, kicking to the back no disqualification. Points will be awarded for the other competitor.
18. Wild swings with intent to harm will be a 2/3rd judge’s decision on disqualification.
19. If a technique is indefensible a point can be awarded even if the point is not seen.
20. Two out of three judges must agree for a point to be scored. If two judges agree that one fighter scored a technique, but one judge calls 1 point, and the other judge calls 2 points, the fighter is awarded 1point.
21. Kicking techniques are worth 2 points and hand techniques are worth 1 point.
22. Hammer fist, axe kicks, back fists, punches, ridge hand, and chops are allowed to the top of the head. Any technique must have chamber and rechamber to be awarded a point.
23. No knocking or open hand slap to the top of the head will be awarded a point.
24. No blind techniques. The fighter must see his opponent before the technique makes contact. Spinning back fist are allowed if the fighter turns their head around first and recoils it.
25. No point will be given if the technique lands from a block. (I.E. Punch to chest, punch is blocked and the block redirects to hear causing the punch to land on the head.)
26. All boys must wear a groin protector.
27. All fighting competitors must have a mouth guard.
28. All competitors must wear a headgear except adult black belt divisions

Padded Weapons

1. Choice of: double padded escrima sticks, single stick with shield, or single stick only.
2. Face cage head gear must be worn (provided).
3. Hand pads encouraged (but whatever, they’re your fingers).
4. 2 points for a head shot, 1 point for a body shot.
5. Leg shot (to EITHER leg) results in fighter on BOTH knees for the remainder of the match.
6. Arm/hand/wrist shot loses use of that arm for remainder of match.
7. 1.5 min match time and NO point spread.
8. Tie will go to sudden death at the end.
9. Black night holy grail scenario obviously ends the match early. Not a draw.

Board Breaking

1. You decide your break and number/size of boards BEFORE you show up to compete.
2. We provide the boards which you must purchase $3/board (for fairness, clearly).
3. All ages may compete, so there will be 4”, 6”, and 10” boards.
4. Our judges can hold the boards, but you may use your own people as board holders too if you’re more comfortable.
5. There will be cinder blocks for vertical breaks, and a gorilla board holder for multiple board horizontal power breaks.
6. This event will be judged exactly as kata is judged. You will be graded on three factors: 
   1. Difficulty of break (i.e. number of boards and difficulty of strike).
   2. Technique and accuracy of strike.

• How many attempts it takes you to break it. ALL of it.