"The Hidden Hand"

In the world of sports, point fighting is one that doesn’t get enough credit. The athletes move so fast and at such precise times. Being that it’s a sport where it’s truly a game of split seconds, the judges play a huge role in the outcomes of matches.

Judges need to be trained for point fighting just as they need to be for forms/weapons. The best judges for point fighting are the ones who used to be high level point fighters themselves. For divisions that often have thousands of dollars on the line, like Christine Rodriguez’s Ocean State Grand Nationals a few weeks ago, the judges cannot be any random judge that is around. Judges need to be actively engaged in the fight to ensure they get the best angle of the fight they can, while maintaining a distance from the other judges. They should be moving around almost just as much as the fighters.

Everyone knows those judges that look completely disinterested and just stand in their corner. At the Compete Internationals, there was a judge in the junior bb divisions who moved a ton and through punches and kicks depending on the point he saw score. While people laughed at him, he was a very solid judge. His calls were good overall and he was engaged in the fight.

Speaking of calls, judges also need to call things at the same time. Everyone points out the judge that is super late to call his/her points. It’s obvious, especially in a fast paced sport like point fighting. Judges calls also need to be final and should not be allowed to change their calls. People mention where a judge forgets what side a fighter is on, but a good engaged judge shouldn’t forget. You could also get into where judges will point to the fighter who they saw score and they follow them back to the line. Thats not a bad judge, but that would get into the next point where judges that throw up their arm super early. While a corner judge should be allowed to call stop because they may be able to see things the center can’t, we also don’t want judges to influence others.

An option to fix this is forcing fighters to get back to the line before judges call their point. The biggest issue with that is that it wastes time and disrupts the momentum of the fight. Another proposed change would be to not have a rolling clock and have the time stop every time the center says stop. The World Karate Federation and AAU Karate circuits follow this idea. Now I’m not saying we need to take 4 seconds to call one point, but this is an option to stop late calling judges and early calling judges and prevent any influence from other judges.

Another big issue is the rules consistency in the sport. The biggest rules that aren’t consistently called is the out of bounds rule and the gear malfunction rule. I’m not here to complain about the rules, more just on whatever the rule is, it needs to be called consistently the same. Too many times I see the same ring and center judge call them both differently. There is too much ambiguity on the force out rule for sure though.

Now one of the biggest things that gets on fighters’ nerves is calling the first point that hits. Not the fanciest or biggest move, the first. Point fighting is not a full contact sport, nor is it WKF, WUKF, AAU, etc where the point has to have proper form and technique. The point that should be called and awarded is the first technique that hits a scoring target. While we shouldn’t call slop where someone accidentally hits someone’s head with their arms falling down, no, it needs to be a back fist or jab. So it needs to be a decent point where it’s clear the fighter had some intention, but it is still first. Too many times judges get caught up in big moves like spin kicks, jump spins, or whatever else people throw now. While they are cool, are great from social media clips, and get the crowd going, if it didn’t hit first, they shouldn’t get the point. That’s where good judges come in and should call the correct point, which is what hit first.

Last thing to mention is judges being persuaded by coaches. Judges are the hired officials to run the ring. There’s been a handful of times just in this season that I and many others have witnessed a particular coach yelling and making a fuss at judges causing them to change their call, incorrectly change the score, and award a penalty point that should not have been awarded. Let the judges do their job and judges, call what you see. Don’t let the crowd, fighters, or coaches cause you to change the call. If there is a real issue, they should officially arbitrate.