SUMMARY OF THE MAIN IKU RULES (already approved by the IKU Board in July 2020 and integrated in March 2022)

It is worth repeating that, the tasks of the political/technical/referee commissions are well defined:
1) the Political Board approves the proposed rules
2) the Technical Committee proposes the rules
3) the Referee Committee applies the rules

MEMORIES FOR THE REFEREES: IKU referees must arbitrate, in the IKU championships, following the rules of the IKU; personal interpretations or rules of “others” Federations are not allowed! For these reasons of assessment, it is appropriate that all international referees IKU, arbitrated all year following the IKU regulations.
IKU referees, during the official IKU races, must wear the tie and the IKU crest. Other types of symbols are not tolerated. During an IKU Continental or World Championships is not allowed (for obvious conflict of interest) to no referee to arbitrate (in the center or even in chair) an athlete of his country in speciality of kumite. If sufficient neutral arbitrators are not available, the chief-tatami will be loaned (momentarily) by the nearby tatami one or more referees from other countries.
It will not even be allowed to have a referee of one country and another referee of the other country and leave the task of awarding, maybe a world IKU title to the third neutral referee who, in pratice, will judge alone.

CHIEF-TATAMI: in IKU the chief-tatami must apply exclusively IKU rules and must intervene immediately when this does not happen.

CRITERIA FOR DECIDING IPPON AND WAZA-ARI IN IKU COMPETITIONS:
Art. 3 / pag. 14 = According to IKU Competition Rules and to IKU competition “vision”, in a match the athlete who take the initiative, takes the action, takes risks, makes the match spectacular, in other words the attacker, will have the priority in awarding of points (ippon or waza). For example, if an athlete is passive and waits an guard for the other who is contructing the action attacking and brings a valid technique in the same time as the latter, the point must be assigned to the attacker and not to the one waiting.
Art. 4 / pag. 16 – 4.4 = If the central referee finds that an athlete has scored a technique by moving back or without moving the body towards the target, or without an evident displacement of the body as in the case of techniques with the front arm, even in presence of a valid point signed by one of the chair judges, he must not interrupt the action but indicate the nullity of the technique through the forenseen gesture (punch to his right side in case of AKA or to his left side in case of AO, followed by gesture of TORIMASEN).
4.5 = Open handed uchi techniques, such as shuto uchi, haito uchi, ect … are allowed: it is absolutely forbidden to deliver open handed techiques to the face (NO eyes, nosemouth, cheekbones).
4.12 = When both competitors deliver two valid techniques, the referee panel must give the advantage to the athlete having built the action, taken the risk and who is in an evident attacking phase.
4.13 = In order to improve the use of chudan geri ( maegeri, mawashigeri, ushirogeri, yokogeri) , the referee panel shall assign ippon or waza-ari, also in case the technique of geri does not perfectly comply with the criteria for scoring.
Art. 6 / pag. 19- 20 – JOGAI = If an athlete, voluntarily places himself on the red border of tatami (which is a warning color) and being attacked moves back in line exiting the competition area, he will always be punished with jogai (no pushing excuse, no TORIMASEN, ect …). If an athlete on the red border is attacked and to avoid exiting, he blocks the action of his opponent with his body, preventing him from continuing, he will always be punished with C2.

RULES FOR COACHES : Coaches must have on their neck clearly visible the pass with the credit for this role; they must wear exclusively the suit of their representative and are not allowed clothes, shorts, kimonos, coats, jackets and must sit in a composed manner (do not lean on the box); they can speak only with their athlete and, in a polite way and in accordance with the “educational spirit” of karate-do. The coach and the athlete can not bring, inside the race area, nothing (stopwatches, replacement protections, belts of other colors, water, studs, various drinks, ect …). The coach and the athlete must be those indicated in their respective pass; if a coach dishonestly changes the identity of the athlete called to compete with a different person or if transfers his pass to another person, they both have the “shikaku” in this event and both will be disqualified for 2 official IKU competitions (Continental and World Championships).

IMPORTANT FOR THE REFEREE COMMITTEE: The results expressed by the various “video tests” will also be theme of evaluation on the work of the tatami leaders and referees by the IKU Referee Committee.