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How was the fighter paring and/or kata order determined? This is one of the most often asked questions at any USA Karate competition. The biggest problems are late registrations for membership and not filing liability waivers. Let us take a look and try to shed some light on these matters give some helpful hints to help eliminate the problems and confusion in properly registering that is associated with any major sports event.

As respects to charting, two different systems are used, one for the League and JO/AAYC and a different one for the National Championships. Kata order at the Leagues and JO/AAYC is determined in general by the order in which the applications are received. If you get your application in first, you will generally perform last. Effectively, the last entries received go first and for events with no late registrants, the first three competitors are blindly drawn. In regards to the league championships, while this may load the competition in favor of an RSO who stages an early qualifier, most applications are received within the last 30 days before the event so this is not really a factor. You may want to note that qualifiers, according to USAKF guidelines, must occur at least 30 days prior to the league championship so there is plenty of chances not to be the last entry. In the past, the USAKF has made exceptions for RSO's who fail to hold their qualifier within the guidelines. Exceptions will no longer be made. A late fee of $25 will apply to anyone registering less then 21 days prior to an event and the less desirable charting positions will be given to those competitors involved. (Note: Competitors who fail to include the late fee are now billed for this fee and entries will not be permitted until the fee is paid.) In reality, everything will go smoother if qualifiers are held on time and everyone enters before the event deadline. Naturally, the sooner your qualifier is held, sooner your entry is received, the sooner problems are solved, competitor passes are received, and long confusing lines at registration will become a thing of the past and you will not have to worry about an undesirable charting position. The early bird will get the worm.

Kumite order at the leagues and JO/AAYC is determined by totaling the number of athletes entered by each RSO for each division and ordering them from the largest to smallest. The competitors are equally divided up between pools if required and spread out in the first round charting the largest RSOs first in such a manner that unless the number of entries from one RSO exceeds 50% of the entries in the division, no one will fight someone from the same RSO in the first round.

The National Championships uses a different method based on placement at the leagues. If you place first in kata at the leagues, you will be charted in one of the last three places at the nationals. The very last person is determined by the league you qualified in. In 1993, the order will be the Pacific last, the Southern second to the last and the Atlantic third from last. This changes each year on a rotational basis. You may also want to note that the Atlantic league qualifies eight to the nationals while the other two qualify only six. The Atlantic League is three times larger then either the pacific or southern league. When the pacific or southern league reach 800, they too will be able to qualify eight.

Kumite order at the nationals is determined by seeding all qualifying athletes in the order of placement in their respective leagues. This is accomplished by using internationally accepted methods of seeding and official double elimination charts. Generally, the byes go to the first and second place qualified competitors and the higher seeded competitors are matched against lower seeds from other leagues in the first round.

Last year a bug was discovered in the national charting procedures. When an applicant applied for an open position at the championships, the open athlete was inserted in the division and placing where the opening occurred. This could result in giving an athlete who did not place at the league a superior seeding over an athlete they have lost to. This bug has been fixed for this year. (The open slot is a position that unfilled because a qualified athlete failed to enter an event. The position becomes open and can be filled by the first unqualified athlete who competed at a leagues to send in a event application for that event. The slot becomes open immediately after the cutoff date. Note however, that the federation will not refund entry fees for open slots that have been filled. This is done at your peril.)

As respects the problems of getting membership numbers and liability waivers, the latter problem should be fixed by 1994. Liability waivers are now a part of the federation membership application. Starting in 1994, no old membership application forms will be accepted and only the new one will be permitted. Applicants using expired old forms will not be issued membership numbers until the proper form is completed and returned. Much of this problem is under the control of the Regional Sports Organization and if the groundwork is properly done in advance, this problem will be eliminated. The problem of late membership numbers can be fixed by early registration (you can register as early as September 1st for the next year) and in some instances by holding the qualifier as far in advance of the leagues as possible. In prior years, membership applications were turned around in 10 days by the national office. Unfortunately, if the RSO holds a late qualifier or sits on your application, the membership number cannot in many instances reach you on time and this is outside the control of the national office. Again, there are only so many hours in a day. If everyone waits till the last minute, resources are stretched to their maximum!
Does and Don'ts of Event Registration:

1. Do register your membership early. The earlier, the better. Don't send your membership application with your event registration.

2. Do sign all event forms in all places. Don't think we will overlook something.

3. Do mail all event registrations to USA Karate Event Registration, . Don't mail them anywhere else!

4. Do postmark your entry before the late fee date. Don't think we will let you off the late fee. This is not fair to those who register early.5. Do check with your RSO on whether they are entering a team. Don't send in money for team events with your event registration. Team events are registered and paid for separately by the RSO at the event site.

6. Do enclose a stamped self-addressed envelope to receive your competitor pass and/or USAKF patch. Don't call for these items if not received in five days. It normally takes about 14 days to turn around these items. Especially since everyone waits until the last minute to send their items in.
Hopefully the above has answers a good deal of your questions and will assist you to not be one of those in the registration line at this years events.