Wanted: Support crew for our Kata World Championships team

The team selected to represent Australia at the 2024 Kata World Championships is looking for a support crew to ensure they are ready for Las Vegas in November.

Kevin and Sebastian Murphy have been selected to perform the Kodokan Goshin Jutsu, Yutaka Wakamatsu and Nicholas Mackay (pictured at right) take on the Katame no Kata, and Bernard and Bianca Tandean will demonstrate the U23 Nage no Kata and Ju No Kata.

To leave the athletes free to focus on their kata, Judo Australia’s Kata Committee is seeking volunteers to lead the team as coach and manager (or potentially, coach/manager).

These are an unpaid, volunteer roles that would suit a keen student of kata seeking to develop their coaching qualifications and knowledge of the artform as an international sport.  Expressions of Interest are being collected HERE.

The team manager will ensure travel and accommodations plans are properly submitted and followed up with the event organising committee.  The team manager will also assign a delegate to attend accreditation to confirm the entries of all athletes, and work with team members, officials, and Judo Australia to ensure all attending the WKC are inscribed into Judobase.

Coaches applying to become Team Coach will hold the necessary coaching certifications and will work closely with team members to develop a training plan to take them to the World Kata Championships.

These roles are voluntary and self-funded and do not require travel to the World Kata Championships.  However, if attending the event, the onsite officials must be inscribed into Judobase.  The team manager and coach roles may be combined for appropriately qualified individuals.

The Judo Australia Kata Committee is also utilising this EOI to invite qualified IJF certified Kata judges and those qualified OJU-level Kata judges, who are interested in taking the IJF Kata judges’ examination.  

Judges and candidate judges must be registered in Judobase.  Candidates for IJF kata judge’s certification must be at least 4th Dan and 30 years old. They may register in the Kata for which they hold a continental (such as OJU) license.  

For further information on judges examination, please refer to the Event Guidelines.  Questions should be directed to Ernie Wakamatsu, etwakaoz@gmail.com.  Expressions of Interests should be lodged HERE.