2009 A New Year

Dear Fellow Referees,
We are in the last days of 2008 and I must say, we have had a  year full of events which have been very fruitful for our athletes, coaches and referees. From the referee point of view, the referee committee of the NKF has accomplished the task of training our referees and recruiting new referees to the program by conducting seminars all over the country, and by sacrificing time from the daily responsibilities of their jobs and families, and we are able to see such an incredible increase in the referee core in the United States. We had a very successful year for our athletes as well; the results of the World Championships in Japan reflects the success of our karate program.

We are going to have a challenging and exciting year to come; As you are all aware, karate is on the short list of the International Olympic Committee. Once again, karate has a chance to join the Olympic program on October of 2009 when the Olympic Congress meets in Copenhagen, Denmark. At the same time, the Danish Federation is launching the Copenhagen Open. This is an international karate Championships which is a fantastic opportunity to display our sport. We all have to hope that karate will be able to get enough votes to join the Olympic program.

I would like to encourage all Sensei and friends to continue to host seminars and move our referee program forward. Our goal must be to train every referee in our program to the highest level nationally as well as internationally; this can only be achieved by the continuation of what we have already started in the last two years. Please work together with all the Sensei and dojo’s in your area and host a kata and kumite seminar conducted by a referee committee member, that way we can continue our success in 2009.

I would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a Merry Christmas, a Happy Hanukah and a wonderful Holiday Season for all of you. Remember, none of us is better than all of us together.

Sincerely,

Alex Miladi
WKF Karate Referee
USANKF Referee Director
USANKF Referee Committee Member