NASKA vs WKF Tournaments

[Nidan Melbourne]

Out of curiosity, which tourament setup do you prefer to compete in or have your students attend? NASKA/ISKA (National Sports Karate Association/International Sports Karate Association) vs. WKF (World Karate Federation) type tournaments. 

When I talk about WKF Tournaments; I mean tournaments that are organised in some way through your Countries National Federation. So for here in Australia; they are organised either through Karate Australia (Formerly Australian Karate Federation) or one of the states federations. So for me I attend Karate Victoria Tournaments.

So for the Question/s I put to you: 

1. Which one do you choose to compete in? or if you don't compete; which one do you put to your students? 

2. Is there any particular reason you choose that over the other? 

• Be it availability, price, number of events you can do etc 

 

One of the things that put me off NASKA/NAS Tournaments is the apparent low standards from what I've seen online and in person. As they allow quite a wide variety of styles, which means that the judges can't properly evaluate the kihon or kata. Even comments I've heart from some who have competed have brought up how they had to "butcher" several of their forms to just to score points. 

But when they enter a Karate Victoria Tournament; the same "unaltered" form scores quite highly for an advanced form and done well.