ISKA rules

Part 1: General

Referees

Referee categories

International referee categories

1. ‘IRC’ – Members of the International Rules Committee – equal to ‘A’
2. ‘A’ – Entitled to be head referee on a world championship or to act as a Supervisor on international title fights.
3. ‘B’ – Entitled to be a referee in the finals of a world championship or to act as a referee or judge on international title fights.
4. ‘C’ – Entitled to be a referee in the elimination fights on a world championship or to act as a judge on national title fights.

Members of the ISKA Executive Committee and of the International Rules Committee (IRC) are identified by a ‘red’ ID-Card marked with ‘OFFICIAL’.

Referees of the categories ‘A’, ‘B’ and ‘C’ are identified by a ‘yellow’ ID-Card marked with ‘REFEREE’.

To be nominated as a ‘A’ – Referee, the majority of the IRC Members must support the nomination.

To be nominated as a ‘B’ – Referee, the IRC Chairman must support the nomination.

To be nominated as a ‘C’ – Referee, the appropriate country head referee or country representative must support the nomination.

The IRC can make the attendance of seminars and/or the successful passing of a test as well as sufficient knowledge of English (the official language of the IRC) as a condition for a ‘A’ or ‘B’ – Referee nomination.

The nominations are to be confirmed periodically, at least every 2 years.

Licensed referees will be registered in a central database. Their names, category, nationality and MAP-number will be published on the official IRC web site.

Nationality

The following two variants are suitable for the composition of the referee team on continental and world championships:

1. One referee of the nationality of the red opponent, one referee of the nationality of the blue opponent, and one or more referees neither from of the nationality of the red and blue opponent.
2. All referees from of a different nationality than either the red or the blue opponent.

If a referee has several nationalities, or if he, based on the exception of the nationality principle, has chosen a country, he has to step down whenever an opponent is of either one of the referees’ nationality or of the country of choice.

Conflict of interest

Who intends to be a referee on any event, cannot act as a judge or country representative at the same time.

The referees have the obligation to report themselves any possible conflict of interest. In case of an omission, the present IRC Members, after consulting with the Head Referee may impose one or more of the following measures:

1. Warning
2. Exclusion of a further participation as a referee on the event
3. Reduction of the referee compensation
4. Withdrawal of the referee’s license for a by the IRC to be determined time

Head Referee

At every competition, a head referee has to be designated. He/She is responsible for the whole referee organisation, and supervises the work on all fighting areas and/or rings.

At a competition with several fighting areas or rings, he/she designates so-called ‘Ring Inspectors’, which supervise all proceedings on their fighting area or ring.

The head referee can exchange referees who are obviously not neutral or who violate the official ISKA competition rules, and can ‘overrule’ their decisions.

Ring Inspector / Supervisor

The ring inspector places the referees on his fighting area or ring according to their nationality or affiliation to a school, club or particular fighter. He reports the results according to the instruction of the head referee.

On events with only one fighting area or ring, the supervisor acts as a ring inspector.

Protests

The individual judgements of the referees/judges are not subject to protests.

The decision of the official doctor is not subject to protests.

Protests are only possible in the following cases, and may be placed after depositing a fee of €100 in cash with the Ring-Inspector or the Head Referee:

1. a proven agreement between the judges/referees
2. the mathematical addition of the scores is wrong
3. an obvious mix up between the blue and red corner occurs
4. the official ISKA Rules were violated

Video recordings cannot be used to justify a protest.

A protest does not hinder the ongoing of a competition. The head Referee can though interrupt the continuation of the fights for a short period, if the result of the protest has a significant influence on the proceeding.

After hearing protest from both parties and the referee involved , the head referee then makes the final decision

The protest fees flow into the general account of the IRC for future referee training and development If in the case of a protest being put in after the competition, the IRC then makes the decision after hearing protest from both parties and the referee involved. The national federation has a limit of 30 days to make a statement in a matter of Protest

If the decision of protest leads to a loss of a European or World title, the final decision can only be given by the executive committee of the ISKA

Clothing

During the pre-elimination fights up to semi finals, T-shirt with the print ‘OFFICIAL’ or ‘REFEREE’ are allowed.

For the finals or title fights all referees have to wear grey trousers, a blue shirt with ISKA print and a bowtie. If necessary a dark blue blazer with ISKA logo can also be worn.

To minimise injuries it’s forbidden to wear any jewellery, watches or pens etc. With the exception of judges where no body contact is possible.

The use of medical gloves is recommended.

Registration of referees per country for world championships

For every 25 competitors of a country, one referee must be present

1–25 competitors	1 Referee
26–50 competitors	2 Referees
51-75 competitors	3 Referees
76-100 competitors	4 Referees
101-125 competitors	5 Referees
126 and more competitors	6 Referees

Each country that does not fulfil the requirements will be fined €150 per each missing referee. This goes into the general account of the IRC.

Each country is responsible for training and licensing their own referees in time for world championships.

The training for the ‘C’ graded referees is a matter of each country, however the IRC does offer seminars.

All countries which pre-register their referees for championships and get confirmation from IRC will receive priority

The referees payment which is equal to the starting fee of a single competitor each day , will be paid out on the morning before the finals start.

The organiser is responsible for taking care of the referees. Which also includes providing a separate room with food and beverages. It is also necessary that the referee tables are provided with mineral water.

Contents

Part 1: General

1. ISKA / IRC
2. Amateur status
3. Doping
4. Registration
5. Age categories
6. Weigh-in and medical examinations
7. Tournament organization
8. Referees

Part 2: Point fighting

1. Clothing and outfit
2. Matches, weight divisions and match time
3. Referee’s power
4. Beginning, interruption and end of fights
5. Rules of competition
6. Points and scoring
7. Warnings and penalty points
8. Competition safety rules
9. Protests

Part 3: Forms

1. Overview, scoring and presentation
2. Traditional Japanese hardstyle
3. Traditional Korean hardstyle
4. Softstyle
5. Musical form: freestyle empty hand
6. Musical form: freestyle weapon
7. Weapon traditional: no music
8. Veterans traditional

Part 4: Amateur rules and regulations

1. ISKA amateur weight classes
2. Physical examination
3. Divisions and rounds
4. Rules of conduct inside and outside the ring
5. Fighter and seconds
6. Matches in full contact, kickboxing and Thaiboxing
7. ASKA Amateur Division scoring rules
8. Protests and alteration of decisions in amateur events

About ISKA

ISKA is recognised worldwide as both a regulating body for competitive martial arts, and the governing body for amateur and professional kickboxing. Hosting its annual World Martial Arts Championships at the prestigious US Open, ISKA crowns World Champions in seven types of martial arts competition.

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