Shinpans......

[munenmuso]

How hard is it being a shinpan or referee to a kendo match? What are the qualifications to become one and what are the problems encountered by a referee especially on high level matches? How do you measure up or score an actual ippon?


Any pointers on how to become a good one or how to maintain your credibility and integrity as a referee.


Cheers!!:)

munenmuso

[Neil Gendzwill]

How hard is it? Just try it and see! No formal qualifications necessary, just arrange a shiai practice and take turns acting as shimpan. You'll quickly see that it's easy to criticise from a player's point of view, another thing entirely when you're holding the flags yourself.

Usually bigger tournaments require yondan or godan at least as qualification. The assumption is by that time you've done some training as a shimpan.

For the Worlds, you must be at least godan and attend (and pass) one of the IKF referee seminars. These seminars are fairly demanding and require you to demonstrate, amongst other things, that you are still capable of active practice. If you can no longer do it, you can't judge it.

As far as how to judge a point - I don't have a link handy, but somewhere around the net the IKF regulations are published and there's several pages there. Of course putting those into practice is another matter.

In practical terms, in order to judge a match you must be capable of performing at least at the level of the competitors. If you don't understand how points are made, you won't be able to anticipate the opportunities. If you don't understand when a point *could* happen, then you are much less likely to see it when it does happen.

Dunno if that was clear. Anyways maybe Marsten-sensei or Matsuda-sensei can add more information, they both have more experience than I at high-level competition.

[Jerry Wellbrock]

There are a couple of articles in Kendo World Magazine on Shinpan!