There are
few things about sports karate that annoys me more than poor tournament
management. So many competition promoters are so eager for large turnouts
that they tend to overlook the most important aspects of the tournament - the
management of the competition and maintenance of time standards. Recently,
I attended a tournament which, while only a local event, has really taken off
and has begun to include many competitors from overseas. The gentleman
that organizes this annual event is heavily involved with the WKF (World Karate
Federation) and the PKF (Pan-American Karate Federation), and has become very
involved with the karate programs in several Central American countries.
Due to these contacts, he has begun to host competitors from all over the
Pan-American region for his annual tournament, which is fantastic. This
year alone he had well over 400 competitors for the entire event, which is
nearly double from last year's number.
This
event is, without a doubt, the largest such event in the area short of any
national championships that might occur in this part of the country. The
men's black belt division had well over 30 competitors, a number you will only really
ever see in the national championships, and each kumite division ran 3 rounds
of eliminations, at the very least. The numbers were fantastic for this level
of tournament, and I couldn't have been more excited for the organizer as he is
a great guy that put in a ton of time and effort into providing such an
outstanding event.
The
problem is that he was incapable of managing the time and the people for his
event. Sadly, this is an issue most tournament organizers face. There
are many factors that you can associate with poor time management. Some things are within the power of the
organizers to control, and others are within their power to at the very least
mitigate.
Primary
issues with poorly run tournaments:
·
Poor
time management
·
No
adherence to any established timeline
·
All
rules subject to changes and exceptions
·
No
controls put in place to ensure referees, volunteers and competitors arrive on
time
·
Zero
accountability
·
No
effective control of spectators
Poor time
management
Time
management is paramount with events like tournaments, seminars and training
camps. When you have a large group of
people, and many events to go through, time is, as the saying goes, of the
essence. Start an event late, there’s
really no hope of catching up, delay an event and you’re in the same boat, but
that can generally be mitigated. So how
do we utilize proper management of time?
The first step, as it is with any business venture, is to have a
plan. For a tournament, this typically
means a budget and a schedule. The
budget is only useful in the preparatory stages of the tournament, but come
tournament day, the schedule is of utmost importance. Having a schedule isn’t enough, though, the
organizers need to plan for all eventualities and emergencies. The organizer needs to know what he will do
should anything force a change, and all top officials (i.e. chief referee,
president of tournament, arbiter, etc.) must also be involved and aware of all
contingency plans.
New
Rule: Make a plan! There’s nothing more
unprofessional than a tournament that doesn’t have a schedule of events.
No adherence to
any established timeline
Let’s
assume that the tournament organizer went so far to actually establish a
timeline. There are some issues that can
still come from this. Having a schedule
isn’t enough; the schedule, first off, does need to be specific enough with
sufficient detail for the schedule to be effective. Furthermore, a large issue is organizers
being too ready and willing to make exceptions to the established schedule too
often. Naturally, emergencies do arise
that force the organizers to push events around, or even delay the
tournament. Frankly, anything short of a
power outage really shouldn’t delay the tournament much as long as steps have
been put into place to account for any issues that can be mitigated (i.e. late
competitors, late judges, lack of sufficient volunteers, etc.).
New Rule:
Once you make a schedule, stick to the schedule! It’s unfair to the competitors, and everybody
else involved to delay events.
All rules subject to changes and exceptions
This ties
directly into the previous point, but goes even further. Tournaments in this locale typically fall in
the NKF/WKF style of competition, with the 8 point system and, what feels like,
20 lbs. of safety equipment. That’s
fine, rules are rules, but those rules need to be adhered to. Certain tournament organizers choose to make
specific changes to the rules once the tournament has begun…that’s not fair to
those competitors that come prepared to operate within a rule-set. If exceptions are to be made, those
exceptions need to be outlined in the registration packet so all competitors,
coaches and officials are aware of the changes.
It delays events when the ring judges need to consult with the organizer
and the chief referee to determine what changes have been made on a case by
case basis.
New Rule:
Make rules and stick to the rules!
Exceptions can be made, but please, keep it to a minimum.
No controls put
in place to ensure referees, volunteers and competitors arrive on time
I find
this to be the most incredible part about tournaments. From the day I started competing, my dojo has
always made it a point to leave as a team and arrive at the tournament venue at
least 30 minutes prior to the scheduled start time. Why we still do that is beyond me;
tournaments that are meant to start at 9am “sharp” typically don’t begin until
10:30am at the earliest! Regardless, we
are unfortunately one of the rarities; most schools with large groups of
children will show up only tiny bit late.
The biggest culprits, strangely, are the black belt competitors and the
judges. These two groups train day in
day out like clockwork for an hour or more at the same time every day, and yet,
they are incapable of arriving on time for a tournament. Remember, the tournament is a business, the
referees and volunteers are employees, and the competitors are the
customers. If employees come to work
late, they are penalized, if a customer misses a sale, he’s out of luck. And don’t treat the volunteers any
differently, volunteers at not-for-profit organizations are still expected to
be at work on time regardless of whether or not they are compensated for their
time.
New Rule:
Make sure your employees come to work on time!
This goes back to the idea of have a set schedule. If you want your volunteers, referees and
competitors to be there at a set time, make sure they will be at a loss for
missing. This brings me to my next
point.
Zero
accountability
So, why
do judges, volunteers and competitors show up late? Well that’s very simple really; they have no
reason to be there on time. There is no
fear that they may miss out on the competition because the precedent has been
set in the past. Competitions are
regularly pushed back due to lack of judges and missing competitors. The lack of judges is a far greater issues,
in my opinion; you don’t need many competitors to have a division compete, but
there is a specific number of judges that are required. Give the judges and volunteers some incentive
to arrive on time might mean paying them, or providing them with some
service. Your payroll for the day
doesn’t need to be high, pay them based on the number of hours they are active
that day. This, of course, is not always
a viable option, but knowing that in the future their competitors might be
denied entry would most likely change their minds. Competitors on the other hand, if they’re
late they should be up the creek without a paddle. They paid the money to compete, if they miss
their event, that’s their problem. Do
not make exceptions to this.
New Rule:
Stick your guns, if you want your referees and competitors to be at the event
on time then require them to be there!
Make them aware that they will be accountable for their lateness.
No effective
control of spectators
This
point is my personal pet peeve at tournaments.
I understand that parents want to be nearby when their children are
competing, to take pictures and support their kids. Well here’s the problem, this creates a
safety hazard if the lanes are blocked up by hundreds of parents and siblings
standing around hoping to catch a glimpse of their kid. Furthermore, this blocks volunteers,
competitors and referees from getting to their assigned rings in a timely
fashion. Even if the delay is only 5
minutes, do that enough time and the whole tournament will be derailed. The gentleman I mentioned earlier handled
this issue the best he could, and I believe in the best way. The tournament was stopped, all activity in
all the rings was stopped. He would not
allow the competition to proceed until the parents went back to the stands and
sat down. While this is a delay of the
tournament, this is a calculated delay – nobody wants to stay at these
tournaments longer than they need to.
New Rule:
Control your spectators! Make sure that
they know that they are delaying the competition; this goes back to assigning
accountability. The spectators getting
in the way delays the competitors from competing; this delays the
tournament. Beyond that, they need to be
made aware of safety concerns, and the fact that the tournament director will
stop the event if safety does become a concern.
These, in
my opinion, are the biggest issues facing tournament organizers
everywhere. There are other issues as
well, such as organizers desiring to put on a show for the spectators. This is fine, but remember who your customers
are – the competitors. Don’t deny them
the service promised, i.e. the tournament, just so the parents will not get
bored. The competitors rarely, if ever,
care about the opening ceremonies. Cater
to your clientele, without them you don’t have a tournament.
Too
often, karate organizations and tournaments are often run in a
seat-of-the-pants, lackadaisical manner. This is wrong, let me
repeat that: this is WRONG! Tournaments are businesses as much as karate
organizations are, and the customers are the karate-ka that participate.
Officials, referees and judges are employees, if you need officials to
arrive on time, then make sure you're paying them for the time they put in, or
compensate them in some other way. Even volunteers at not-for-profit
organizations are expected to work the hours they promise, and expected to
arrive to work on time, not on their own schedules. If they don't arrive
on time, they are penalized (same as any late employee). Businesses cater
to the customers, but they don't make huge exceptions for them. Generally
if a customer misses out on a sale at a department store, they are out of luck.
Why shouldn't this apply to a tournament?
Running a
business is a simple matter as long as you have plan. The complexities
arise in the execution, but even those can be mitigated. You just need to
stick to the plan. Tournaments are much the same matter, but the trick is
sticking to your plan. Remember the first rule of business: have a
plan. Without proper planning then all
we are is a bunch of weirdos dancing around in white pajamas.
