Martial Arts Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for students and teachers of all martial arts. It only takes a minute to sign up.
Sign up to join this community
I am a Shotokan Karate practitioner and I have good control over my kick. However, even with that I am not doing well under WKF sparring because these two kicks are disallowed. I find them very effective as they go to the centre of the body and are hard to block.
Although most of semi contact sports allow them like TKD, Wu Shu etc…, WKF does not allow them. Why is that?
Where did you get the idea that these techniques are disallowed? Not only are they allowed, but they score well for jodan - and may be trapped.
Here, Article 8, which describes prohibited actions, no mention of any specific technique is mentioned - only prohibited targets (groin, throat, etc)
KATA AND KUMITE COMPETITION RULES REVISION 9.0 EFFECTIVE FROM 1.1.2015
EDIT: Added a more updated document, just released:
KATA AND KUMITE COMPETITION RULES EFFECTIVE FROM 1.1.2018
And in it, still no mention of specific banned techniques - only banned targets.
Also, in your comment, you mention that a class of techniques (eg, "curved") would fall under a category of prohibited action. This is partly true: but it applies to every single technique. The idea behind the rule:
Techniques, which by their nature, cannot be controlled for the safety of the opponent and dangerous and uncontrolled attacks [sic, are Category 2 prohibited behaviors]
...is for contestant safety. In other words, if you can't control a punch... don't punch. If you can't control a front kick... don't use the front kick. And so on. If your instructor has evaluated you, and found that your kicks are not well controlled, s/he may well tell you that, for purposes of an upcoming competition, you "should not" (not "cannot") use those techniques.
That is fine: you are not banned from it, and there's no rules against it; rather, you are being told that temporarily, you shouldn't use it because you can't control it. If you use the technique your instructor has told you not to use, and yet it lands safely, then no problem. Similarly, if your instructor doesn't tell you not to punch, because s/he thinks you control them well, and then you punch your opponent in an uncontrolled way possibly injuring him, guess what? You get a warning or point deduction. It's not the technique, it's the result of the technique.
That is the only reason I can think of why you might have gotten the idea that the technique, per se, has been banned. It hasn't.
