Turkish Kickboxing Federation has organized a Coach and Referee Training Seminar on December 20-21, 2008 in Antalya/Turkey. More than 450 Referees and Coaches have attended to the seminar in order to learn the new International WAKO Rules. Vice President of WAKO and President of Serbian Kickboxing Federation Prof. Borislav Pelevic and Austrian Kickboxing Association Official and International Referee Mr. Michael Pucher kindly attended to the seminar. Mr. Michael Pucher presented the WAKO Rules for Tatami Sports (Semi Contact and Light Contact) and Mr. Borislav Pelevic presented the WAKO Rules for Ring Sports (Full Contact, Low Kick and K-1). Turkish referees and coaches were strongly satisfied from the presentations and the organization. During the seminar Mr. Pelevic and Mr. Pucher has carried out some demonstrations of scoring and applications of rules during the fight. Mr. Pelevic brought a DVD including some contests from the 16th World Championship which was held in Serbia last year, and attended referees and judges were asked to fill in the scoring papers as an application of the International WAKO Rules for scoring. Additionally, Mr. Pucher presented some instances on filling the scoring papers and decisions of the central referees and judges. Also, new WAKO Rules for the Tatami Sports were presented during the presentation of Mr. Pucher. Finally, we would like to emphasize that this seminar was a remarkable training for Turkish referees, judges and coaches. We would like to organize further trainings with the participation of experts from WAKO family every year. We are thankful to WAKO President Mr. Ennio Falsoni, Mr. Renè BOSCH from the Switzerland Kickboxing Federation and the General Secretary of the Austrian Kickboxing Association Mr. Otmar FELSBERGER for their cooperation and Mr. Borislav Pelevic and Mr. Michael Pucher for their valuable contribution and cooperation to our seminar.
Salim KAYICI
President of Turkish Kickboxing Federation
