History
The National Karate Association (NKA) is recognised by the World Union or Karate-do Organizations (WUKO) as a governing body for Scottish Karate. Membership of the NKA is open to all Karate associations, clubs and individuals regardless of the style of Karate practised. All NKA members will have equal rights regardless of age, sex, gender, race, colour or religion.
The NKA was formed in 2003 by a group of enthusiastic Karate-ka who were eager to promote Scottish Karate on the world scale. The founding members of the NKA were Shitoryu and Shotokan clubs. The purpose of the NKA is to regulate Karate in Scotland from an technical and sporting viewpoint. To do this the NKA provide technical seminars, both formal and informal, and championships to promote relations between its members.
At the outset the NKA were members of the World Karate Confederation (WKC). The WKC is a worldwide multi-style Karate organizations with member federations on all five continents. It was through the WKC which allowed the Shitoryu division of NKA to develop a technical relationship with the Sei Iwasa of Italy’s FESIK. Throughout the years of membership of the WKC, Scotland fielded competitors at the Junior World Championships in Yugoslavia where the NKA members returned with a gold and a bronze medal. A team was fielded at the next Junior World Championships held in Germany where a bronze medal was added to this tally. Scotland was also represented by teams at the European Championships in Italy and the World Championships in Serbia & Montenegro.
In 2005 the name of the organization was changed to the World Union of Karate-do Organizations (WUKO). The name of WUKO was abandoned in early 1990. The re-birth of WUKO brought a re-surgance in the interest of the organization and has allowed the organization to expand its membership base. Changes to the rules of competition Karate were made by adding more styles of Karate rather than the ‘big four’ so other styles do not feel discriminates against. Technical seminars have been set at each Championships to promote the continuous developement of Karate all over the world. The technical director of Shitoryu Karate is master Sei Iwasa who oversees the developement of the Shitoryu division of the NKA.
Since the re-birth of WUKO, Scottish teams have been fielded at the European Championships held in Austria. The team returned home with a silver and bronze medal. Further to this success the NKA sent a team to represent Scotland to the recent World Championships in Spain where they picked up a bronze medal. More recently the senior squad picked up a bronze medal at the European Championships in Belgium.
The NKA sent a squad to Jesolo for the World Championships for Children, Cadets and Juniors in Italy. Building upon this a team recently attended the European Championships for Children, Cadets and Juniors which was also held in Italy. The team came home winning five bronze medals.
