CHITF Australia vice-president and Goulburn Martial Arts Academy head instructor, Craig Harmer, said the event ran "really well" across the day.

"[We had] excellent feedback from everyone, they had a great time," Harmer said.

"Everyone that travelled was more than happy to come back again, to the point where one of the Sydney instructors is looking to host an event at the same venue this year or next year.

"Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and have a good time and the tournament was run extremely well."

More than 70 competitors took part in the competitions throughout the day, with some as young as five and others in their late fifties.

The day began with the forms, where students must demonstrate their techniques in a set routine. They are judged on such factors as technique, fluidity of movement, and speed, and the patterns increase in complexity as students progress in experience.

Following the forms was the sparring, which saw competitors with gloves, shinguards, and headgear on fight one another.

The GMAA students did exceptionally well, with a number of competitors claiming medals throughout the day.

Though he has not got an exact number of medals won by his students, Harmer was very pleased with their performance.

"A lot have come away with medals," he said. "Most have come away with something, there are not many that didn't come away with anything. It was a high level of competition as well."

The competition proved immensely popular not just in NSW, but up and down Australia's east coast.

Clubs from Sydney, Canberra, Brisbane, the Gold Coast, Mildura, and Melbourne took part in the event, which Harmer hopes to bring back to Goulburn in future years.

"I'd be looking to host the state titles annually if I could," he said.

"That's something that'll happen at the [CHITF Australia] AGM, we'll table proposed dates for tournaments and we'll award accordingly. Tournaments are one of those things that not a lot of people want to organise because they're a lot of work.

"I'd be pretty confident if I applied to do it I'd get it."

Though Saturday's tournament went extremely well, Harmer has some ideas for change which may streamline the event.

"A lot of clubs take time off over the Christmas break, so I think next year we might host it later in the month or in early march," he said.

"[At the] next event we may have self defence routines ... Not everyone enjoys sparring and patterns, and everyone's physical abilities can be a little bit different, so we're just offering the members something a little bit different."

One of the most pleasing aspects of the championships for Harmer was seeing the number of parents competing at the same event as their children.

Harmer speaks from experience in this regard. His son, Thomas, is a blackbelt at GMAA and performed extremely well on Saturday.

"It's one of those sports you can do for your parents. Not many kids are playing AFL with their dad, he's usually coaching," Harmer said.

"One of the guys I was talking to came from Sydney, he's 58 and a red belt, and his son's 8 and he's a red belt. He understands what it's like for his son to get nervous when he goes out to spar, because he feels like that too.

"They get a really good insight into what their kids are experiencing."

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