Categories & Divisions
Categories define the divisions athletes actually compete in within a speciality, combining gender, age group, weight class, and belt rank. This article covers setting them up by hand or CSV and how they drive registration.
Categories & Divisions
Applies to: Organizers
Within each speciality, categories define the divisions athletes actually compete in: the combination of gender, age group, weight class, and belt rank that determines which bracket a registration lands in. Getting these right up front is what keeps check-in day from turning into manual re-sorting.
What Makes Up a Category
A category is a combination of up to four axes:
- Gender: e.g. male, female.
- Age group: e.g. senior, junior.
-
Weight class: e.g.
-70kg,-80kg. The name is free text, and each band can carry an optional minimum and maximum that the weigh-in station checks against. See Weight Categories and the Scale. - Belt rank: e.g. blue belt, purple belt.
You don't have to use every axis for every speciality. A no-gi absolute division, for example, might skip weight class entirely. Define only the splits your competition actually needs; every extra category is one more bracket to seed and one more thing check-in staff have to get right.
[Screenshot placeholder: Category editor showing gender/age/weight/belt selectors]
Defining Categories Manually
When adding or editing a speciality, the Categories field lets you list each division combination for that speciality. Each combination becomes its own bracket once registrations close.
Defining Categories via CSV
If you're using the CSV import described in Specialities & Templates, the Categories column accepts multiple combinations per speciality row. This is the fastest way to set up a full weight-and-belt matrix without clicking through the UI one division at a time.
How Categories Drive Registration
An athlete's profile (birth date, gender, weight, belt rank) is what places them into the right category when they register. This is exactly why the athlete-profile guide tells athletes to fill in those fields before their first competition: an incomplete profile means Hajime, or you manually, has to guess.
If a walk-up athlete shows up without a profile, you'll place them into a category yourself as part of the walk-up flow, covered in Event Morning.
Frequently Asked Questions
What happens to a category with too few registered athletes? The readiness checklist flags undersized brackets before you publish (see Readiness & Go-Live), so you can merge, adjust, or manually override before the event goes live rather than discovering it on the day.
Can two specialities share the same category definitions? Yes. Each speciality has its own independent category list, so identical weight/belt splits across, say, Gi and No-Gi are entered (or CSV-imported) separately per speciality.
Do I need to set weight AND belt for every category? No. Use only the axes that matter for that speciality; an absolute division might use only belt rank, for instance.
Next in this guide: Setting Event Fees
Last updated: July 2026