The Council's Safety Rules, Explained

Every sanctioned Council event requires a certified safety judge on-site whose sole job is monitoring blade handling, separate from the judges scoring time and cleanliness. Competitors who show unsafe knife control — including cutting toward their own hand rather than away from it — are stopped immediately regardless of time remaining.

The Council also mandates a minimum age of sixteen for all sanctioned competitors, a supervised-knife waiver for competitors under eighteen, and a choking-response certified staff member at every event. In five sanctioned seasons, the Council reports zero serious injuries at a certified event.