First Tournament

[FearlessFreep]

And again, with the sparring, I'm glad that you realized my lesson and that you are learning techniques that you can't use in tournaments.

Our school is more focused on self-defense/fighting then sport sparring and competition.

Now try this, the next time you spar in class, take the pads off both you and your partner. Keep control when you strike, because you don't want to hurt him/her, but you want to have speed so you can land the blow, which should feel like a tap when you connect. This just hightens your awareness and your control.

I rarely spar in class with arm or shin/instep pads; just the hogu. One thing our sabumnim has constantly stressed is that the pads don't really provide much protection. I have sparred him when he was wearing no pads at all. He stresses that the difference between 'light contact' and 'full contact' is a matter of penetration, of aim, not of power and speed. Full contact is "go for 6' of penetration on the kick", light contact is "surface contact", but the speed and power of the strike are the same.

 

[TX_BB]

Freep,

I don't like that idea and here is why. Most color belts tend to hit to lightly to begin with, if you ever watch a match with only gray haired ref's you normally see very few points since they were conditioned to award points on a trembling shock. Secondly, if you ever need to use your tkd for self defense you'll have a tendency to pull your techniques it's just human nature not to want to hurt another person. There are several reasons I would not do this with non-Dan belts but those are my top ones. The Kukkiwon manual and the korugi manuals have more information on the theory of padding.

Take it for what it is worth, goood luck