Tae Kwon Do the art, Tae Kwon Do the sport

[matt.m]

I have a question. It seems a bit absurd considering my dads master in Hapkido and I have my orange in Hapkido and Tae Kwon Do, but I have absolutely no idea what icemansk meant in his topic post concerning sparring gear about USAT and open types of tournaments.

Now when I was a teen in the 80's in tournament we went by the rules of first to three. I was delved into the USJA and Judo for much of the nineties so I fell out of touch with point sparring. However, I have kept score and time at competitions and have recently got back into competition and have found that almost everything I did in my teens is still the same TKD sparring wise. The only exception being the one 2 minute round, whoever has the most points is the winner. It isn't, the first to three and that's it.

What I would consider open for example is our school Moo Sul Kwan sponsors a tournament, several different schools come and participate in the tournament.

Sorry long winded, I am just a tad confused as to the correct answer.

 

[terryl965]

Here you go alot of open tourney only use foam foot and hand with a mouthgaurd and head gear. Sport TKD uses a hogi chest protector and alot of protection and point are awarded only with the use of the feet.
Terry

 

[Last Fearner]

I have a question.... I have absolutely no idea what icemansk meant in his topic post concerning sparring gear about USAT and open types of tournaments.

Perhaps Iceman will want to elaborate on this himself, but I will add to what Mater Stoker (Terry) has already said. Every tournament has rules according to the host school or organization. Twenty to thirty years ago, Karate, Taekwondo, and Kung-fu tournament rules varied at the whim of whatever instructor was the tournament director. These tournaments are often referred to as independant or Open tournaments (as you described, where students from any non-related school may attend).

On the other hand, if the tournament director was part of a larger organization, (ITF, ATA, Chung Do Kwan, etc) the rules would be more consistent with the governing body. Currently, the USAT organization (USA Taekwondo) is the National Governing Body for Olympic competition in the United States. They are under the direct authority of both the U.S. Olympic Committee, and the World Taekwondo Federation which is authorized by the Kukkiwon Taekwondo headquarters in Seoul, Korea, and the IOC (International Olympic Committee).

Point tournaments of the past few decades have had few requirements on sparring gear (except cup and mouthguard). Today, they often require foam foot pads (boots or "saf-t-kicks") and foam hand protectors (gloves or "saf-t-chops"). These "point tournaments" (also known as "stop point" or "flag" tournaments) are known for stopping the match whenever a corner judge or center referee sees a technique that scored, and all the judges raise their flags (red or blue for example) to vote on the point - majority votes awards a point. The center referee's vote typically counts in these cases, and in some tournaments, can over-rule corner judges votes.

Olympic rules require specific gear to compete, in addition to groin cup and mouthguard (red, blue or white Headgear, Kasum Hogu for chestguard, white cloth shin/instep guard, and white cloth forearm guard) Gloves and Boots are not requried but are just becoming optional (before, they were prohibited). These matches are non-stop (except for penalties, injuries, or equipment problems). The points are either scored on paper by the corner judges, or by electronic scoring devices (usually where the corner judges push a button to register a vote for a point). Under these rules, the center referee does not vote on points, but issues all warnings (kyeonggo - half point deduction) and Minus Points (Gamjeom - full point deductions). The referee may also end the match and declare a winner based on a number of critereon. Although these matches are run very similar to "stop-point" and appear the same, there are many more indepth rule and procedural differences.

Iceman's dilemma seems to be whether or not to prepare the students for Open Tournaments, and buy the gear required there (usually boots and gloves), or Olympic (WTF/USAT) tournaments, and only get cloth pads. Eveyone needs their own mouthguard and groin protector (particularly males), but the more expensive chest and headgear can be shared (just wipe them clean between fights).

Now when I was a teen in the 80's in tournament we went by the rules of first to three.

In the 70's and 80's I fought in these tournaments too. Many times, a kick to the body was worth 1 point, a kick to the head was worth 2 points, and a jump kick to the head was worth 3 points. With 3 - 0 being an automatic win, many fighters (including myself) would go for the jump roundhouse, or jump-spin hook kick to the head, and end the match within the first few seconds. Becuase of this, many tournaments raised the atuo-win point to 5 or even 7 to nothing. Once both fighters had earned at least one point, this rule was not used. Currently, the U.S Chung Do Kwan observes a 5 point spread rule in their USCDKA stop-point tournaments where the match is ended if there is a difference of 5 points between the contestants regardless of how many points each fighter has.

Sorry for the long-winded response - but that's just me being me!
CM D. J. Eisenhart

 

[Miles]

I have a question. It seems a bit absurd considering my dads master in Hapkido and I have my orange in Hapkido and Tae Kwon Do, but I have absolutely no idea what icemansk meant in his topic post concerning sparring gear about USAT and open types of tournaments.

.....

What I would consider open for example is our school Moo Sul Kwan sponsors a tournament, several different schools come and participate in the tournament.

Sorry long winded, I am just a tad confused as to the correct answer.

Welcome to MT! When you spar at your school, do you wear equipment? If so, what type of equipment do you wear? At the tournament your school sponsored, was it attended by students of other martial arts (i.e. not Taekwondo)?

Miles
(trying to get an idea of where you are coming from, so to speak)