This is a good very good question and sometimes confusing to those of you who are not living and breathing Taekwondo like us.

Due to the many various organizations for Taekwondo, here we will focus on the World Taekwondo Federation (WTF) – the official Taekwondo for the Olympics.

We need to first focus on the structure of sparring and how people different ages are grouped in combination with which rank or Taekwondo belt color or Dan they are. There are many divisions and groupings such as Junior C, B, A and Senior competitors. Each grouping is determined by age and weight. For simplicity lets focus on Junior A, Senior and Olympic Divisions:

Junior A Divisions: 14~17yrs old – 10 Divisions

Weight category Men Women Fin - 45kg - 42kg Fly 45kg – 48kg 42kg – 44kg Bantam 48kg – 51kg 4kg – 46kg Feather 51kg – 55kg 46kg – 49kg Light 55kg – 59kg 49kg – 52kg Welter 59kg – 63kg 52kg – 55kg Light Middle 63kg – 68kg 55kg – 59kg Middle 68kg – 73kg 59kg – 63kg Light Heavy 73kg – 78kg 63kg – 68kg Heavy +78kg +68kg

In order to quality for National Competition teams, you must be competing officially in all tournaments, collecting points for your wins. To quality for the Junior Canadian National Team, you need to medal at the Canadian National Championships and subsequently compete to win 1 of 10 spots on Junior Team Canada which will enable them to represent the country at the Worlds and other International competitions such as the 2011 Pan Am Games

Senior Divisions: 15+ yrs old – 8 Divisions

Weight category Men Women Fin - 54kg - 47kg Fly 54kg – 58kg 47kg-51kg Bantam 58kg – 62kg 51kg – 55kg Feather 62kg – 67kg 55kg – 59kg Light 67kg – 72kg 59kg – 63kg Welter 72kg – 78kg 63kg – 67kg Middle 78kg – 84kg 67kg – 72kg Heavy +84kg +72kg

For a Senior to qualify for Team Canada, they must win 1^st place at the annual Canadian National Championships. Only 1^st place competitors will achieve this level where they will represent Canada at International competitions such as the Worlds and Pan American Games.

Olympic Divisions:15+yrs old – 4 Divisions

Men Women - 58kg (under 58kg) -49kg (under 49kg) - 68kg (under 68kg) - 57kg (under 57kg) - 80kg (under 80kg) - 67kg (under 67kg) + 80kg (over 80kg) + 67kg (over 67kg)

Senor divisions are combined to make up the 4 Olympic divisions. In order to compete for one of the spots in a division, the competitor must accumulate points throughout the year competing as a Senior, placing within their respective division and trying to achieve the highest rank in the country. The highest ranked athletes will then compete at the Olympic qualifier matches, the winner will represent the weight division at the Olympics.

I have been told that for Canada, there are only 4 Athletes that will represent Canada, this is unconfirmed to date, we will see for the 2012 London Olympics as we move closer to the event.

Back to WTF Taekwondo Sparring…

World Taekwondo Federation Sparring has three semi-continuous rounds of contact, there are one minute breaks between rounds and points are scored for power and accuracy to scoring sections such as the head or chest protector.

There are three rounds with a referee and 3 corner judges. They use electronic scoring systems to register which opponent make the correct contact which warrants a point(s)

Due to controversy in the subjectiveness of human scoring, at all National Competitions, they have now implemented electronic scoring which combines pressure and electronic sensors measuring both accuracy and power.

Points for sparring are awarded as follows:

• 1 point for a kick or punch to the chest protector
• 2 points for a spinning kick to the chest protector
• 3 points for a kick to the head
• 4 points for a spinning kick to the head.

Note: in WTF sparring there are no punches to the head allowed.

When the three rounds of sparring conclude, the competitor with the most points wins the match and moves on to the next competitor in the division tree. If there is a tie (same points each) at the end of this term, they move into sudden death. Sudden death is 1^st point wins however when time expires and neither has scored a point, the decision will be for the officials to decide the winner.

In 2010 the WTF brought back the gap point structure. Previously it was if one competitor gained a 7 point lead over the other, they would win however since this time, modification has occurred whereas there is now a 12 point gap rule. If there is a 12 point gap at the end of the 2^nd round or if a 12 point gap is achieved in the 3^rd round the match will be stopped and the winner declared.

There is no holding back in competition, the kicks and punches are lightning fast and very powerful. It is legal to knock out the competitor, when this occurs, the other is declared the winner.

This overview was not written nor is approved by the WTF, it is of my own opinion and research, I hope that you enjoyed your read, feel free to tweet or like this article and I will keep working hard to provide you as much information on Martial Arts as I can!

Tags: Olympic Taekwondo Sparring, Olympic TKD, TKD Sparring, wtf, WTF Sparring, WTF Taekwondo, WTF Taekwondo Sparring

This entry was posted on April 15, 2011 at 11:36 pm. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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