ITF Competition

ETinCYQX

Master Black Belt
Joined
Nov 24, 2009
Messages
1,313
Reaction score
19
Location
Gander
Those of you who compete or coach athletes for ITF sparring, what is the requirement to enter an ITF tournament? Is ITF membership/rank required? Do you have to be a student of an ITF dojang? Do any Kukkiwon instructors here have students who compete in ITF tournaments? If so, do you issue ITF rank as well as KKW for these athletes or do they only hold KKW rank? I know that ITF taekwondo practitioners are permitted to compete at WTF hosted events, wondering if the reverse is true. There's no ITF tournament circuit here so the point is moot for me, I'm just curious.
 

Earl Weiss

Senior Master
Joined
Jan 27, 2009
Messages
3,581
Reaction score
926
If it is an officiial ITF tournament then you must be an ITF BB.

There are may be tournaments hosted By ITF clubs that are "Open". I used to do some of those.

It is difficult to adjust sparring styles for the different rule sets.
 

Cyriacus

Senior Master
Joined
Jun 25, 2011
Messages
3,827
Reaction score
47
Location
Australia
If it is an officiial ITF tournament then you must be an ITF BB.

There are may be tournaments hosted By ITF clubs that are "Open". I used to do some of those.

It is difficult to adjust sparring styles for the different rule sets.

^This.
Im just verifying the above.
 

rlobrecht

Brown Belt
Joined
Oct 26, 2009
Messages
473
Reaction score
2
Location
Houston, TX
It is difficult to adjust sparring styles for the different rule sets.

Definitely. Our school is an independent. Until this year, we've focused strictly on ITF rules point sparring. Unfortunately, we've found that most of the tournaments are dropping point sparring at most levels, moving to strictly Olympic style. During class, I keep finding myself doing not allowed things, like following up a kick with a punch to the head. Oops.
 

chrispillertkd

Senior Master
Joined
Apr 10, 2007
Messages
2,096
Reaction score
107
Location
Pittsburgh, PA
Those of you who compete or coach athletes for ITF sparring, what is the requirement to enter an ITF tournament? Is ITF membership/rank required? Do you have to be a student of an ITF dojang? Do any Kukkiwon instructors here have students who compete in ITF tournaments? If so, do you issue ITF rank as well as KKW for these athletes or do they only hold KKW rank? I know that ITF taekwondo practitioners are permitted to compete at WTF hosted events, wondering if the reverse is true. There's no ITF tournament circuit here so the point is moot for me, I'm just curious.

As Master Weiss indicated, if it's an official ITF event then you have to be an ITF member. Official ITF tournaments are things like the WC's, European Champions, nationals (which serve as a qualifier for WC's), etc. You need to be an ITF member for those because, generally speaking, they're stepping stones to the WC.

I know several ITF instructors who hold tournaments every year which use ITF rules but aren't "ITF events." One is a smaller invitational tournament, one is a larger open tournament that is heavy with ITF'ers but also has some non-ITF schools participate, other events, too. They aren't ITF sanctioned, but you'd do well to know ITF rules if you're going to go (especially not to stop once you think you've scored a point - that's a good way to find out that ITF sparring isn't full contact but sure can hurt :) ).

Pax,

Chris
 

Latest Discussions

Top