TKD Tournament experience

QIGONG

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For the last 3 years I have been training at a school that has a TKD base curriculum (We do palgue forms) and learn basic TKD technique as far as blocks and punches, however we have a large Karate/Judo/Hapkido influence as well, so when we spar, It is more remeniscent of Daido Joku, or Kyokushin (as far as contact level, sweeps and throws, joint manipulation and leg strikes allowed)


I recently saw a poster for an invitational Taekwondo tournament in a town in Oklahoma I live in, hosted by the USSSA (I'm guessing the governing sport/rule association for this event) so I decided to invite my sister to come with and we'd have a go at it.
I have taken Jeet Kune Do and Phillipino Kali in the past and Traditional TKD as a child, so I knew I'd have to remain completely open-minded because you never know how a different organization is going to operate, and I knew it'd be up to me to transition my style to meet their requirements for fighting.

I chose forms and continuous point sparring as an event, and after somebody was nice enough to let me borrrow their vinyl dipped hand gear (eek, regulation I wasn't aware of) I started sparring... and of course, immediately I was called for excessive contact, and as much discression as I was using (I am not a power house fighter, I have quite a bit of control) the ref still called me aside and said "This is what we want" and patted me lightly on my chest gear - !

I was under the impression that olympic style fighting was when they break the fighters each time a point is scored, reset, and fight like this until the round ends or KO. After my event was over, I watched olympic fighting, I saw that it was continuous 90 minute (?) rounds of full contact kicks and hard punches to the chest gear, the opposite of what I thought ha ha. Everyone told me afterwards "You kick too hard - you should've been in Olympic fighting!"

But aside from the learning curve, the tournament was great, my sister and I both won 1st in forms, and 1st and second in sparring (respectively) and we made a lot of friends, and got to see some traditional TKD performed by some great pratitioners.
 

kerc

White Belt
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That's pretty cool. Someday I'd like to participate in a tournament (for 30-something oldies like me).
 

ATC

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Glad you had fun. You seem to be at a feather touch meet. Olympic is full contact except punches to the head are not allowed at all.
 

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