Rules and judging criteria for judging patterns

Colour belts may perform their current pattern or one up/one down. 

Black belts may perform and black belt pattern. 

Points are awarded or deducted if the following criteria are/are not met: 

• Good etiquette/discipline, from stepping up to stepping off.
• Completion of techniques (each technique finished properly before moving to next technique)
• Good balance and coordination.
• Techniques should be executed with a sufficient amount of power, where applicable. 

Judges and Scoring

• The judging panel will consist of either three or five judges. 
• No two judges can be from the same school/club. 
• Two competitors will be called onto the patterns area and will perform their pattern simultaneously. 
• Judges will declare the winner of that round by raising their hands to indicate the winner. 

Team Patterns

Teams will consist of three competitors ONLY, of any age or gender. Competitors may ‘go up’ to a higher belt or age category, but not down, in order to complete a team. A competitor may only be in one team per category.

Judges and Scoring for team patterns

Judging will be the same as for individual patterns with the following addition;

Techniques should be in unison except where it is decided to have broken steps (each student performing a certain move from the pattern one at a time).

Sparring rules

Warnings, faults and disqualifications. 

Warnings;

Attacking an illegal target.

Stepping out of the ring (both feet completely out), unless forced out with a legal technique.

Falling - intentionally or by accident (any part of the body, other than the feet, touching the ground) Holding/grabbing/pushing

Sweeping

Intentionally avoid the sparring contest Falsely celebrating a score (that didn’t score) A mixture of any three warnings will see 1 point deducted. 

Faults;

Loss of temper.

Misconduct to the opponent, in any way.

Bite/Scrabble

Knee/elbow/head attack. 

1 point will be deducted for ANY one of these faults.

Disqualifications;

Misconduct towards the Referee, officials or coaches and/or ingoring Referee’s instructions. 

Full contact (this is a light continuous competition).

3 minus points (accrued by faults, not warnings).

Any competitor who is under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs. Attacking an opponent on the ground. 

Any of the above will lead to instant disqualifications. 

The referee may call an end to any round where a fighter is obviously upset, exhausted or injured and award the round to the opponent. Again, safety is our highest priority. 

Referee reserves the right to ask a parent/guardian/coach/supporter of a competitor to leave the arena for intimidating or aggressive behavior. This is a martial arts event and proper etiquette is expected.

All competitors must have full equipment on and be ready to compete once their section begins. 

Failure to be ready for the round may cause fighters to forfeit the round. If time allows, the referee may allow 1 minute for a competitor to change faulty, or unsafe, equipment. 

Padded equipment must include gloves (see below), feet, shins (soft exterior), gum & head guards. Groin guards are compulsory for males, optional for females.

Chest guards are optional for females. 

Gloves may be open palm or boxing type. Fingers MUST be covered. 

Head guard –     snug fit, secure strap, not damaged and must not block visibility. 

Gum guard –     correct fit and no sharp edges. 

Groin guard – correct fit anatomically and MUST be worn inside the uniform bottoms. 

Shin guards – 

soft material and should cover from bottom of shin to below the knee-cap.

Foot guards – 

soft material and must fully cover foot, heel, and upper in-step with secure strapping. 

Gloves, head guards, shin pads and feet pads must NOT have any hard (plastic, etc) surfaces, closures or loops. 

Legal target areas       The trunk of the body (front and side) from under the neck to the lower abdomen. Light head contact (front and side) is allowed. 

Legal techniques        Hand – punches, back-fist, ridge hand.

Foot - All kicking techniques. Contact must be with the foot, not the shin or knee. 

Illegal target areas          The back, back of head, or anywhere below the belt.

Illegal techniques            Elbow and knee attacks, head butts, forearm or shin strikes, slapping, blind techniques, knife hand strikes (outer side of the glove) and hitting the opponent when down. Foot sweeps are not allowed.

Contests will consist of a two minute round. Final will consist of two, one and a half-minute rounds.

Each arena will have four judges and one referee. 

Each competitor will be designated as RED or BLUE, for scoring purposes. 

Each judge must declare the winner at the end each contest. There are to be no draws.

Where points are even on the scoring ‘clickers’, judges will declare the win to the fighter with less warnings, has thrown more kicks, had better control of the fight and took less hits to the guard.

In the event of two judges scoring RED and two judges scoring BLUE, scores will be reset to zero and there will be an additional minute. 

If the judges are still split, ‘next point winner’ will apply. 

Scoring;

1. Point awarded for;

Hand attack (while standing) to mid or high section

Foot attack to mid section

Hand attack (while jumping) to mid section

1. Points awarded for;

Foot attack (while standing) to high section

Jumping (or flying) kick to mid section

Hand attack (while jumping) to high section

1. Points awarded for;

Jumping (or flying) kick to high section. 

Judges will register scores as they happen (with red/blue clickers) without stopping the round. In all matters, referees decision in final.

For height based categories entrants may be, for example, 140cm exactly and be in the under 140cm category. If a competitor is 141cm then they will be in the under 160cm category. Height will be checked by the registration official.

For weight based categories entrants may be, for example, 88.9kg and be in the under 88kg category. If a competitor is 89kg, then they will be in the under 96kg category. Weight will be checked by the registration official.

Entrants must have a proper Tae Kwon Do uniforms. 

No street clothes, T-shirts or jewellery. Finger and toenails must be trimmed and cleaned.

If there are high numbers in the smallest or tallest height junior categories, these divisions may be split into two divisions. 

If there are high numbers in the lightest and heaviest weight categories, for adults, these divisions may be split into two divisions. 

Safety is our highest priority during this competition!