How are the Poomsae competitiors being judged?

If you like to participate in Poomsae competitions, one may be interested to find out how is the score given and is based on what. It basically has three categories the score is based on. Accuracy, mastery and presentation. Under accuracy, you have accuracy in terms of basic movement and in terms of individual movements of the poomsae. This comprises of half of the score given. The other half falls in mastery and presentation which sees one volume of movement, balance, power and speed. Coordination of rhythm and tempo together with softness and power and expression of ki are the things that will be considered as well as they are the presentation part.

More principles of basic movements

Besides all the hands movements in a poomsae. The kicks are also being scrutinised. For front kick, the placement of the fists depends on their positions before the kick. If one fist is on the hip, pull the other fist back to the front of the body while executing the kick. If both fists are in positions other than the hip, they should be placed in the front of the body in guarding position while kicking. If sidekick is followed by a elbow strike, the arm on the kicking side is to be extended naturally as if to do outward hammer fist. If not, the aims should be placed in a comfortable position in front of the body.

Some principles of basic movements

For a poomsae to be executed well, there are some principles of basic movements to be adhered to.

Generally, high blocks starts from the waist, low section blocks from the shoulder and middle section block from either the shoulder or waist.

At the start of middle session and low section blocks, the fist should not exceed shoulder level. If knife hand is used, it may exceed the level slightly.

It is also important to note that blocks are done from 'outside' while strikes are executed from 'inside'.

When blocking, do it in circular motion to give the body better cover. When striking or punching, shoot directly to the target for speed.

One must remember also that the contact point regardless forearm or knife hand of blocking techniques should be at the level of the line of the attacking point

Poomsae an art

I have just realised that i didn't talk much about Poomsae in the blog ha and perhaps i should just write a little how i feel about it. Poomsae also known as pattern is the set of movements practioners will execute and it comprises of basic movements such as blocks, hand strikes and kicks. To me poomsae is like an art, it got to be done with the required force and most importantly gracefully then the poomsae will look nice. Poomsae is required in grading and only in recent years, they have poomsae competitions. In the past, competitions only involved sparring. World Taekwondo Poomsae competitions was only held recently and is not competed in any major games.

Understanding Taekwondo Sparring

Taekwondo Sparring could be an aggressive game depending on the styles of the players but in anyway, aggressiveness could be a factor in determining the winner in case of a draw. The one who is more passive seem to lose out in this aspect. Being aggressive has it advantages in the game as it could boost one's confidence and shock the opponent. But most importantly in any game, it is the sharpness of scoring that would determine the winner. At the recent nationals, it was much obvious at the final of one of the male category, one player was more aggressive than the other. Confident and fast with his kick and able to do more advance kicks. But, his opponent who definitely seemed to be very cautious was either fortunate or he had planned to play a very tactful game. He scored the moment when there is opportunity and it was sharp enough for the referees to give him the points. This suddenly shocked his aggressive opponent and made him less aggressive in his attacks. Thus the bottom line is that it is about being sharp in scoring which requires speed and accuracy. Sometimes not necessary speed but to be able to catch the correct timing to score could be another factor as well.

Shining at the National Championships

National Championships 2007 was quite a good record for NUS this year with 3 golds and 4 silvers. As usual the university's girls team did well and won most of the medals. It has been like a tradition for the girl's team to excel in the tournaments even at this year's inter-varsity games or rather NTU open. The girls won several golds and some silvers. Just want to say great to go and may the this legacy be remained always.

Taekwondo star's coach is back for the Olympics

Dae Sung Lee a nine-time U.S. national champion and four-time Pan American Games gold medalist is the former US Olympic coach. He is back again for the Olympic but this time for a different team.

He was asked to coach for China's team for the coming Olympics and he was fortunate to do
so. I was thinking why did he changed his team when he has already been coaching US perhaps he retired or wanted to try helping coaching others but then the reasons I found out was that he was removed as coach in April 2004 despite in 2003, Lee coached American Steven Lopez to gold medals at the World Championships and Pan American Games after reorganization of the U.S. Taekwondo Union, the sport's governing body. Lee filed a $1 million federal lawsuit, claiming he was removed because of his Korean heritage. Many officers of Korean heritage were also removed during the reorganization.

Lee asked to be reinstated for the 2004 Athens Olympics, but U.S. District Judge Susan Oki Mollway denied his request two weeks before taekwondo competition was to begin. Mollway did side with Lee's claim that he was removed on the basis of race.

More on the performance

The senior belts did more spectacular items. One of the items were performed by two black belts who did their kicks at the same time. One did three 360 turning followed by a 720 turning and one did three backhooks followed by a jumping backhook. The flow is there and the style was there. Thus that item was rather nice. The other spectacular item made the audience go really excited and amazed by it. One did a three kicks plank breaking on the spot which demostrated accuracy and swiftness. The other was a silent affair... As it requires great focus and concentration. Kicking of apples on the knife. Then what makes the audience more excited was doing the same but this time blindfolded. Overall, it does seems that the perfomance by Taekwondo managed to bring some enjoyment to the audience.

Cloud over Taekwondo

It was a saddening news when i heard about the allegations of underage drinking and sexual harassment that have surfaced as U.S. taekwondo athletes and coaches head to the Olympic trials this week in Colorado Springs. Although USA Taekwondo’s chief executive, David Askinas, said that in his 19 months on the job he has instituted a “zero tolerance” policy on underage drinking and sexual harassment and increased supervision of minors at overseas tournaments. But according to some players in the squad they said that they actually witness other
teammates drink and the coaches only want results thus they did not care much. Though there was also one incident whereby the coach punished those who had a hungover to maintain the 'zero tolerance' policy, there seem more incidents where players said the coaches did not bother. No matter what, as a Taekwondo practioner, hope that such things should not be happening anymore as Taekwondo is after a martial arts and discipline sport.

Injury period

Oh man just pulled my tendon again, this time, during the rehearsal for next week's performance. I only can pray that it will recover soon and can polish up my kicks for the demostration. It was really quite sudden when the strain occured. This time, it is by far the most painful strain, I can feel it even while walking. It was a strain that shouldn't have happen. At first it was my the other leg that almost have cramps now it turned out to be such a injury on the leg. By applying medication daily and to drink some good chinese herbal soup which at least aimed to strengthen tendon unlike western medicines that only help to alleviate pain could hopefully make me well real soon.

Seven golds for Korea at the Universiade

The taekwondo events at the Bangkok Universiade ended with the host nation players contributing two golds and a silver. Thai taekwondo player Mae-num Chirdkiatisak claimed title in women's 47kg category after beating Li Dan from China 3-1 in the final.

The silver got by Li was the only medal for China at the 24th Universiade. China's Wu jingyu current world champion did not take part in this year's university games due to her Olympic training.

Lim In Mook from South Korea stunned Dech Sutthikunkarn of Thailand 5-1 in the final. Delivering the taekwondo powerhouse the sixth gold in the men's 58kg category. Taekwondo powerhouse South Korea swept seven out of the total 16 golds at stake, while Thailand, Iran and Chinese Taipei each got three.

Enjoying the game again - That's what make Universiade Gold medalist happier

The first thing that Su Li-wen said to reporters after she grabbed a gold at the Universiade taekwondo competition was, "Did I play handsomely in the final?" Ha rather humourous question from the 27 year old veteran.

The Doha Asiad gold medalist and also the silver medalist in 2005 World Taekwondo Championships from Chinese Taipei won women's 63kg category after defeating Croatian player Josipa Kusanic.

"I'm happy to get the gold," said the veteran. What makes her happier is that she could enjoy the game of taekwondo again. She said that she had a lot of pressure after the Asiad as there is high expectation of her and she could not enjoy the competitions as she used to be. This matter had actually caused her stunning exit in the first round at this year's World Taekwondo Championships in Beijing.

After making a self-examination, she has decided to let the burden down and focus on the Universiade. She did it.

"I'm so glad to find that I can enjoy the competitions again," she said. she added that she would fight for the qualification for 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Third Gold for Chinese Taipei

Tseng Yi-hsuan, runner-up in this year's World Championships won the third gold for Chinese Taipei delegation at the 24th Universiade in women's 55kg division taekwondo event. It was an exciting match for her I supposed when she met her old rival, Jung Jin Hee from South Korea whom she lost to at the final of the World Championships.

According to Tseng, she mentioned that she almost lost confidence in competing with South Korean players after she lost to Jung in the World Championships and another South Korean player in the Doha Asiad.

However, she managed to took revenge over the old rival by defeating Jung 1-1 in a breathtaking sudden death round.

"I thought I would have lost," Tseng said.

She changed her tactics in the semi-final, as she found out that Jung was good at counterattacking skills, into defensive and made the three regular rounds a 0-0 tie.

"I overcame the fear this time," she said.

In the final, she defeated U.S. opponent Jesika Torres with superiority after the three regular rounds and the sudden death round ended with a 1-1 draw.

Though she won, she said that she didn't do that well in the final.

I happened to read from another news that bottles were thrown by the spectators into the arena after the match. Nevertheless, I feel
that it is still a feat for the young 19 year-old Tseng to win over the World Champion and made it into the final.

Korea wins three Taekwondo Golds

Korea not forgetting their national sport wins 3 Taekwondo Golds at World University Games.

The picture that I have found courtesy of Apichart Weerawong shows South Korea's Heo Jung-young, right, exchanges kicks with Italy's Leonardo Basile during their men's taekwondo heavyweight class final at the 24th World University Games in Pathumthanni province, central Thailand Thursday, Aug. 9, 2007. Heo won the match and took the gold medal. In an interview according to Heo, he hopes to qualify for the Beijing Olympics and win another gold.

Hyun Kyoung-hwa won gold in the women's over-72 kilogram taekwondo class and Jung Sun-young in the under-72 kg. Iran's Yousef Karami won the gold medal in the men's under-84 kg, preventing a South Korean sweep of the four finals Thursday in the sport.

The World University Games 2007

The World University Games is held at Bangkok this year and it has attracted 10,200 student athletes. The games, rated as second only to the Olympics in terms of size and quality, have attracted participants from 160 countries, and will be closely watched for emerging talent ahead of Beijing 2008.

Competition in the University Games, which are held every two years, is open to student athletes between the ages of 17 and 28 who attend school or have not been out of university or its equivalent for more than a year.

One of the disciplines that will be competed, Taekwondo, is the the third largest event for its athletes after the World Taekwondo Champions and Olympic Taekwondo.

The occasion has been billed as part of Thailand's year-long celebrations for the 80th birthday of the country's greatly revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej, a keen sportsman who competed in international sailing races in his youth.

"The government wishes to invite all participants in the Universiade Bangkok 2007 to join the Thai people in celebrating this auspicious occasion," Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont said in welcoming remarks ahead of the games. "You will witness how profoundly the Thai people admire their king."

Former World University Games winners who have gone on to greater things include China's Liu Xiang, the reigning Olympic 110 metre hurdles champion and Taiwan's Chu Mu Yen, the Olympic Taekwondo champion.

More from PAG

More snapshots from the Pan American Games Taekwondo event 2007.

James Moontasri (R) of the United States and Osuji Chinedum of Trinidad and Tobago. A slamming kick score executed by James Moontasri.

Dominicana's Gabriel Mercedes (L) and Brazil's Marcio Ferreira duel during the men's over 58 kg final

Diogo Silva (in red) of Brazil fights Peter Lopez of Peru. Peter Lopez executing what it seems like a reverse kick or backthrust.


A high turning executed by Diogo Silva

360 degrees turning implies...

Confidence! I was noticing a match at the friendly between the two universities team. Both of the players were of about the same weight but one was much junior than the other. After a while in a game, the junior player did a 360 degrees turning. Impressive for a junior belt against someone who is much more senior. He then told me later on that because he knew he was faster therefore he had the confidence to execute the technique. It can be seen from many sparring matches that 360 is seldom done unless you are really fast and confident to catch the correct timing. If not, one will usually be very cautions of being countered therefore the hestitation and when there is hesitation, your movement and speed will tend to slow down. So far, I have only seen a handful who could do a 360 so swiftly and the swiftest among them would be my school coach. He could use it as an attack or feint a motion and followed up with another 360. A regional champion indeed who could do it beautifully with speed and accuracy. When you feel that you could do a 360 at your fastest speed would means you will be more or less confident against your opponent.

Some scenes of actions taken from the PAG

James Moontasri (R) of the United States and Osuji Chinedum of Trinidad and Tobago compete in the men's 80kg Taekwondo event at the Pan American Games.



The Pan American Games are a continental version of the Olympic Games, which includes both Olympic sports and other disciplines suggested by the competition organization and approved by PASO. It is held every four years with one year just before the summer Olympic. It has to date 42 countries participating in this event. Taekwondo is one of the official sports in the games and here are some of the scenes taken from the arena.

Mexico's Rosario Espinoza (R) competes against Natalia Silva of Brazil during their Woman's +67kg taekwondo match at the Pan American Games. Espinoza defeated Silva to win the gold medal.


Mexico's Jose Luis Ramirez (L) and Cuba's Angel Matos competes in the men's 80kg


Diogo Silva (in red) of Brazil fights Peter Lopez of Peru on his way to winning the gold medal in the men's 68 kg

Controversy of the new Taekwondo park brochure

A promotional brochure for a new Taekwondo park has seem to cause some unhappiness among Taekwondo practioners as the children featured in the brochure appear to wear karate suits rather than Taekwondo suits and belts wore were also tied improperly. One was being quoted that how can a Taekwondo park be administered without being able to distinguish Taekwondo suits properly from Karate suits. "Will you promote the spirit and culture of Korea in a brochure with kimono-clad models?" The promotional board however explained that the tobok used are actually the newly adopted ones hoping to improve the popularity of the sport. But seriously, I felt that suits call for identity for all practioners of the art and therefore it shall be unique and have a style of its own. If it looks too similar to another one, it will then lose its own image. Now there are calls for proper standards for Taekwondo suits to be drawn up. Hopefully, the proper standard will be able to guide the style of the tobok to a greater height and still retain the uniqueness it ought to have.