sponsors

 

 

sponsors

 

 

 

 

Continuous sparring was developed to overcome the limitations of point sparring, but it only succeeded in developing another way of sparring, with its own limitations. Point sparring stops the action for a scoring point, which hampers counter attackers, such as myself, but hand techniques are encouraged. Olympic style continuous sparring would be seem to be advantageous to counter attackers, but it has evolved into a kicking contest where hand techniques are not encouraged. Some say sport sparring is better, as evidenced by its winning so many matches in international competition, but this is not a valid argument. It may also be said that sport sparring wins in international competition because international sparring rules were designed to encourage the use of sport sparring techniques.

Patterns changes have also affected the development of sparring. In Korea, patterns play a valuable role in Taekwondo, but only as training aids in learning the basics. After the basics are mastered, students spend most of their time sparring. Koreans always practice while wearing protective equipment. As a result, they do not get hurt easily and are used to delivering their techniques full force. In Korea, there is no forms competition, only competitive sparring, so Americans easily beat Koreans in forms competitions, Koreans consider the made-up patterns so often seen in the United States as strictly for show, not for any good purpose in Taekwondo.

Taekwondo is still evolving, and over time, traditional Taekwondo and sport Taekwondo will either draw closer together or further apart. Probably what will happen is that sport Taekwondo will continue to develop and traditional Taekwondo will adapt some of its techniques while still maintaining its link to the past. This means there will always be a difference between the two.

One such adaptation is touch continuous sparring, such as used by Taekwondo America, which combines point sparring with Olympic style continuous sparring. Touch continuous sparring uses some of the stances, footwork, and kicking techniques of Olympic sparring while stressing hand attacks and counter attacks. To score, techniques must have power and full-extension as in point sparring, but they must be fully controlled and only touch. Action is continuous with points accumulating during the match. Head, elbow, hand, shin, and foot protection is worn but body protection is not used. Punches to the head are not allowed to lessen the chance for injury. Extra points are scored for head kicks or jump kicks. A hand fighter may take a one or two-point kick so he or she score two or three points with hand techniques. The result is effective sparring that does not favor kickers, punches, or counter attackers. All types of sparring have an equal chance of scoring. Also, students may spar every day with little chance of serious immediate or cumulative injury.

Sport or traditional? As usual, it all depends on the one in which one you first started your training. Loyalty usually overcomes reason. People stay with that in which they are familiar and they resist changing. So, before you choose a Taekwondo school, know the differences between point sparring, full-contact continuous sparring, and touch continuous sparring, decide which one you prefer, and know which type the school uses.

As Taekwondo grew and developed worldwide, a drive began to get Taekwondo accept as a sport in the Olympics.

Page 5 of 5:  NEXT  Back  First  Last | Share | Errors | Last Modified:

Subtopics:  NEXT| Preface  Chapter List

Topic:  Comments: Add  View | Sources| Related: None