Referees

Although the rules Taekwondo competition continues to develop, the principals behind the rules are constant. By understanding the reasons behind the rules, referees will be able to understand and remember the rules, and be able to apply the rules fairly. Referees who understand scoring and reasons for warnings and deductions will be able to quickly react to unusual situations properly.

The rules of tournament competition restrict or prohibit many techniques of Taekwondo for the safety of the competitors and to promote the use of the more difficult techniques. Because kicking techniques are central to Taekwondo and exemplify the technical skill Taekwondo develops, the rules of competition foster kicking techniques. Hand strikes, while also important in Taekwondo, are restricted for safety and to promote the use of more difficult kicking techniques. Since hand strikes are more easily learned and delivered than kicks, competitors would tend to use hand strikes more than the more difficult kicking techniques if the full array of hand strikes were allowed to score. This would result in an imbalance of hand techniques over kicking techniques. Additionally, because hand strikes are easily delivered to the head and may cause injury to the competitor, hand strikes to the head have been eliminated for safety.

Only techniques that result in accurate and powerful contact will score. The rules of competition require the use of sparring protective equipment to protect the competitor from injury and allow some level of contact to be required.