hi everyone, my club does WTF TKD and we take part in competitions. in april i'm planning to take my students to an international championship abroad and in the invitation i saw that besides the fights, there will be a competition in forms (Taegeuk) as well. i have students whose techniques are really good and clean, so it crossed my mind that we could participate in both, fights and forms. i myself have never competed in forms, it has always been the fighting part, so what i would appreciate is advice from instructors and students with experience in competitions in forms. cheers
A girl from our club competes internationally in both sparring and patterns and does very well. Her father takes her everywhere and has years of experience of watching high level competition patterns. He always says to watch the way the previous competitors have been scored as each set of judges may give different preference to certain aspects of the pattern. I.E. they may be looking for power and that may be influencing there scoring, or it may be control they are particularly focused on. Knowing what they are looking for can help you choose a pattern to fit that and display those properties.
Forms Competition... Neryo, Recently our dojang was invited to compete in ATF nationals. Being as we are not members of the organization we were honored to accept the invitation. Patterns is one of the primary three divisions they offered (point sparring & breaking being the other 2). Being that your students already have good technique; I would incourage you to assist them in developing good rythem and flow. Speed should be slow enough to clearly demonstrate each technique, yet fast enough to demonstrate the way in which the techniques merge (flow). Technique, Power, Flow...these are the three areas to be focused on (sounds just like what you tell the kids everyday in class aye!) TAEKWON! Spookey
Go for it, I go all over the place almost for tournaments. Beware the judging can be a little prejudiced though.
Hard to do if you are the first competitor. Spookey has the right idea. Make sure the stances are dead on.
i am fully aware of that, as i have described in my journal: i could have won gold if the judging had been fair. i am also thinking about entering myself (forms) and not only my students because it might be a lot of fun and new experience for me
I have won a few medals for forms -- the best advice I have is that the competitor must "sell" the form to the judges. You must make the judges see the imaginary opponent you are fighting in the form. Things which help this (as already stated) are good stances and good power. Also, a powerful Kiap helps queite a bit also. Good luck!
I'll be competeing in forms, fighting, and board breaking, at our tourney in April, and this will be my first time doing the forms and boards also, but my advice is keep your movements sharp, and forget that your in competition, just compete to have fun, not to win, and you'll be just fine.
KIAP...aiiiiyaaaaaaa! Dear Neryo, As just mentioned the Kiap is worth the world in forms competition. Sad to say, many practicioners think the word ki-ap is what you say when you punch. They do not understand that it is merely any scream or yell which expressed ones spirit. "kiup, kiup, bASSSSSSSSSaiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii..." Kiap so loud as to catch the attention of the judges in another ring! Crisp movements, clean stances, proper level of technique, and KIAAAAA! TAEKWON Spookey ATF 2004 Nationals...Gold Medal Forms
thanx everyone i also wrote to the organisor of the tournament (haven't got his reply yet) because i'd like to know what form do competitors choose? is there a list of forms that you can choose from or you choose one on your own?
Naeryo, Forms competitions are sooooo subjective, even honest judges will end up with subjective/debatable results. With that said, from my limited experience: 1. It is a MUST to know what forms are allowed. 2. Look before you leap. Always turn the head and look in the directioin of the next movement before stepping out and blocking. The form should look as if you are actually moving against a series of adversaries.. Double-check your students: do they tend to look at the ground at any point in the form? Do they just turn into a technique without looking first? 3. Proper stances, full/big motion, power (uniform snap on everything), confidence/poise, and a lethally loud kiap at the end are all also important. 4. As mentioned above, judges vary in how they rate power vs. fluidity of motion. It is good to have both
Sticking up for judges I've been an official for tournaments for a few years, and while we're only human, we get it right most of the time. In our tournaments we have competitors from multiple styles, so the judges likely won't even know all the patterns that they see demonstrated. That's why we judge forms based on the criteria of beauty, grace, rhythym, focus, power and technique. I'm not sure what criteria will be used in the tournament neryo_tkd's group are going to but, IMO, if you train and focus on those six elements, you'll do well.
I've never competed in forms, but mostly what I have seen in tournaments is that forms are judged by their focus and technique. I also have seen that sometimes you can choose your form. In the last tournament I went a blue belt chose to do Koryo ( don't know if that's the spelling) instead of a Palwe or a Tae Guk. Se didn't win, her stances were weak, but I think that her form wasn't that bad.
That's the whole key... 99.95% of all forms competitors know their forms, but how they're judged is on how they are executed. If her stances were weak, she didn't deserve to win (unless the other competitors were worse). Judges will generally cut a bit of slack for an athlete doing an advanced form for their rank, but stances are not often overlooked.
When I do tournaments, sometimes I'll either do a higher level form or a lower level form, depending on which one I do better, we are allowed to choose our own forms. I make sure the form I do is a black belt form though Weak stances makes it so the technique doesn't look very clean and clear, which is why most people lose a form competition with weak stances.
from what iv heard, to go up infront of everyone and do a pattern in a tourney develops a confidence which makes gradings the easiest thing in the world.