Tae Kwon Do Tournament - Cincinnati Area

[QueHuong]

I'm thinking of competing in an upcoming tournament (this Saturday the 27th) sponsored by Grand Master Ahn. I heard that about 500 people will compete. Anyone going or ever been to a similiar olympic style tournament with that many people...if so, how was it like?

 

[DAPUNISHER]

The upside was you can throw kicks full force and even knock out your opponent and they don't stop you to score points, the down-side was no punching to the head and being from styles where striking to the head, open or closed hand is a given, you tend to get disqualified

 

[DAPUNISHER]

BTW, Go! you'll have a great time!

 

[QueHuong]

<< The upside was you can throw kicks full force and even knock out your opponent >>


What happens if you draw blood? I accidentally did at my school's tournament and got disqualified.

A few more questions:

1) How will the tournament group competitors? My school grouped them by sex then rank/size/age. I'm 5'4" (short, I know) and I just hope I won't be grouped with red belts 6'0" tall with thighs the size of my torso

2) I train in traditional TKD - we focus a lot on forms, one/three steps, basic techniques but we rarely do sparring (like 1-2 times every 2 weeks); and we do point sparring where we stop after a point is scored then continue when the ref says so. And I know that Ahn's school is the olympic/sport version of TKD and they focus A LOT on sparring. But I've also heard that although they do a lot of sparring, they don't focus much on techniques so they just get up there and flail their legs the whole time. Do you think that's true? And what are the typical sparring patterns of olympic Tae Kwon Doists (for example, they keep their hands down or up close to their face, or go full force from beginning to end or conserve their energy then go full force towards the end, stuff like that)?

3) And any other tips/advices/heads up I should know as a guy who practice the more traditional TKD and will spar against the olympic style TKDists?

Keep in mind I've never been to a olympic-type tournament so I need you to be very detailed and specific so I can get to know what they're like.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

I've never taken TKD and all of the Tournamants Hosted by TKD that I've fought in were TKD, Karate, Kung Fu championships which used TKD rules since they were hosting. They discontinued their envovlement with other styles after 2 years of hosting said tournament due to protest over the bias officiating towards other styles and the fact that they were getting spanked in Kumite Anyways, what belt ranking do you hold? lower belt ranking Kumite is usually sloppy and they concentrate more on offense than defense resulting in unsitely clashs. middle belt rankings are normally cleaner and there is considerably more diverse technique being used. blackbelt is obviously where you run into the most effective fighters and see some awesome power in the kicking. I have noticed a propensity of TKD fighters to fight with their hands low due to the lack of punching to the head and because of the emphasis on power kicks they do tend to look sloppy when they miss. As far as stratagey goes, it'll vary by individual and you'll just have to size the competition as the matches go on. One notable thing based on my experience fighting TKD guys(other than that you can drill them in the head with any hand technique you wish ) is that they don't use the thrust or step over side-kick well or seem to place much emphasis on it when they fight so I had great success blasting guys with it and getting KOs by knocking the breath out of them even through the chest protectors they make you wear. If you have a good side-kick you can win matches because they judge on effectiveness of technique as opposed to number of shots landed or at least they did when I fought them.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Now to address your question about traditional TKD fighter vs AAU style fighter. Concentrate on power shots and forget about that tip tap crap you do when you spar in class as they don't score tip tap. If your not in good phyical condition your in trouble because they don't break you up nearly as much(my experience with TKD hosted tournaments) and throwing technique with bad intentions will tire you out much more quickly. They throw a lot of head kicks because it tends to get scored for effectiveness of technique for obvious reasons. I found many TKD guys would square themselves up far too much when fighting me so I'd use front-kicks and side-kicks when they would throw that wide round-kick you TKD guys love to throw and it would often blow them of their feet and put 'em on their butts Good luck and understand that it's much more full contact than normal points fighting at least in the experiences I had fighting them.

 

[Jejunum]

ok a few things; ive fought in this tourny two year in a row; theres alot of people but it sucks imho...compared to state tournaments

judges are morons (half of them dont even know the rules); and below black belt there are no weight classes...i weigh 156 and fought someone over 200; which does suck


u will still have fun; dapunisher sumed up the rest of the important stuff; go in there with the intention to hurt someone no pansy sparring - everyone else is out to get u

 

[QueHuong]

Well, tournament's tomorrow; I'm not nervous yet.

If anyone's curious, here's the brochure for the tournament (PDF):
http://www.ahntkd.com/docs/2002_ahn_classic_brochure_bw.pdf

Anyone here going?

Edit: corrected link.

 

[777php]

Olymipic style sparring is not like traditional sparring where once a point is scored the actions stops. Olympic style sparring is usually done in rounds where judges add up points throughout the round. It is a lot more taxing and you MUST utilize combinations to win. If you are used to scoring and stopping, this will be much different Like someone said before there are no hand strikes to the head, however a good clean punch or ridgehand the the chest protector is okay.

TIP: If your opponent falls, complete a move traditionally done to an opponent on the ground, such as an axe kick, bonus points for that.

I also found that a lot of leg checking is pretty effective before throwing your combination.

 

[QueHuong]

<< I also found that a lot of leg checking is pretty effective before throwing your combination. >>


What's leg checking?



<< TIP: If your opponent falls, complete a move traditionally done to an opponent on the ground, such as an axe kick, bonus points for that. >>


Do I make actual contact (albeit soft) or just stop my kick before I would make contact?