Ok, I went to a tournament with my team today, and I need to blow off some steam about it. On one hand, there were some things this tournament really had going for it. On the other hand, there where times I wanted to ask some of the other officals, "What the hell are you thinking?"

Case in point, this tournament was NOT an open tournament. It was a state sanctioned event in TKD. I saw 2 black belts place (and high I might add) doing Tai Chi forms. Tai Chi! Don't get me wrong. I actually appreciate Tai Chi both as a form of beauty and for the fighting secrets contained therein. Tae Kwon Do it ain't, though. How could you objectively score a Tai Chi pattern versus a Tae Kwon Do pattern to begin with?

The other thing that got to me was the quality of judging in general. I saw a few refs who were calling points that were physically impossible for them to have seen from their vantage point. Worse than that, I saw one center ref who was waiting and making her point decisions AFTER reading the corner judges instead of simultaneous.

I struck up a conversation with the tourney director about some of the judging, and felt like I was getting the brush off. I don't really mind the fact that I had students lose. In fact, I think it is good for them. Makes them work harder and earn their place. I do mind anyone's student losing on account of bad judges though.

The only tournament I've taken part in was littered with bad judging, firstly in patterns my club was head and shoulders above the competition its not that we are great its that we were up against clubs that were basically kickboxing clubs and not really interested in patterns we took the top 2 places and the 3rd went to a guy from another club not offence to him but I felt that they just wanted to spread the medals to as many clubs as possible.

In sparring there was awful judging.

One kid was knocked unconscious with a hook kick, and could not continue so the kicker won - he should have been disqualified.

One girl was regularly following through punches with elbows to the face, and was warned so many times.

Several times after the buzzer one person stopped and had a couple of blows rained down on them which were then scored and they lost the bout.

Some bouts were so biased that the home fighter was scored while points the away fighter landed were ignored.

Its not a problem to lose but when its down to bad judging I understand your frustration.

Welcome to the world of competition.

Just work hard, and bad judging or not, you'll know if you've done well.

Ditto to what BT just said. That's why I rarely did any competitions back in the day, and it is still apparent that things have not changed much

Bad luck on the shoddy judging, it's a tricky one that.

I've been on both sides of the ring - both on the receiving end of poor judging and being a judge myself.

I'm not saying it is an excuse but the problem is that the people who are judging are not usually professionals, they are black belts who have volunteered. In my association you have to do a course in both umpiring and refereeing but there are so many people available, not all of the will be competant.

Which associations are you with, what are the procedures/rules regarding judging competitions?

I'm not a member of any associations that are directly related to competition. We don't really have anything like that here in the Midwest. 90% of tournaments are open with almost all competitors being Tae Kwon Do , Karate, and the occasional Kung fu or Kickboxing competitor. Each tournament follows almost all the same set of rules, with some minor exceptions.

In all seriousness, I give kudos to these guys for actually taking the sparring competition up a notch in terms of the rules. Just think the judging was sub-par.



ps - thanks for listening.

You're welcome dm, that's what we're here for!

Hi dm,

I've judged in AAU tournaments here in Michigan, and have also noticed often shoddy judging. Kind of sad that a competitor can win just by 'playing' the judges the right way!

On the other hand, judging is not easy either. No matter what you call or how sharp your vision, someone will always be unhappy with it. I've seen judges hurt their own students simply by focusing their attention on them, and thereby noticing only the techniques that hit them!

Our club tends to downplay tournaments, and focus on street defense. Almost all street practicality is gone when it comes to TKD tournaments; I think sport competition in general hurts martial arts.

It can be good experience, getting in the ring with somebody you don't know who wants to knock your head off, but for the most part I don't think it helps you become a better martial artist.