Blocking and Evading in Taekwondo Tournament Sparring
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WTF Taekwondo tournament fights permit blocks and blocking actions in their form of the sport. I had a student ask me about it recently – "Should I block or not?". The answer? Read on and then you decide for yourself.
My first real lesson for blocking skills, in the Taekwondo kyorugi form, was when I went to WA State Team training under Master Sok Pong Kim back in 1993. I can’t remember how long it was actually for, though I remember thinking we practised blocking, JUST BLOCKING, for about half an hour. Back then, we were also permitted head-kicks, so we had to learn to block mid-section and face-height. There was a lot of footwork required, because we always wanted to be hit on the back-side, in case our blocks were ineffective (in those years, the back was not a scoring zone). We also practised blocking while moving around sideways, forward, backwards and around. Personally, my answer is "yes, you should block!"
Why would we even want to block?
Let’s take a look at this from a purpose point-of-view. Why would we even want to block? I see two main reasons for this – to prevent your opponent scoring and to protect yourself. Let’s take a look at the first reason.
Under the current referee rules from WTF, that Australia is using for their tournaments, a score occurs when 3 out of the 4 corner judges validates an approved scoring action within (about a) second of each other. This is, of course, with the electronic scoring method whereby the corner judges are given hand controls. The judges should be looking out for punching actions with a clenched fist that lands accurately and powerfully on the opponents hogu (body protector) that causes a "displacement" in the body AND the punching arm has been fully extended. The judges should also be looking for kicking actions that are also accurately and powerfully applied to the opponent with their foot (below the ankle bone). With round-house kicks, judges should be looking out for body "displacement" (moving your opponent or stopping your opponent in their current momentum) and listening for a certain sound. The sound criteria will be different for varying weight-categories. In general, lighter individuals create a high pitched crack and heavier people make a lower pitched thud. Different kicking actions will also make a different sound – take, for example, the side-kick vs. roundhouse kick.
Now let’s bring back the blocking action – to prevent your opponent from scoring. It is pretty simple, if you look at it from the judge’s point-of-view. As long as they don’t see the foot or fist land the target (hogu), NO SCORE! There should only be one time that the judge will score it if they don’t see it, that’s when they are absolutely certain from the sound of the impact (or the resulting body motions) AND when they are sure there was no arm in the way to block that action. Otherwise, if they don’t see it, they don’t score it! Well they shouldn’t be, anyway.
So all you need to do is stick your arm out there in between your body (or head) and your opponent’s attacking action. It also needs to be solid enough that the force of the attack will not penetrate the block onto the scoring target. Even if the arm is there to block, and your opponent’s foot still reaches the hogu with enough impact (to be deemed powerful and accurate) then that’s just a waste of a block. If you block, MAKE SURE YOU BLOCK! and block effectively. Make certain that you are protecting something with a purpose. That is to say, block to protect the scoring zones, the body and the head. Too often, I see fighters block and protect the clean air in front of them; the space that (if the blocking action was not used) no score would occur and your opponent just "air-balled".
Why shouldn’t we block?
Now let’s take this "air-ball" more into consideration. This is a very simple concept that I think EVERYBODY can understand easily. If your opponent attacks and completely misses you, then is that a score? Obviously not! There’s not much more to elaborate and explore in detail here. Footwork, positioning, moving around to evade your opponent is probably the most important skill to know and have. If you are fit enough to continuously evade effectively, your opponent will NEVER score on you. However, if that’s all you’ve got – you will never win either because you yourself are also not scoring. In these cases, if you are 100% confident and certain that your ability to move around the fighting space, and never be hit – then you don’t need to block. You can if you want, just as an insurance in case your footwork is insufficent or your opponent has figured you out and taken extra little steps to close in that gap.
Another reason for not blocking also relates to that possible "air-ball" from your opponent. If you’re evading, and most people do because they don’t want to get hit, and you continue to block to protect your body (and head) then you’re doing just fine. However, if you evade and block to protect that empty space in front of you, then you are opening yourself to two situations – get hurt and possibly (incorrectly) get scored on.
Remember some of those criteria by which the corner judges will award points for? If they can’t see the action, they will rely on sound as a backup. If it sounds good enough, they might inadvertantly award a point, even if it is not warranted. That’s just one corner judge, you say! It happens, sometimes the hype and intensity gets to all corner judges and they are nervous, they feel the pressure and they will (accidentally) react to the possibility of a score if the sound and timing is good enough. It’s happened in the past, it’s happened to me – and there’s a good chance it will still happen and it’ll happen to you. For some reason, blocking clean air and getting hit in the arm by your opponent’s kick produces a louder sound than protecting your body/head. I’ve done them both (blocking to protect body and also the space in front of me), and I’ve also been scored on both scenarios. It’s a shame really, especially when you block correctly to protect yourself and your opponent is still awarded the point.
Considering the possible force and impact onto your blocking arm, you may choose not to block. Some people are just weak in their arms and are not conditioned to absorbing hits with them. Also, if you are repeatedly penetrated in the same spot continuously over a short period of time, it will soften up and begin to hurt. That’s tenderising! Your opponent is preparing you to be eaten up! Beaten to a pulp! So this might be a good time to consider good footwork and evade your opponent’s attacks.
Conclusion:
There are pros and cons for blocking or not to block. Sometimes, you may even need to take a moment to "feel" the environment. If the judges are scoring those blocked attacks, then it’s probably a good idea to just evade and forget about blocking. If they can visually see that you are blocking and that the foot never reaches the hogu and, subsequently, not scoring them (as it should be) then FANTASTIC … you’ve got good alert corner judges. Continue to block and evade.
With the advent of electronic body protectors (EBP), it may become even more essential to learn the fine art of blocking. I cannot say this is true for all EBPs though, and I can confirm it with the Adidas EBP. They may have developed and enhanced the system some more, though I am talking about the ones that Adidas had brought over for use as a demonstration in the 2006 Youth Olympic Festival held in Sydney, Australia.
The Adidas system utilises, I believe, air pressure sensor technology. Force is calculated and a number is given. Different genders and weight categories have their own specific threshold to aim for. The better the technique, the easier it is to earn a higher impact value. However, once you put an object in its way to obstruct the attack, the impact value severely diminishes – hence, NO SCORE! Even body movement of the wearer plays into consideration. If you move directly into the direction of the attack without blocking, then there’s a good chance the impact value will be higher. The opposite will occur, of course, when moving away or with the attack (in essence, softening the blow).
It doesn’t really matter what technology is used for scoring the points in the Taekwondo tournament sparring match. If the player is skilled and correctly evades AND blocks, then there is always reason to block. The hard part now, is to combine it effectively with defending, counter-attacking and attacking! Too often, a player blocks and has wasted valuable time nullifying their ability to perform a timely attack.
Examples:
I’ve been in several tournament fights and can remember some of them that relates to this topic. For the fights that I’ve been scored on while blocking incorrectly – that’s fine, I should not have been protecting the air. For the fights that I’ve been scored on while blocking correctly – shame on the judges. I usually have enough time to hand gesture to the centre referee (and all four corner judges should be able to see also) that I got hit in the arm. This action hopefully wakes up the judges to watch out for them.
I’ve also been in the lead in the final 20 seconds of the match. In this case, I didn’t see the need to take the risk and just stand there blocking – I spent the time evading. Completely evading, no need to block because I was well out of fighting distance range. I won that match!
Amira Ahmad-Niza last year fought a tournament where she was in the lead. She was tired and all she did from then was just block! Not much footwork to be able to evade and considering how much (or should I say little) energy is required in blocking, it was a good choice for her. She won that match!
If you have personal experiences about this, please mention it in the forum topic. If it’s good and applicable it will be added to these examples.
Tags: rules, techniques
