The Korea Taekwondo Association (KTA) recently announced after a meeting on 5th Janaury 2009 that they have set minimum standards for the specifications of the electronic body protectors.  This followed extensive experimentation with current market ebps's and testing at tournaments over numerous matches.  They have also collated views from referees, coaches and players.

The strategy is to encourage development and competition amongst manufacturers that should drive imrpovements towards a much better system.  It is common knowledge that there is still some way to go before a truly acceptable electronic ebp would be finalized, even though there is only one ebp system (LaJust) that is currently approved by the WTF. 

The major manufacturers are LaJust, Adidas and TrueScore Daedo.  But the KTA move opens the door for the possibility of large electronic firms such as Samsung, LG and other top technogically advanced companies and universities to enter the market in research and design or to manufacture these ebp's.  This is not altoegther a bad thing as competition and market share will certainly drive further improvements and fine tune impact accuracy, acceptability and consistency in scoring.  And of course it would help drive the cost down.  The ebp's is not cheap to buy.

The WTF wants to use the ebps at the the next world championships in Copenhagen, Denmark (October 2009) to use the ebps.

It is not too long ago, some 20 years ago that taekwondo moved from the manual paper judging system to electornic instrument scoring system.  This is just another evolving phase for the sport.

Following a series of meetings and studies the ad-hoc committee tasked by the WTF to analyze the status of electronic body protectors and to recommend future policy, has recommended that the WTF take initiative to use the electronic body protectors at the 2009 World Cup Taekwondo Team Championships being held in Baku, Azerbaijan during June 2009.

Companies producing electronic protectors will be invited to demonstrate their systems to the members of the ad-hoc committee and its working group in Lausanne, Switzerland on May 6, 2009.

It would appear that the brand and make of the ebp's to be used has not been finally signed-off as yet.  There is still opportunity for the best and the most suitable to be selected.

The WTF ad-hoc committee for Electronic Protectors reported pleasing results from 2 companies that offered their electronic body protectors for field testing in Lausanne Switzerland on 6th May 2009.  The 2 companies were KP & P from Korea and Daedo from Spain (note an earlier forum post that reported that the TrueScore  product merged with Daedo).  The test simulations were conducted by the Swiss Taekwondo Federation who provided the players and referees while France also sent some players.

The ad-hoc committee reported its positive impressions on both products especially in the areas of total flexibility, classical design, water-proof sensors, verification of valid attacks, and reversibility.  The ad-hoc committee also recommended that these two companies submit their products to KISS Institute for laboratory testing and another field testing in actual competition situation before final approval to be used at WTF recognized tournaments.

The WTF will decide during the World Cup Taekwondo Team Championships being held in Baku, Azerbaijan, if they will use the electronic body protectors at the 2009 World Taekwondo Championships being held in Copenhagen, Denmark during October 2009.

The WTF had delayed its decision on the use of the electronic body protectors for the next WTF promoted event which is the World Championships being held in Denmark.  This was to be a decision to be made on the 12th June during the World Cup event in Azerbaijan.  However there has been a delay and some of the concerns or reports facing President Choue of the WTF include:

• a positive report made by the Special Electronic Hogu Committee on the 12th June.
• the number of ebp's required for an event, such as the World Championships would be high and if the manufacturer (La Just) would sponsor them.
• the La Just ebp and system is not yet perfected, and there are still issues
• contractual issues with La Just who had been given the sole contract to supply ebp's for all WTF promoted events for 5 years from 2007 through to 2012 and including the Olympic Games (London Olympics fall into this contract period).  This means it will be difficult for any other manufacturer to supply their ebp's even if they were proven to be better and more reliable.  note: earlier reports that the Daedo Truescore system and also the KP & P ebp system proved successful at a testing session held in Lausanne , Switzerland during early May.

KP&P successfully showcased its electronic hogu during the “32nd Yeon Se University Games” held in Seoul, Korea recently on 29th July. The system consistently showed accurate point registration throughout the day, and was widely accpeted by the athletes and the coaches.

With KP&P's recent success, the discussion will be to which electronic hogu will be used at the 2012 London Olympic Games. LaJust has an inside running as it is the only electronic hogu currently approved by the WTF.  Waiting on its wings for WTF approval are the KP&P system and the Daedo Truescore system which both received positive feedback last May during the IOC Committee meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland.

KP&P began their research and development of the electronic hogu development only about 4 years ago against the claim of more than 20 years research and development done by LaJust.  Adidas also claim to have a long history of research and development.

Perhaps the Singapore Youth Olympic Games being held in August 2010 could be an excellent fore runner for its use ahead of the 2012 London Olympics in the Olympics arena.  It is a year to go, but would the WTF be ready for it?.

The La Just electronic body protectors (ebp) were used at the 2009 World Taekwondo Championships held in Copenhagen, Denmark during 14-18 October 2009.  I was there and officiated as International Referee.  The La Just ebp's have improved since I last used them at the Commonwealth Championships (Canada in November 2008).

Some of the main improvements included:

1. more points being scored on the ebp's for round-house kicks;  this is largely due to more sensors being introduced to the foot socks around the instep.  There is full coverage of the instep from toe to the base where the ankle and instep meet.
2. better scoring from back kicks; the foot sock sensors are now placed on the base of the sole of the heel and also the base of the middle arch of the bottom sole.  previously there were only a small strip across the base of the sole of the heel.  However there is no sensors on the back of the heel or the ball of the foot or the bottom of the toes.
3. the ebp's can now be “registered” at the marshalling area instead of at the front table before each match started, this is a plus and reduced waiting time at the competition court area.
4. the foot sock sensors appear to be more robust.

The hand protector gloves with sensors were on display but not used as yet.  So the referee judges still have to manually score the punch points using the electronic scoring scoring unit.  The gloves were on display on each table and they appear to be ready for use.  The front area on the gloves where the knuckles are have a velcroed area where the sensors will be inserted to provide the electronics to score the points on the ebp's.  It is not too far away for these gloves to become avauilable and match ready.

The hand held electronic unit has also improved and now has 6 scoring “buttons”, ie 3 for blue player and 3 for red player.  3-points are scored for the legitimate head shots, 1-point for the body punch (this button is coloured white to distinguish it from the kick point button), and the additional 1-point button for a technical point (ie the turning kick eg a back kick or a 360 degree continuous kick).

In the case of the the back kick or the 360 degree continuous kick, the referee judge can press the technical point button, but the additional 1-point will only add to the score if the ebp registered that kick as a legitimate point.  So even if the referee judges “pressed the button” for the technical point, it will not add the additional point if the ebp did not register the kick point (eg did not meet the minimum force level for the weight category) in the same instant.

The use of the ebp's have made competition scoring much fairer in that the kicks that land on the arms or the hands and wrapped onto body protectors or the kicking foot partially hitting the arm and the body protectors will not score as the force levels will not register sufficient power to activate the point scores. 

Some kick techniques appear to result in powerful hits and these did not score, probably due to insufficient surface area impacting on the ebp from the in-step of the kicking foot.   In some instances a point would register from a not so powerful kick but the impacting surface area was large enough to register higher than the force level required to score the point.  I think the time duration of the impact on the ebp with the senors are part criteria to registering a high enough force level to score.

There were concerns that moisture was an enabler / catalyst to register easy point scores.  During the 5 day competition, I observe that moisture in small quantities is not a concern but rather large quantities of water or very wet foot socks may be of concern.  In this, all referees checked each player's foot socks before the start of each round to ensure the foot socks are dry – ie on the instep and the sole of the foot where the sensors are located.  The referees also checked to ensure that each foot sock is the standard La Just  foot sock and that there are no additional sensors embedded in the foot socks. 

The hand protector gloves and the ebp's themselves were also checked that they were dry and not wet before each round commenced.  Refereeing officials also kept an eye at the players and coaches during their breaks to ensure that there are no attempts to wet the foot socks or gloves.

During inspection, each player was also checked for any metallic objects that could potentially trigger off electronic oddities.

The new world of ebp's will now introduce a new era of techniques or more like delivery and execution of techniques will change.  Some examples will be more round-house kicks with a more square-on delivery angle will have a better chance of registering a score, ball of the foot kicks will phase out (unless on the face), back kicks will be delivered with the bottom of the heel rather than just the sole of the foot, back of the heel kicks will phase out (unless on the face), rapid kicks that just snaps and touch the ebp's may be modified to ensure there is some acceptable time duration on the impact time on the ebp. 

Above are some views on how techniques may change in its delivery, there may be more as players try on these La Just ebp's and work out ways and techniques that are most suitable to score the required points.

And when the next phase of introduction comes in for the hand glove sensors and potentially the head guards with sensors, the sport will undergo further development and scoring points will become fully electronic.

While the ebp's were used, there were instances when the referee or the judges had to step in and invalidate any points scored outside of the competition rules guidelines, eg scoring the point after kalyeo (break), points scored on a fallen player, outside the boundary line, or even when the ebp's clashed which in some instances posted a “ghost point”.  All these “illegitimate” points scored had to be annulled, and of course the offending player, if using any prohibited acts would have to be penalised – as per competition rule or technical guidelines.

I have discussed some of the above points and provided my experiences of its use plus some views and suggestions to the La Just designer and his staff.  note: the La Just electronic body protector commeneced in 1982 in Connecticut, USA and has quite a histroy on its development.  You can visit http://www.lajust.com to view further.

I will post some comments on the use of the amended rules and the video replay system in the competition rules forum of this website.