Proposed changes to the WTF taekwondo competition rules
The WTF has proposed a series of changes and amendments to the WTF competition rules. These had been proposed from the session held with the Joint Technical Committee in November and approved by the WTF Executive Council in December.
It is being presented to the WTF Member National Associations for their vote by end of January 2009. (edit: see comment below regarding the result of the vote)
A series of courses and refreshers will be conducted during 2009 to deploy the changes and with the 1st implementation possibly from the 2009 World Cup (June 2009 in Baku, Azerbaijan) or the World Championships (October 2009 in Copenhagen, Denmark).
Here is a summary of the changes and amendment proposals:
- Competition area is reduced to 8m by 8m. The 1m surround safety zone still exists, so the court size is 10m by 10m.
- Male division weights in 6 categories has been amended – still 8 male divisions
- Female division weights in all 8 categories has been amended – still 8 female divisions
- New weight divisions added for Youth Olympics: 5 for male and 5 for female divisions
- Drawing of lots is now extended and may be one or 2 days before the 1st day comp.
- After inspection, player + coach + team doctor (if available) to proceed to coach area.
- Players now hold the head gear tucked under the left arm up to the bowing stage and then put on the head guard after bowing.
- At the end of a match, the players to remove head guards before the bowing procedures.
- The definition of face is replaced by head. Head is all areas of the head above the collarbone, including neck, face and top and back of head. Note: this rule had been practiced since the last world championships in 2007.
- Legal scoring area is defined as the coloured area of the trunk protector.
- Head kick point is now 3 points
- An additional point is given (by the referee) for a “turning kick” to the body. Clear definition of “turning kick” will be given before the implementation of these rules.
- Combinations of kyong-go and gam-jeom will be given as additional points to the opposing player and not deducted from the offending player.
- Lifting the knee to avoid a valid attack or impeding the progress of an attack is now a kyong-go
- The inactive period of non fighting is now 5 seconds instead of the commonly practiced timing of 10 seconds. The process for giving kyong-go for continued non fighting is as before.
- Win by 7 point gap is removed
- Win by 12 point ceiling is removed
- In kye-shi situation, the commission doctor is consulted before the referee orders resumption of the match or declaring loss by expiration of 1 minute kye-shi time. Note: in most cases this is practiced, but it is now enshrined in the rules.
- In the case when a “referee conference” is held during a match, the majority vote dictates, however in the case of a tie, ie 2 to 2 of the judges’ votes, the centre referee can be the deciding and casting vote.
- The competition supervisory board now contains members of the technical, referee, games and education committees, with the chairman of the technical committee as the chairman of the competition supervisory board.
- Lodging of a protest time limit is now 15 minutes after the match conclusion.
- Competition Supervisory Board members must now declare any conflict of interests or any party can question each CSB panel member re: conflict of interest before the start of arbitration
- All protests must be filed in time and contain the reason of the protest plus the competition rule being protested, or the protest can be denied.
- The CSB can hear the protest case of the protesting party and likewise the protested party.
- The CSB can overturn a match result if it determines there is a clear error in judging the facts.
- Any party adversely affected can lodge an appeal with the Court of Arbitration.
- A coach can make an appeal for a video replay and the referee shall request the Review Jury to review the instant video replay.
- Each court shall have a Review Jury (1st class or S class referee). He reviews the instant replay with a member of the CSB and decide on a review challenge within 2 minutes; the decision is final.
- Each coach shall have one appeal per contest, and if his appeal is successful the quota of one appeal remains.
- Each contestant can have a maximum of 3 unsuccessful appeals per competition (but still only one per match).
- Any party receiving an adverse ruling on an appeal (by Review Jury) can lodge an appeal to the Court of Arbitration.
In the event a video replay system is implemented, the following items #27, 28, 29, 30 and 31 is implemented; trials will be conducted leading up to the June 2009 World Cup.
You are welcome to add any comments in this post or join in the discussion in the forum page.
Kim Seng says:
January 3rd, 2009 at 8:16 pm
The BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) provided a media review and feedback to the WTF on some ways to improve the taekwondo sport presentation to the media and television coverage. The BBC acknowledges that taekwondo sport has dynamic skills and has the great potential to capture the hearts and minds of the global TV audience, however the audience is often left perplexed at the outcome of matches and the inconsistency of points being awarded.
This report presents some suggestions to assist in improving the sport to the TV public audience. click here to get to the report. http://www.ata-wa.org.au/wp-content/uploads/file/2008_Olympic_Taekwondo__Media_Review1_081201.pdf
The rule changes proposed incorporates some of those suggestions.
Kim Seng says:
February 4th, 2009 at 10:57 pm
The WTF announced on 3rd February 2009 the result of the vote for the proposed changes to the competition rules. The votes were received from 114 member national associations who voted 76% in favour (87 votes) of accepting the new rules.
There has been great interest in this topic, You are encouraged to view the discussion points in our forum page which has been accessed by many interested readers from around the world from taekwondo and non taekwondo interested persons.
You are welcome to add any comments in this post or join in the discussion in the forum page.
Kim Seng says:
February 14th, 2009 at 12:34 am
There has been queries on the new weight divisions. See below:
Male:
under 54 kg – 00 to 54 kg
under 58 kgs – 54 to 58 kgs
under 63 kgs – 58 to 63 kgs
under 68 kgs – 63 to 68 kgs
under 74 kgs – 68 to 74 kgs
under 80 kgs – 74 to 80 kgs
under 87 kgs – 80 to 87 kgs
over 87 kgs – 87 kgs plus
Female:
under 45 kg – 00 to 45 kg
under 49 kgs – 45 to 49 kgs
under 53 kgs – 49 to 53 kgs
under 57 kgs – 53 to 57 kgs
under 62 kgs – 57 to 62 kgs
under 67 kgs – 62 to 67 kgs
under 73 kgs – 67 to 73 kgs
over 73 kgs – 73 kgs plus
WTF Competition Rules changes - to be implemented from June 2009 | Taekwondo: ATA Western Australia says:
May 10th, 2009 at 1:12 am
[...] You can refer to an earlier post which itemised the amendments and changes of the competition rules. Click here to view. [...]