Competition

The Four Events

Individual competitors may enter some or all of these; major championships also feature team versions.

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Patterns · Tul

Competitors perform a designated pattern (often one chosen by the competitor and one drawn by the ring). Judges score technical content, accuracy, power, balance, rhythm and correct sine-wave motion. Usually run as head-to-head pairs decided by flags, or by points.

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Sparring · Matsogi

Free sparring under semi-contact rules, with foot and hand protectors. Points are scored for controlled, accurate techniques to legal target areas. Bouts run for timed rounds; scoring and penalties determine the result under the event rules. Excessive contact can be penalised; a knockdown is not a scoring objective.

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Power Test · Wiryok

Competitors break boards (or measuring boards/machines) to demonstrate raw force with set techniques — typically forefist punch, side piercing kick, knife-hand strike, turning kick and back piercing kick. Most boards broken wins.

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Special Technique · Teukgi

Jumping and flying kicks break a target fixed at height or distance — flying high kick, flying side piercing kick, overhead (high) kick, and more. The greatest height/distance broken wins.

Team events add team patterns, team sparring and pre-arranged free sparring / demonstration, where choreographed sequences of throws, breaks and flying kicks are judged for difficulty and presentation.

Sparring Scoring

Scoring differs between federations, rulebook editions and age divisions, including the extra points given for jumping techniques. Check the rules for your event before you compete.

Legal targets & contact

Use only the legal target areas specified in the event rules. The high, middle and low sections used in technique study are not the same thing as legal targets.
Contact is controlled (semi-contact) — excessive force is penalised.
Prohibited: attacks below the waist, attacking a fallen opponent, attacks to the back or spine, knees, head-butts, and biting.
Penalties range from warnings (gyong-go) to minus points (gam-jeom) and disqualification.

Equipment & Categories

The standard ITF sparring kit. Hand and foot protectors are mandatory; the rest depends on the division and rules.

Standard ITF Taekwon-Do hand and foot protectors. Photo: Gashu, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Photographs are from Wikimedia Commons, reused under their respective licences (CC BY-SA / CC0). The head guard (mori bohodae) and groin guard (nangsim bohodae) complete the kit and can be seen worn in the competition photo above.

Protective equipment

Approved hand protectors and foot protectors (mandatory).
Mouthguard and groin guard.
Optional/required by rules: forearm and shin guards, and headgear for some divisions (especially juniors).
Clean white dobok with correct federation and rank markings.

Competition categories

Age: typically junior, senior and veteran divisions.
Gender: separate male and female divisions.
Grade: coloured-belt and black-belt (dan) divisions.
Weight: sparring is divided into weight classes; patterns and power by grade/age.

Championships & Structure

Competition is organised in a pyramid from club to international level:

Club & regional tournaments — entry-level events, often the first competition a coloured belt enters.
National championships — select each country's representatives.
Continental championships — e.g. European, Asian, Pan-American, organised by continental federations.
ITF World Championships — the top level, held since 1974 (first in Montreal, Canada), typically every two years, with separate junior and senior events.

Because the ITF divided into several bodies after 2002, more than one organisation now stages its own “World Championships”. They share the same four events and the same patterns, so the format is familiar across all of them.

Tournament etiquette is the same as in the dojang: competitors bow, are courteous to opponents and officials, and accept the result with self-control.