Thursday 5 April 2012
The first World Poomsae Championships was held in Seoul Korea from 4-6 September 2006 at the Olympic Gymnasium. There were 57 nations participating with 256 males and 151 females competing, giving a total of 407 competitors.
Topping the medal tally was the mother country to the wonderful art of Taekwondo, Korea, with some 16 gold medals. In order the remaining top 7 countries after Korea were Iran, Turkey, Spain, France, Netherlands, Germany and Australia winning assorted numbers of silver and bronze medals, with no country other than Korea winning a gold medal in the top 8 countries. Korea won 16 gold medals from 16 divisions, a result that clearly could not have been imagined prior to the event.
The WTF World Poomsae Championships have been held every year since 2006, with the annual event happening in the following countries:
2nd Incheon Korea 2007
3rd Ankara Turkey 2008
4th Cairo Egypt 2009
5th Tashkent Uzbekistan 2010
6th Vladivostok Russia 2011
7th Medellin Colombia 2012
The rules have seen many amendments over the first 7 years of the operation of the championships, with the rules seen to be “evolving” in many respects to cater better for the needs of the participants and, most importantly, to ensure the technical development and standardisation of the traditional discipline of Taekwondo Poomsae.
The main focus for the event seems to have been to ensure spectator satisfaction, and so the annual event has seen some testing of different events, There have been a number of “experiments” at each championships, most notably being the introduction of alternative standardised Competition Poomsae other than the standard Taegeuk Poomsae and the promotion of Freestyle Poomsae. Whilst these alternative Poomsae were a demonstration event at the championships, the Taekwondo community has heard no more from the WTF about the direction these Poomse will take, if in fact they will be formally introduced at all. The Poomsae were seen more as freestyle patterns providing for the performance of more kicking techniques with the lines of movement utilising more 45 degree lines of progression.
There is no doubt that the most exciting, from a spectator point of view, is the Freestyle Poomse, and to this end the WTF have crafted a carefully designed set of rules in their October 2011 amendment to the rules to ensure the proliferation of this exciting derivative of traditional Poomsae.
The 2011 rule amendments have definitely revolutionised the performance of the traditional Taegeuk Poomsae. To the untrained eye there would seem to be little to no difference in the performances, however some very specific rules effecting balance performance have no doubt increased the challenge for the performer. Another significant development is the increasing of the weighting of the presentation side of the score board, with Presentation now counting for 60% of the total score and Techniques counting for only 40% of the total score.
The balance considerations of performance have not changed in terms of the need to be balanced with every move, however the balance challenges presented in the new marking scheme not only penalise any additional movements in terms of foot placement, but the way the foot is placed or pivots is now being assessed.
When transitioning from one stance to the next, the foot must be placed by touching the front ball of the foot first followed by the heel. The front ball of the foot, or “ap – chook” as it is called in traditional Taekwondo terminology, must also be used to pivot on, and not the heel or “dit-chook” when turning to transition from one stance to the next.
Tied in with this assessment of foot placement and transition movements in stance is also the critical timing of foot placement, the execution of hand movements and the pivot action involved with the rear stance foot placement. That is, the hand, front foot placement and rear foot pivot must be executed simultaneously, otherwise the athlete should attract a 0.1 deduction, just as the same penalty will apply when the pivot occurs on the heel of the foot.
Likewise, the deduction will also apply when placing the rear foot in twisted stance or “koa-seogi” too wide. The distance for this must be the width of one fist, either when in this static position, for example in Taegeuk Chil Jang around movement 15, or when transitioning to another stance through twisted stance, as seen in Taegeuk Pal Jang going to the second Santeul Makki or block.
All of these movements are considered on the minor technical error side of the score sheet, attracting a penalty of 0.1 if the movement is done incorrectly.
Also on the side of minor technical errors is the renewed geometry or measurements and foot placement of the long stance, forward stance or “Ap Goobi” as it is classically named. This stance now has only a fist width space between the line of the inside edge of the rear foot heel and the line of the inside edge of the front foot. This space has historically, and in more recent times, been thought to be the wide of one foot length, and in previous decades it has been considered to be shoulder width. It is thought that this new “Ap Goobi” geometry is now part of the increasing of the degree of difficulty in Poomse performance particularly targetting balance.
There is no doubt these examples of amendments to technical requirements, and in particular the execution of stances in the Poomsae, are targeting the criteria of “balance” as a means to sort extraordinary athletes from excellent athletes, and to sort these excellent athletes from good athletes.
In a future article we will describe some emphasis on hand techniques and in particular the execution of target elbow strike techniques as well as the more refined Performance criteria of Speed and Power; Speed, Rhythm and Tempo; and Expression of Energy.
Master Damien O’Flaherty 6th Dan
WTF International Poomse Judge
Attendee 15th International Poomsae referee seminar
Auckland New Zealand
March 12-16, 2012
