ITF RULES

corkma

does anyone else find ITF comps a little frustrating? they seem to be leaning towards full contact, which isn't a bad thing, but it's being done in an irresponsible way. It's not officially full contact and isn't subject to the same safety reggulations as a sport like boxing. contacts heavier and they've reintroduced old style fingerless gloves. whats wrong with 10oz? They're also a little relaxed when it comes to gumshields. More importantly, officials are failing to look after the fighters. I've seen ppl getting hammered and they're allowed to continuosly get back up. this is asking for trouble. allowing knockouts would mean fights would be ended at a safe time. taking shots when your already semi- concussed is very dangerous. as well as this fighters who wouldn't pass a boxing medical, or who have been knocked out recently are allowed to fight.
If it is light contact, it should be light contact. full contact is fine, but ppl don't have a clear idea what they're getting into. In my opinion many of the fights look like bad boxing matches. this rough light contact is doing nothing for the style. the ITF need to make a decision. If they want to go full contact, make it clear, do it in a responsible way and ensure athletes are properly conditioned.

corkma

don't forget the medics at comps. you run a full contact competition you make sure you have proper medics

Tim_Murphy

I've seen ppl getting hammered and they're allowed to continuosly get back up. this is asking for trouble. allowing knockouts would mean fights would be ended at a safe time. taking shots when your already semi- concussed is very dangerous. as well as this fighters who wouldn't pass a boxing medical, or who have been knocked out recently are allowed to fight.

This happened to me in a light contact competition back in the day. I was knocked out and after a few minutes after I was able to stand again they let me back in to finish the fight. Can't remember any of it of course but I've seen it on video. :eek:
You are right of course, it is very dangerous. Semi/Light contact people generally have no idea how to deal with KOs, which makes full contact fights safer in some ways.

ColinJennings

corkma wrote: »

they seem to be leaning towards full contact, which isn't a bad thing, but it's being done in an irresponsible way. It's not officially full contact and isn't subject to the same safety reggulations as a sport like boxing. contacts heavier and they've reintroduced old style fingerless gloves. whats wrong with 10oz?

ITF sparring is not moving toward full contact at all. The rules in relation to contact remain the same and vary slightly from organisation to organisation. The requirement for gloves is that when the hand is flat, they cover the fingertips. They never allowed 'boxing gloves'. I've never done boxing, so couldn't tell you what type they are, but gloves that cover the palm entirely are not allowed.

corkma wrote: »

They're also a little relaxed when it comes to gumshields.

I've never seen a competition where you are allowed compete without the proper protective equipment, which includes groin guard and gum shield for males. In the pre match checks, you specifically check for gum shield, so I don't know where you saw that, but in all the national competitions I have ever entered in the last 12 years and all international competitions I've been at require gum shields.

I'm completely blown away by this, as putting on my lawyer wig, this is outright negligence. If that is happening, whoever is allowing it happen is putting both the fighters at risk of physical harm and themselves at risk legally.

corkma wrote: »

More importantly, officials are failing to look after the fighters.

I'm proud to say this has never happened in a ring I've centre ref-ed, but I'll admit that some people are a little lax. On the whole, the people who are like that are the last ones to be put in charge of a ring again.

corkma wrote: »

In my opinion many of the fights look like bad boxing matches. this rough light contact is doing nothing for the style. the ITF need to make a decision.

I accept that there are always some sloppy boxers, but then again it isn't a boxing match. There have been a number of recent rule changes to prevent the match becoming a boxing match, but these are limited to some of the varying national organisations, so I'll leave it at that.

corkma wrote: »

If they want to go full contact, make it clear, do it in a responsible way and ensure athletes are properly conditioned.

ITF has a single, full contact, professional competition and the rest are not. While you are required to hit your opponent to score, heavy contact is a disqualification offence, depending which ITF rules you operate under, excessive contact is potentially a yellow card offence and contact is a warning offence.

I'm completely shocked at your post and if it is happening (I have never seen anything like that at any ITF tournament, nor even heard of something like that happening, so I am slightly skeptical) it is completely wrong and whoever is organising it needs to check the rules, before they land themselves putting thier hand very deeply into their pockets.

corkma

A lot of what you are saying is correct, but things vary at every comp in my opinion. there are a lot of well run competitions out there, but there's no uniformity. I've seen competitions with one ring being run by an excellent ref while in the next ring ppl are fighting with jewellery or fouls aren't being handled correctly. Thers's a serious lack of consistent professionalism.

yomchi

corkma wrote: »

does anyone else find ITF comps a little frustrating? they seem to be leaning towards full contact, which isn't a bad thing, but it's being done in an irresponsible way. It's not officially full contact and isn't subject to the same safety reggulations as a sport like boxing. contacts heavier and they've reintroduced old style fingerless gloves. whats wrong with 10oz? They're also a little relaxed when it comes to gumshields. More importantly, officials are failing to look after the fighters. I've seen ppl getting hammered and they're allowed to continuosly get back up. this is asking for trouble. allowing knockouts would mean fights would be ended at a safe time. taking shots when your already semi- concussed is very dangerous. as well as this fighters who wouldn't pass a boxing medical, or who have been knocked out recently are allowed to fight.
If it is light contact, it should be light contact. full contact is fine, but ppl don't have a clear idea what they're getting into. In my opinion many of the fights look like bad boxing matches. this rough light contact is doing nothing for the style. the ITF need to make a decision. If they want to go full contact, make it clear, do it in a responsible way and ensure athletes are properly conditioned.

This is a huge gripe of mine also. It does however vary from association to association. There are association tournaments out there that you can be banged extremely hard in, and there are others that will keep a cap on the contact.

I agree with Colin's post, and I have experienced tournaments run by his association where competitor safety is always a priority.

Personally I don't mind tough contact. I despise that "bad boxing" that can be seen at some tournaments, it ruins the sport of Taekwon-Do. I tell my guys this type of sparring is like a car crash, two competitors run and bash into each other and just wail on each other. There is no skill in any of that. It's not Taekwon-Do. Sport Taekwon-Do can be a a highly technical event at the top end.

The rules used by the ITF need to be changed to accommodate the harder contact that is coming through, especially at international level. The hardest I've ever been clobberd is at international level. The safety of the competitor is paramount so the fingerless gloves need to removed and replaced with safer 10oz gloves. MMA gloves are safer than these fingerless things.

Also the word of the coach is taken over the word of the doctor. I've seen people KO'd badly and then allowed to compete again the following day. This is very dangerous for obvious reasons. I've seen competitors with bad injuries being allowed or encouraged to fight on. They also have a one minute injury time, there should be a TKO option after 10 seconds. This is again for the safety of the competitor.

Gum shields used to be optional, this stems back to when TKD sparring was meant to be semi-contact, even at that though they should have been mandatory.

Time for a change alright.

corkma

I agree with yomichi, I don't have a problem with heavy contact, but I'd like to see it handled properly.