Taekwondo Competition

Under World Taekwondo Federation and Olympic rules, sparring is a full-contact event and takes place between two competitors in an area measuring 10 meters square. Each match consists of three semi-continuous rounds of contact, with one minute's rest between rounds.

Points are awarded for permitted, accurate, and powerful techniques to the legal scoring areas; light contact does not score any points. In most competitions, points are awarded by four corner judges using electronic scoring tallies. Beginning in 2009, a kick or punch that makes contact with the opponent's hogu (the body guard that functions as a scoring target) scores one point; if a kick to the hogu involved a technique that includes fully turning the target competitor's body, so that the back is to the attacking competitor, an additional point is awarded; a kick to the head scores three points. Valid attacks that knock an opponent down are awarded an extra point. Punches to the head are not allowed. If a competitor is knocked down by a scoring technique and the referee counts down, then an additional point is awarded to the attacking competitor.

At the end of three rounds, the competitor with more points wins the match. In the event of a tie at the end of three rounds, a fourth "sudden death" overtime round will be held to determine the winner after a one minute rest period.

Blows are full force; if one competitor is knocked out by a legal attack, the attacking competitor is declared the winner, since the WTF allows knockouts in sparring competition. There are certain rules that they must follow, however; some rules condemn name calling, punches to the head, grabbing, and more.