Pumped Up For Poomsae

Pumped Up For Poomsae

In 1994, I sent an article to Taekwondo Times Magazine, Black Belt and other martial arts periodicals. In the piece, which no one picked up and published, unfortunately, I wrote about Taekwondo Poomsae (Forms) competition and wondered why there weren’t major tournaments. Sure, it was, and still is, a part of state championships and the national event but it was just another division that didn’t get its due. Sparring, of course, was the marquee event. Back then, there wasn’t a WTF (World Taekwondo Federation) Poomsae World Championship. The most, at least here in the United States, that was available were poomsae divisions at Taekwondo and open martial arts competitions. In fact, that’s still pretty much how it is but, at strictly Taekwondo events, the poomsae events are better organised and formalized so there is less subjectivity in the scoring process. This is a good thing. Even at full championships, poomsae is given more respect and gets its own day(s) for competitors to showcase their skills.

In the article, I suggested that there should be some kind of World Championship and, perhaps, poomsae competition would get into The Olympic Games as well. (Remember, I wrote the article in the early 1990s. The WTF finally ran the its first Poomsae World Championship in 2006.) Taekwondo had already been added to The Olympics, in 1988, as a demonstration sport, and became a full-fledged medal sport in 2000. It’s been a mainstay of The Olympic Games since. Having recently watched an exciting and scandal-filled women’s figure skating competition from the 1994 Winter Olympics, which inspired me, I wrote that major poomsae competition could follow the same format as Olympic Figure Skating - two rounds, with the athlete having to do a rank appropriate form for the first mandatory round and a second creative round. In the second round, each athlete would be given a theme ahead of the competition and they’d have to prepare a form that presents that theme. Taekwondo is a martial art, after all, and by definition an art is a creative pursuit.

Today, if you’re a Taekwondoist looking to compete in the WTF World Championships and WTF-recognized national championships, including related Taekwondo events run by WTF-member national governing bodies (NGBs), there is a formalized way the poomsae have to be done with an approved and accepted scoring system. There are age and rank (belt colour) divisions too. The problem with the current state of the poomsae competition lies with the black belt divisions and this is what this blog post is about.

Before I go on, in case anyone thinks I’m merely a disgruntled competitor and someone crying over spilt milk, I AM a black belt. I have sixth dan certification from my NGB, USA Taekwondo (USAT), and I am awaiting my fifth dan certification from the Kukkiwon, the global headquarters of Taekwondo. (I’ll be writing a blog post about dan certification at a later date). I have been a black belt since 1989 and I’ve also studied HapKiDo, Shotokan Karate, Koeikan Karate and Judo. I began my Taekwondo training in October 1985 and my martial arts training in June of the same year when I was studying Shotokan at the South China Athletic Association in Hong Kong. I have my own, albeit small dojang in Maplewood, New Jersey, and I used to run a school in Pompton Plains, New Jersey. I’m also the 2011 and 2012 First Masters Poomsae Division state champion for New Jersey and I finished in the top ten at the 2011 national championships. I also have a Master’s Degree in Coaching and Sports Administration and I am a certified Associate Coach with USAT. I don’t list all of this to show off. There are many Taekwondo black belts with far more impressive credentials. I list all of this so you, the reader, can trust that I have been around and have enough experience to make the suggestions and claims I am going to state below.

So, back to the problems with the black belt poomsae division. First, there is the lack of competitors. In the last two years, the number of entrants in the various poomsae divisions for black belts (1^st Seniors to 3^rd Masters) isn’t as large as I thought and hoped it would be. Why? Here are my guesses. Perhaps, it’s money. Entry fees are larger than they’ve ever been and travel costs (airfare, gas, train, bus, food, hotel) add up and aren’t going cheap either. This aside, I think the lack of entries has to do with the lack of promotion poomsae gets as its own entity and, from a competitor’s viewpoint, perhaps there is also a sense of not having a shot at winning a podium place, to borrow Olympic lingo. Here’s how I think this might be happening: Even though there are codified rules for how each poomsae should be done and there is a specific list of deductions each mistake is worth, poomsae competition is a ‘judging’ event and, on some level, it is still subjective. The judges do go through training and are rotated to keep them fresh and from making errors due to fatigue and what have you. The judges, though, are human and, as a result of that, they will tend to favour returning champions and/or known competitors. This isn’t unique to Taekwondo. Look at team sports. As a sports fan, I can say that it’s pretty evident that the home team gets more favorable calls than the away team and that stars, like Michael Jordan, get more calls their way than the opposing standout rookie who became a pro right out of high school.

In the current format of black belt Taekwondo poomsae competition, the divisions are broken down by age - 1^st Seniors (19-30), 2^nd Seniors (31-40), 1^st Masters (41-50), 2^nd Masters (51-60), 3^rd Masters (60+). There are separate groups for men and women and different age breakdowns for team poomsae events but this blog will focus mostly on individual contests; although the ideas I present can apply also to the team events.

The problem lies within each division. First degree black belts are competing against ninth degree black belts. Using my division, 1^st Masters, as an example, each competitor has to know from Taegeuk 8 (pre-black belt poomsae) to Chonkwon (7^th dan poomsae) regardless of his own rank. This has negative connotations from both ends of the rank spectrum. The first dan competitor has to learn six new forms he hasn’t even been taught in his regular class. Meanwhile, the seventh dan competitor has had years of training, perfecting each one. Akin to having to cram for a test, the first dan may just choose not to compete, reducing the number of poomsae competitors entering championships. Or, he may learn all the forms without really getting them perfected and perform poorly at game time. On the other end of the rank spectrum, the slightly older competitor may have suffered more from the ravages of time and age and may have lost some of his snap and flexibility. Is it truly within the tenets of Taekwondo - courtesy, respect, integrity, discipline, indomitable spirit - for a first dan to show up a seventh dan, for example? I don’t think so.

The second problem with the current format is that it adds credence to the line offered by many martial artists of other styles - “that Taekwondo is a sport and NOT a martial art.” Simply, they’re wrong. Sorry. Many martial arts have competitions and those competitions have rules that make them a sport under the conditions set forth by those rules. The rules prohibit use from killing each other and restrict the kinds of blows we can give each other. However, on the street in a self-defense situation, there are a host of other techniques we’d use and targets we’d hit to protect ourselves. In class, we train with elbows and knees. They appear in our poomsae yet we don’t use them in the ring. So, to those naysayers that Taekwondo is NOT a martial art, I say it is both sport and martial art. There are two sides to the coin that is Taekwondo.

With the current poomsae format, as was stated earlier, there are first dans learning seventh dan poomsae so that he can compete. He may be able to do the techniques but is he truly grasping the meaning of the form? Taekwondo poomsae are assigned to each rank based on understanding the principle behind the form and its meaning, the development of the skill - which takes time - of the black belt and the character that has been forged through the years of training. By having a first dan ‘master’ high forms basically negates the rank system; at least in terms of poomsae. This being the case, why then should each dan have a specific form? Sport Taekwondo and Martial Arts Taekwondo are different but they’re from the same root; two branches of the same tree. To negate the meaning of each rank’s poomsae cuts the tree in half and a tree that is cut in half dies, neither half able to sustain itself or the other side.

So, how do we, the Taekwondo community, masters and NGBs fix these problems? Get more poomsae competitors entering championships and maintain the integrity of Martial Arts Taekwondo within Sport Taekwondo, Run dan specific black belt poomsae competition. Perhaps, run all events as dan specific, even sparring.

The format would essentially be the same as it is now with age breakdowns and a set of four ‘first compulsory poomsae’ and a set of four ‘second compulsory poomsae.’ The difference would be the poomsae in each set. First dans would have Taegeuk 3-6 in the first set and Taeguek 7 and 8 as well as Koryo and Keumgang in the second. Koryo is the first dan poomsae and Keumgang is the second dan form; the one the first dan would be learning on his road towards becoming a second dan. The sixth dan division, for instance, would have Taegeuk 8, Koryo, Keumgang and Taebaek (first set) and Pyongwon, Sipjin, Jitae and Chonkwon (second set).  Basically, it’s the new form the black belt is learning towards earning his next rank and the seven before it.

This format may make the overall event longer but to that I say, “Who cares?” Attending a Taekwondo event - an event of any kind - is celebration of that thing, whether it’s a sport, martial art, both, dance, painting, etc. Big events also don’t happen often (once a year likely the most frequent occurrence) so who cares if they’re a little longer than what we’re used to. Eventually, we’ll get used to the longer tournaments and still want more. The format I propose helps reinforce that Taekwondo is both martial art and martial sport. It would also get more people entered. There wouldn’t just be a 1^st Masters Division first to fourth places to win. There’d be first to fourth place 1^st Masters 1^st Dan Division, first to fourth place 1^st Masters 2^nd Dan Division and so on.

With regard to my finish at last year’s Nationals, I came tenth out of eleven entrants. That is in the top ten and I was there to compete. I did show up. Ha ha! Seriously, though, this illustrates how few people enter some of these major tournaments. If everyone who’d qualified had entered, maybe I’d have finished in a lower place but with more competitors Taekwondo is better represented. If everyone who qualifies enters these major events AND there are separate divisions for each specific black belt dan, Taekwondo can be better represented even more. It’ll be better represented in terms of a rise in the sheer number of Taekwondo athletes but it will also be better represented in the quality of the Taekwondo at these major events. With more state champions, for instance, competing at the national event and accepting that the state champions are the best from their states, at least for that event or that year, then the national event will truly crown the best of the best. To help accommodate all of the changes I think would be good for my martial art and sport, the NGB has to help its state affiliates with finding the resources to guarantee that the state champions can and will get to the national event.

I love Taekwondo. I love poomsae. I’ve always preferred it to the other aspects of my chosen martial art. Let’s honour both, Taekwondo and forms, and let’s honour them the right way.