First taekwondo WTF tournament on saturday...

Any tips? I'm a yellow belt with no full contact sparring experience but I should be up against someone similar.

Any tips on how to prepare and how to fight?

One thing that is seen often in loer ranks when sparring is a rather broken attack. They tend to throw a kick or two then pull out, keep throwing kicks and advancing until one of you is knocked down or out of the ring. It will keep your enemy off balance.

That's some good advice, anymore first-time mistakes i should avoid?

The tournaments that I've gone to, and especially with colored belts at lower levels, there are very few double or triple kicks. Attacks are not calculative and is more a learning process to gain experience.

Depending on your weight class or depending on how many people that have entered it will depend on who you will be matched up with. As a white belt two months in, I had zero experience for sparring and was matched up against first a yellow belt (8th gup) and a yellow with green stripe (7th gup). I won the first only because I was more aggressive and I stuck in so close punching that he could not get any good kicks in, with the exception of the one to my throat that made my fingers tingle. The 7th gup handed me my proverbial butt. I also blocked a kick with my fist that wound up giving me a bone bruise that made my hand swell up like a grapefruit.

My suggestion take your time, relax and "breath". This is the most important thing I can tell you from my experience. The match may only be from a minute to 3 minutes depending on the format. This can be the longest time of your life. Throw some doubles and also some defensive back kicks. You'll find that many kicks are round houses so practice your block and punch technique. And I'll leave you with one other suggestion, use attacking and defensive front kicks. Many people forget this and I have found it gets many people off guard especially when they are throwing round houses. Good Luck.

Hop in like you're going to throw a snap side kick but bust him in the chin with a jab punch instead. It's illegal but it'll put everyone there on the defensive when they face you, giving you a distinct advantadge. [IMG]http://www.fightingarts.com/forums/ubb/biggrin.gif[/IMG]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by MrHate:
Hop in like you're going to throw a snap side kick but bust him in the chin with a jab punch instead. It's illegal but it'll put everyone there on the defensive when they face you, giving you a distinct advantadge. [/QUOTE]

MrHate now thats just wrong.
Really its just a tournament.
Hey tevong,
Just have fun.Dont cheat.Respect others and the rules of the tournament.In the novice divisions offensive moves are more likely to score than defensive.While in the advanced divisions counter attacks are more likely to score.Also attacks to the body are far mor likely to score than attacks to the head-thats true no matter what belt division you compete in.Of course the most important thing to remember is to just have fun.That and watch the black belt division.

haha I figured the [IMG]http://www.fightingarts.com/forums/ubb/biggrin.gif[/IMG] would be enough to let you know I was kidding, of course. [IMG]http://www.fightingarts.com/forums/ubb/wink.gif[/IMG] lol

It's been mentioned already, but with fighters of your approximate level aggression goes a long way. More than once I've seen clearly inferior martial artists ( think someone who couldn't distinguish between a round and a side kick ) overwhelm and dominate far superior martial artists with raw, naked aggression.

Watch for patterns. A lot of sparrers at your level will have one favourite two or three attack combination, and will toss it out repeatedly.

Get someone to beat on you a little with your sparring gear on before the match. Just enough to get your circulation up, and so you can get used to getting hit. If you truly have no full contact sparring experience, you need to know how to deal with getting hit, so you don't fall apart the first time it happens in a match.

Previously posted by KylejustKyle: "Get someone to beat on you a little with your sparring gear on before the match. Just enough to get your circulation up, and so you can get used to getting hit. If you truly have no full contact sparring experience, you need to know how to deal with getting hit, so you don't fall apart the first time it happens in a match."

Good suggestion. I wish that somebody would have done this for me. I had never even sparred but went in with a male ego which wasn't enough.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by MrHate:
haha I figured the [IMG]http://www.fightingarts.com/forums/ubb/biggrin.gif[/IMG] would be enough to let you know I was kidding, of course. [IMG]http://www.fightingarts.com/forums/ubb/wink.gif[/IMG] lol [/QUOTE]

My bad.I am not really familiar with this whole smiley face thing. [IMG]http://www.fightingarts.com/forums/ubb/confused.gif[/IMG]
I think I used that right.

[This message has been edited by CHU GWOHA (edited 11-20-2004).]