Electronic Scoring...

[Jason Mallory]

Has negatively affected world class TKD. This year at the 2015 World Championships some competitors began to take advantage of the electronic scoring system by throwing light flippy kicks that land hard enough to activate the electronic chest protector but would not do significant damage.

The match below was the worst example I saw where the Iranian competitor was scoring from the clinch with a kick to the hip with the bottom of his foot (2:32).

[Fraser Taylor]

That was just awkward to watch..

[Jason Mallory]

That was just awkward to watch..

I agree. Back in the 80's and 90's WTF was different from ITF because they scored points continuously during the rounds and added up the points at the end of three 3 minute rounds instead of stopping if the center ref thinks a point was scored during a round and then going to the four corner judges to see if they agreed with the center ref.

At some point the ITF also went to continuous scoring instead of stopping the action. In stop action point fighting the front leg tends to dominate and it becomes a game of tag instead of trying to land hard shots with KO power. Now with this electronic scoring WTF TKD is regressing to a front leg dominated game of tag. Sad to see.