pACIFIC 5 STAR TAEKWONDO
Taekwondo forms/poomsae
Pacific 5 Star Taekwondo is a tournament organization composed of many independent schools. Each school has it's own curriculum of belt levels, forms, and 1-steps/self-defense. There are as many variations of taekwondo styles as there are regional accents of the English language. Each school varies in the style of taekwondo it teaches and even the individual techniques will vary slightly from one school to an other. A tournament judge may not always be familiar with a form they are judging. They are still qualified to judge the form based on their many years of practicing taekwondo. Judges should look for consistency in a competitors movements. If the competitor does a certain move in the same way on both sides of the body a judge can assume that the student was taught that skill that particular way and it is therefore correct for them. Clean technique is clean technique regardless of whether a block was chambered on bottom or top, ben armed or straight. Forms may also vary in tempo from school to school. It will be obvious when a student is deliberately performing a technique slowly versus when they stop to think or get lost. Power in a form is easily identified by the snap of the uniform even if a judge has never seen that move performed that way or at all. Here are some examples of the many forms you will find at a diverse Pacific 5 Star Taekwondo Tournament. These are not the definitively correct way to perform these forms. Forms do change from time to time based on new studies of ergonomics, the physics of movement, and the movement that is currently in style with the judges. Forms will vary wildly in execution based upon the age and athleticism of the performer. Judges should base their evaluation on the cleanness of the technique, consistency of the skills, flow of the form, focus of the competitor, and power demonstrated.