Yesterday, I went to a martial arts tournament at Ocean Beach elementary in San Diego to support a friend of mine. There was people from a number of styles, including taekwondo, soo bah do, karate and Northern Mantis Kung Fu. The day's events started with kata competition, which I didn't really like but it was interesting seeing how patterns are different outside of kung fu (they're really quite different). Later there was sparring, and I took a bunch of video for your enjoyment. There was a solid level of contact, and though the face was not a legal target the head was. Have a look:
YouTube - Men's advanced sparring, Ocean Beach martial arts tournament 2010 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MN0Bg8mxMiM)

YouTube - taekwondo vs soo bahk do at Ocean Beach Martial Arts Tournament 2010 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-CLEpxjIRk)

YouTube - taekwondo vs soo bahk do at Ocean Beach Martial Arts Tournament 2010 (2) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4xI4clwkT0)

YouTube - taekwondo vs soo bahk do at Ocean Beach Martial Arts Tournament 2010 (3) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N24B74qcqww)

YouTube - taekwondo sparring at Ocean Beach martial arts tournament October 2010 (1) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2kJ5mMr2-g)

YouTube - taekwondo vs soo bahk do at Ocean Beach Martial Arts Tournament 2010 (2) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4xI4clwkT0)

YouTube - taekwondo sparring at Ocean Beach martial arts tournament October 2010 (2) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j96kLZ1RTXE)

YouTube - taekwondo sparring at Ocean Beach martial arts tournament October 2010 (3) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BNhyDzD6EY)

YouTube - taekwondo sparring at Ocean Beach martial arts tournament October 2010 (5) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hj04GVWr2I)

YouTube - taekwondo sparring at Ocean Beach martial arts tournament October 2010 (6) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0TZ3Mb6bDo)

YouTube - tae kwon do sparring at Ocean Beach martial arts tournament 2010 (7) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZFFlnxetUI)

YouTube - tae kwon do sparring at Ocean Beach martial arts tournament 2010 (8) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5CLZyj3rzA)

Looks like fun. Which one was your friend

Looks like fun. Which one was your friend
Actually I didn't post any videos of him in this thread yet. Here's some (he's in the black gi):
YouTube - Allan sparring at Ocean Beach martial arts tournament 2010 (11) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b50WC9GO0rU)
YouTube - Allan sparring at Ocean Beach martial arts tournament 2010 (10) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpDH207YyVk)
YouTube - Allan Sparring at Ocean Beach martial arts tournament, 2010 (6) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iO8LSB_Pfkg)
YouTube - Allan sparring at Ocean Beach martial arts tournament, 2010 (2) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZSb_Mv4YVo)

Note: he's a yellow belt in judo, and his instructor also runs a taekwondo club at SDSU, so that's how he got into it. He had like 15 minutes of instruction on how their sparring works and he borrowed the sparring gear from me. I think he did outstandingly well considering that he's a judo guy.

This is interesting but there all so flat footed. Not only that but they seem to be so stiff. A serious Taekwondo Black belt would win hands down.

I hope your friend had a good time (it appears that he did) and he performed well for having no experience, my hats off to him. We used to have some well mixed sparring tournaments many years ago in this area, but that has kind of become a thing of the past. There is only a couple of tournaments a year around this area and it is mainly a few TKD and Goju Ryu guys. Enjoy yourselves and enjoy the competition.

This is interesting but there all so flat footed. Not only that but they seem to be so stiff. A serious Taekwondo Black belt would win hands down.
Note that in almost all the first videos, those are taekwondo black belts, from a number of different schools.

also, LOL @ tkd black belt winning "hands down".

Those guys shouldnt be black belts in any striking art!

Surely a serious legit TKD black belt has a bit more to offer in terms of footwork, using angles, putting combations together and some kind of defence.

Those guys shouldnt be black belts in any striking art!
Whether or not they should be black belts in a striking art, they are, and represent different schools. You can say “not in my dojo!” all day, but the fact is that this was the face of BB sparring one day in San Diego.

This is interesting but there all so flat footed. Not only that but they seem to be so stiff. A serious Taekwondo Black belt would win hands down.

...in a TKD match ....


woo hoo way to go ... a real TKD black belt would win a TKD match against lower less skilled colored belts? No **** really ?

Wow.

Fucking Genius level observation there buddy. Your whole family must be so proud of you.

Whether or not they should be black belts in a striking art, they are, and represent different schools. You can say “not in my dojo!” all day, but the fact is that this was the face of BB sparring one day in San Diego.
Agreed this is about what one can expect from an average strip mall MA school anywhere in the country.

Agreed this is about what one can expect from an average strip mall MA school anywhere in the country.
Yes but in a metropolitan area the size of San Diego you should have a at least a few above average schools around. If they where there that day or not I have no idea.

Yes but in a metropolitan area the size of San Diego you should have a at least a few above average schools around. If they where there that day or not I have no idea.

Honestly ... the TKD/HKD place I went to only invited other average/below average schools to their events and only went to similar events.

Pretty much par for the course as far as my experiences go.

Honestly ... the TKD/HKD place I went to only invited other average/below average schools to their events and only went to similar events.

Pretty much par for the course as far as my experiences go.
Now that I can certainly believe I guess I am just to use to going to schools that value good competition the BJJ school I currently go to has open mat every Saturday and it is open to anyone we get some good people that show up every so often from other places and their are a lot of really good places.

I know very little about who was and wasn’t invited to the tournament. I learned about the event that morning, my friend Allan called me up and asked if I wanted to compete and I said no because I didn’t know what it was and hadn’t been preparing for anything, but apparently I could have gotten signed up that day. At least one school there was only accustomed to non-contact sparring (yeah, they didn’t do so good). At least there’s a number of schools though- some places are very insular and won’t even do stuff like that.

I know very little about who was and wasn’t invited to the tournament. I learned about the event that morning, my friend Allan called me up and asked if I wanted to compete and I said no because I didn’t know what it was and hadn’t been preparing for anything, but apparently I could have gotten signed up that day. At least one school there was only accustomed to non-contact sparring (yeah, they didn’t do so good). At least there’s a number of schools though- some places are very insular and won’t even do stuff like that.

See, watching those vids I was thinking I have seen much less contact in organized events.

A number of people looked like they were getting hit harder than they were used to. That big tall guy kicked a guy in the head, and he shouted “What the hell!?!”. There was solid strikes and the judges weren’t penalizing people for it, even though they might mention to take it down a notch. I thought the contact level was right where it should be.

I thought the contact level was right where it should be.
This my friends is why I do grappling no real question as to how much force you should use.