The taekwondo event at a national school sports meet: school boys’ and girls’ teams in Junior and Senior fields, with every athlete competing inside an exact weight category in protective gear.
Taekwondo is a Korean martial art best known for its kicking techniques, and at a school sports meet it is contested as a sparring event: two athletes of the same weight band face each other in full protective equipment and score points with controlled kicks and strikes to the permitted target areas. In the eTalenter sense it is a sport. The organiser records each result, and the score label for the item is Points/Score. There is no artistic panel and no pattern (poomsae) mark.
In the national school sports and games template the item runs in all four fields: Junior (under 17) boys and girls, and Senior (under 19) boys and girls. The source handbook describes a team championship, with a boys’ team of 10 athletes and a girls’ team of 11, and it requires each athlete to compete only in their own weight category, with no switching to another. The template records each bout as an individual entry with a 15-minute slot and a 14-minute warning, so a school’s team result is built by the organiser from the individual results.
The handbook lists the weight bands in detail. Junior boys run from 35 kg and under up to over 78 kg in thirteen bands, Senior boys from 45 kg and under up to over 78 kg in ten bands, Junior girls from 32 kg and under up to over 68 kg in thirteen bands, and Senior girls from 40 kg and under up to over 68 kg in eleven bands. Its Junior girls list prints one band as 44-56 kg between the 42-44 kg and 46-49 kg bands, which looks like a typing slip for 44-46 kg, so confirm the final bands in your own event notice rather than copying that line.
On the day every competitor wears the prescribed protective kit: head guard, chest (trunk) protector, groin guard, forearm guards, hand protectors, shin guards and a mouth guard. The handbook says the contest follows the national taekwondo federation’s rules, with room for local changes. For the organiser the work is the weigh-in, the kit check, the mats, the referees and a bracket per weight band, with each bout’s outcome entered as soon as it ends so the next round can be called.
Where Taekwondo is run
In eTalenter this item is carried by the national school sports and games template for Indian school-board affiliates, in the Martial Arts category, for boys and girls in both age fields. Taekwondo is a standard school, university and club sport in South Korea, India, across Asia, Europe, the Americas and Africa, and is an Olympic sport, so a school meet that runs it in weight-band brackets will feel familiar to coaches from any of those places.
- India (national school sports meet for board-affiliated schools)
- South Korea, where the art originated
- Worldwide, as a school, club and Olympic sport
Key facts
- Boys and girls, in two fields: Junior (U-17) and Senior (U-19)
- Handbook format: team championship, 10 athletes in a boys’ team and 11 in a girls’ team
- Template entry: one individual bout per athlete, with a 15-minute slot and a 14-minute warning
- Decided on points under the referee, not by an artistic judging panel
- Weight bands are fixed per field and gender, and no athlete may move to another band
- Seven pieces of protective kit are required, from head guard to mouth guard
On eTalenter, Taekwondo is filed under Martial Arts and typically scored with Points/Score. It appears in 1 ready-made event templates — each one can adjust its time limit, age-group assignment and scoring setup independently.
Across the templates that use it, Taekwondo is most often entered as an Individual competition, commonly run for Female, typically scored out of 100, commonly time-limited to around 15 minutes where a limit is set.
The scoring method the templates attach to this item, and what that scale means. The category this competition is filed under when a template is installed. Others in this category: Judo, Taekwondo, Karate, Wrestling, Boxing, Traditional Martial Arts eTalenter matches an item to its criteria on the words in its name, and creates exactly these when the template is installed. No criteria match this name, so none are created automatically — judges score it on the event’s own criteria instead.How it is scored
Where it sits
Judging criteria installed for it
What judges look at in Taekwondo
What a Taekwondo panel is actually weighing up, and where the marks are usually won or lost:
- Scoring kicks and strikes: clean, controlled techniques that land on the permitted target areas earn points, and wild or off-target attempts do not
- Kick quality: taekwondo rewards the accurate, well-balanced kick, so a contestant who keeps balance and recovers guard quickly beats one who swings hard
- Weight compliance: an athlete outside the published band cannot compete in it, and the handbook allows no switch to another band, so the scale settles this before scoring begins
- Protective equipment: bouts start only when all seven pieces of kit are on correctly, so a missing guard costs time and sometimes the bout
- Conduct and control: the referee penalises excessive force and unsporting behaviour, and the match goes to the contestant who stays disciplined under pressure
Treat these as the judging focus, not a fixed rubric: publish your own weighted criteria for Taekwondo under Scoring Setup, or start from how judging, scoring and tabulation work on eTalenter.
How to prepare for Taekwondo
How entrants and their teachers usually get Taekwondo right on the day:
- Find your weight band in the event notice early, and plan the athlete’s weight over weeks rather than the night before, since a missed band means no bout
- Train timed rounds with short rests, so the athlete can keep guard, distance and breathing for the full bout
- Drill a small set of reliable scoring kicks from both stances, such as a round kick to the trunk guard, and practise recovering to guard straight afterwards
- Wear the full kit in sparring practice, so the head guard, shin guards and mouth guard feel normal and do not distract on the day
- Pack a kit checklist: all seven guards, a spare mouth guard, uniform, age proof and the team list, and check it at accreditation
- Spar against taller, shorter and left-handed partners in the same band so nothing in the draw is a surprise
- After a loss, ask the coach to replay the scoring exchanges, then drill the two moments that cost the most before the next meet
Events that run this (1)
Ready-made templates that already include this competition. Installing one sets it up for you.
Frequently asked questions
Is Taekwondo judged individually or as a team?
Across eTalenter’s templates it’s most often run as an Individual entry, commonly for Female, though an organiser can set either participation type when assigning the item to an age group.
Is taekwondo judged by marks or by a points result?
It is a sport, so each bout ends in a win or loss on points under the referee and the organiser records the result. There is no artistic criteria sheet.
Is taekwondo the same as karate at this meet?
No. They are separate items with their own rules. Taekwondo centres on kicking and runs in the handbook’s own weight bands, while karate is a separate sparring item with its own weight categories and bout length.
Is it an individual or a team event?
The handbook calls it a team championship, with 10 boys or 11 girls per team, but each athlete fights alone in a weight band. The template records the bouts as individual entries.
Can an athlete change weight band after entries are in?
No. The handbook says an athlete may compete only in their own weight category and may not switch to another.
Does a bout really last 15 minutes?
No. The 15-minute slot and 14-minute warning in the template are a scheduling allowance, because the handbook gives no bout length. Set the real round length from the federation rules your referees follow.
Want the full judging picture? Read how judging, scoring and tabulation work on eTalenter, or browse every martial arts competition item.
Try Taekwondo in eTalenter
See every ready-made template that runs Taekwondo, and install one as a live event — age groups, rules and scoring included.
