Mismatches are often witnessed during grading.
Smaller candidates are required to spar with bigger, stronger and taller partners. This is not an ideal situation to bring out the best in the candidates. It may also expose the candidates to greater risk of injury. What’s more, the unbalanced sparring conditions may make it difficult for the examiners to pass a fair judgment.
The Singapore Taekwondo Federation (STF) is confident that all instructors have their students at heart and want their students to do well in their grading. However, they may have inadvertently overlooked the importance of ensuring that the appropriate sparring partners are arranged for their students.
Hence, club leaders and instructors are reminded to arrange suitable sparring partners for their candidates at all levels for future grading. The candidates will certainly welcome the support and assistance from their clubs.
Instructors, who have not taught their students the new poomsae movements, are also reminded to do so.
It was noted that some clubs had not introduced them and as a result there were two standards – old and new. As the April 2007 grading is the target for the implementation of the new movements, the old standard is no longer acceptable. For the April 2007 grading, the examiners were generous to clubs who had not adopted the new standard. But they may not be so kind in the July 2007 grading.
The STF Management Committee would like to put on record its appreciation to all club leaders and instructors for going the extra mile for their students and ensuring that their students have a great experience in the sport.