have seen head contact becoming more forceful and violent,
being used by younger and younger age groups, and causing
serious injuries in athletes.
As Taekwondo is a relatively new sport in the competitive
world, in the Olympics for only the past 23 years, the rules of
world class Taekwondo have evolved with the sport. It was
after several years of strict no head contact that the rules were
changed to allow adults full head contact. From that point the
rules evolved further to permit black belt juniors (ages 15-17)
to kick to the head with full force; soon after junior color belts
were allowed the same privilege. Now within the past several
years, 12-13 year old belts of all colors can make contact to the
head, up to the point of knocking their opponent down. With
these rules have come increased difficulty to score points on
the chest with the introduction of electronic chest gear, and
increased point values for kicking to the head. All of these
rules make kicking to the head more and more appealing to
the athletes, who are ignoring the severe risk of closed head
injuries in an attempt to win.
Part of the rise of popularity in head kicks is the increasing
difficulty to score on the chest. This is a result of the invention
of electronic chest ge ar by a group of seven engineers who