transmitter put in the back of the chest guard (ibid.). The
transmitter sends the info over to the main operating system
which then analyzes the registered kick and scores it if above a
certain psi (pounds per square inch) limit (ibid.). Because of
this minimum impact level that kicks must surpass to score,
there is a much higher level of difficulty to score points to the
torso. This difficulty, added on to the fact that regular kicks to
the torso only score one point per kick, means that more and
more athletes are switching over to head kicks, which have a
much higher point per kick ratio.
In the year 2003, the World Taekwondo Federation made
historic changes to their Olympic style Sparring by allowing
children and adolescents from ages 12 and up to start kicking
and scoring to the head (WTF, 2014, p. 2). This meant that
children were encouraged by their coaches and parents to start
aggressively attacking the head, something that before the
rule amendment in 2003 would have been grounds for
disqualification from a competition. While the cadet age group
(ages 12-14) is instructed to only use ‘light’ head contact,
meaning they can tap the head but will be penalized for hard
kicks or knock downs, the junior age division (ages 15-17) are
allowed full head contact including knock downs and possible