One of my professed aims as a WTF Vice president was from the beginning to support the international Poomsae movement and to promote the first Poomsae World Championships ever to be held. I am glad that I could help to bring the Poomsae movement on its way and until now we had three successful Poomsae World Championships. The first steps were not easy. There were for example big differences between the WTF-Poomsae and Kukkiwon-Poomsae. Before the first World Championships could take place we had to create a unified set of rules that served as a guideline for players, coaches and referees. Then there was the problem of the scoring. How could correct execution and artistic merit be combined in a single score? We decided on a scoring which was equally divided into marks for technical accuracy and presentation.

At that time many Grandmasters thought this was not the best solution. But I am still convinced that at that stage and for an international level a scoring system that was at 50 percent based on accuracy and at 50 percent on presentation was best. Accuracy is an easy concept whereas presentation is complex. So when the poomsae movement started we wanted to give the easier notion as much room as possible. Not only Poomsae experts but players, coaches and referees with different previous knowledge and different background should be able to work with the rules we created then. And even accuracy was not as simple as it may look today. We had to decide how big a deduction was
adequate for what kind of mistake. Now this seems obvious – then it meant difficult decisions. Another thing we should keep in mind: before the first Poomsae World Championships took place no electronic scoring system for Poomsae existed. Poomsae was still on the sheet-of-paperlevel Kyorugi had left behind decades ago – so we had to develop a completely new electronic scoring system and the referees had to train on it. Maybe now the time has come to downgrade accuracy and to give presentation more weight. But mind you: there are still open questions even in the relatively simple field of accuracy. Let me give a few examples. In Taeguk-5-jang there is a sidekick combined with a stroke of the fist.
Here it is best to make the sidekick on a middle height. If a player aims the sidekick too high he has to place the stroke of the fist even higher – which would be completely useless. This does not mean that a sidekick has to be aimed at a middle level in all patterns, but in this case and in combination with this arm technique it is the case even if our rules say differently.

Then there is the direction of the eyes. In Taeguk-7-jang the direction of the eyes as described in our rules is not really logical. Instinctively most players direct their eyes in the direction of the attack, which is the logical thing. So what are the referees supposed to do here? And look at the basic stroke of the fist as we have it for example in Taeguk- 8-jang. Our rules say that a player should start this stroke with the fist next to his belt to gain enough impetus for a powerful attack. But what about a master-grade player who does not need such a long run-up? He could produce a much more impressive fist-stroke with almost no runup but much concentrated power. So even in the field of accuracy there are open questions. On these we should work first. Then we are ready for presentation, where complex notions like harmony, expression and attitude play an important role. The presentation-scoring has to be developed carefully and in a way that players, coaches, and referees but also the audience can appreciate. That they will appreciate it I am sure. After some time accuracy will be commonplace. Ambitious players worldwide will be equally able to fulfill the demands of accuracy. Accuracy is a closed system – when complete accuracy has been achieved no further development is possible.Presentation on the other hand opens up endless possibilities. Every player can fill presentation with his personality and his artistry. If we want Poomsae to appeal to the audience
we have to give presentation more room and more importance in our scoring. The public does not want to see the ever same display of accuracy – they want to see individuality, expression and variation. Therefore we need to stress the presentation part of our Poomsae scoring in the future.