Back so soon? -- boy, you are one fast reader! [Now, if you've cheated and have not done your reading, don't blame me if you get lost in the following discussion.]

One thing which we don't have yet is the full flavour of the WTF sparring rules. So visit here to have a good look - WTF Competition Rules & Intrepretation effective July 1, 2002 .

Let's just highlight some of the more outstanding rules

Hand techniques must be delivered by the first two knuckles of the hand only. And only between the collarbone and waist on the front and flanks of the body (the area covered by the hogu.

Foot techniques must use exclusively the foot. However, any attack against the face which involves the lower part of the leg is permitted.

In order to score to the head you must strike above the collare bone in front of the ears. And for all successful attacks you must use sufficient force to abruptly displace the opponent's body or register on the electronic hogu if one is used. You can also score by knocking your opponent off their feet as long as you hit in a legal area.

You can't grap, hold, push with shoulder, body or hand, trap, throw, evade by turning your back, fall down intentionally (because you can't attack a downed opponent), run out of bounds, hit the face with your hands.

There is a standing eight count for knock downs and a standard ten (actually ha-nah to yeol) count and you're out.You can't be saved by the bell.

In actual competitions the most points go to roundhouse, back and axe kicks in that order. Recently the electronic scoring system has been declared the standard - but it still has it's problems, especially if they go to system that scores differently for different techniques. But the electronic system is not in place everywhere and the main complaint (from the moderated newsgroups) is that if you want to score to the body it better be a roundhouse -- sidekicks, frontkicks, and punches to the body very seldom score -- no good loud slapping sound -- no point.

And most recently -- according to the good folks at taekwondo-net -- head shots are banned for those 12 and under.