knockouts (ibid.). With the juniors fighting for positions on the
junior national team, world ranking, and spots on the future
Olympic teams, the junior division has taken advantage of full
head contact and aims to disable their opponent whenever
possible, a violent outcome that would have been frowned upon
before.
In the addendum of 2003 that allowed young age groups to
start kicking to the head, the World Taekwondo Federation
also increased the point values for successful head contact
(WTF, 2014). A successful regular kick to the torso of your
opponent scores one point, and a turning kick (which is defined
if at any point during the execution of the kick you expose your
back to your opponent) to the torso is worth two points. It used
to be the same rules for head contact, one point for regular
kicks to the head and two for turning kicks to the head, but
this changed dramatically. Now regular kick to the head of
your opponent will score three points, and a turning kick to the
head will score four points (WTF, 2014, Article 12). This score
difference means that an athlete can win a match while
simultaneously executing fewer kicks, so they exert themselves
less while winning matches if they use more difficult and
violent kicks, a risk they are willing to take.