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So, you’ve started learning Taekwondo and you keep hearing the word “Poomse.” What are they talking about? What does that mean?

Well, in short, Poomse means “form” or “pattern”. But it’s a little more complicated then that. 

What is Poomse?

Very basically, Taekwondo Poomse are patterns that are universally taught across thousands of schools around the world. They are a way that the taekwondo community has for standardizing the martial arts. Originally, that’s what the Poomse were made for. They were designed to help create a way of learning, teaching, and practicing taekwondo that everyone can use and understand. You’ll most likely learn Poomse as part of your basic taekwondo training. 

The cool thing about Poomse is that it covers basic techniques, patterns, even philosophy and history! In fact, there are whole books (and soon posts) discussing some of the information behind each of the Poomse, and why they are the way they are. The details can get quite complicated, but are quite interesting to those who are curious!

Over time, the Poomse went from being purely educational to becoming a form (get it?) of competition. So how does the competition work?

Competition Poomse

This is a topic that deserves its own post, but here is a basic explanation. There are two main types of taekwondo Poomse competitions. Freestyle and formalized. Freestyle is exactly that. The competitors choreograph their own set of techniques and patterns (often a ttached to music) and are scored by the judges from 0 to 10. It’s very similar to ice skating choreography, or competitive ballroom dancing, in that it is judged based on style and performance.

Formalized Poomse is a bit more technical, and therefore requires a longer explanation. In this competition, athletes perform any one of the universal Poomse (usually the Taeguk Poomse) and graded based on their performance. The better the performance, the higher the grade (the perfect score being 10 points).

So how are the points calculated? Well, 4 of the 10 points are based on accuracy. If you make a mistake in the form you lose either .1 or .3 points. The difference between the two is typically listed in the rules, but basically if it’s a small mistake you’re marked -.1, and if you make a big mistake (like you miss a technique entirely), you get marked -.3. These might sound like small decimals, but it adds up!

The next 6 points are a little more arbitrary. Those are graded on 3 criteria. Those criteria are “speed and power”, “rhythm and tempo”, and “expression of energy”. Each of them is judged on a scale of 0 to 2 points, and determined solely on the judges, well, judgement. Speed and power is judged based on how fast/slowly an athlete moves in the form, and how much power they produced for each of their techniques. Rhythm and tempo is judged based on how an athlete put together the form. Some sections of forms do techniques at very specific tempos, and athletes are graded on that. “Expression of energy” is perhaps the most arbitrary. That one is essentially the question of “how loud is the Kihap?” The louder the Kihap, the more likely it is that the judges will score you positively on this form. Some athletes are quite deafening with their kihaps.

So there you have it! There is a (extremely brief) summary of taekwondo Poomse, both as a general training type and as a sport. Hopefully that was helpful. If you’re at all curious to learn more, then check out our other posts (many of which are coming soon) on the taekwondo Poomse!

Good luck in your taekwondo education!