ITF vs WTF: What's the difference?

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[Godzillarex]

Extremely informative video! I'm a black belt in WTF Taekwondo and had no idea how different ITF Taekwondo was.

[CHAVANVIN]

hi im from India i ve trained in both the disciplines, and im a black belt holder in both ITF as well as WTF.
ITF is quite traditional and focuses on power and accuracy its is more realistic in street combat..
when it comes to WTF i have experienced while practicing that it is a simplified version of ITF, it only focuses on sparing and speed..

[kittenstark]

There is no stop-point in ITF (not in the sparrings I've been in). And how hard you punch or kick depends on the match. There are different rules in different places.
You are not allowed to have any contact with the body on the back and under the belt(except if the person blocks a kick with a kick...).

[afiqjaffarran]

have you seen itf sparring where they keep fighting even after the mouth is bleeding dropping on the floor and until the judge table flip over? i have.

[mariolomeli]

Any martial art can be extremely effective for self-defense scenarios if you apply such knowledge. It depends on what and how much you practice.

[salismarr]

As an ITF IInd Dan, I think you have a good description. Sparring is Semi-contact, so this would explain the confusion. What that means is, you can hit but not follow through. We also have shin guards.

[darrenmiller]

ITF sparring is semi-contact continuous, contact is fairly hard, I broke ribs and my nose in competitions

[ESparring]

Hello,
As an ITF black belt, competitor and youtuber I'd like to say that differences between our styles are very well explained.

Both WTF and ITF can be very close but different at the same time.

Congratulations for the video.

[Noah-fzir]

im training itf and i love it because its kind of safer and it will help in a real fight

[Eagle]

I am an old school black belt, my instructor lives in Korea. I started 43 years ago. Thank you for this video. I will be honest, I was really confused about the sports stuff. I commend you for learning other styles. I did the same 40 years ago, I trained with boxers, jujitsu practitioners [Japanese] as well as Muay Thai, I laugh when I hear people talk as if MMA was the first time people mixed martial arts styles. Thans for the video!

[Jackie]

"I don't believe in - Bruce Lee

[UltimateXsusanno]

As a red belter who trained TKD for 8 years in ITF. In my local training we had like self-defence, low, mid contact, continuns spot and much more.

[ICAMPR]

whoever told you itf sparring the stop for a point dosent know anything about it.

[callumwilson]

Taekwondo was not made for just kicks, it just invented some and then became iconic for them so you should train with hands a lot more.

[jabradford]

I have done mostly ITF. The only real issue I have with WTF is that by not allowing punches to the face practitioners can develop a bad habit of leaving their hands down when sparing (this is obvious in the examples shown above). This can be a difficult habit to break when one finds themselves in a situation where hand attacks to the face are not prohibited.

[FulvioRivano]

I train WTF, but let me make some comments:

1.- TKD was perhaps the first MMA, since it combined Taekkyon, Soo Bahk-Gi, Palwae, Shotokan Karate and other Kung-Fu styles, via the first 5 original kwans.
2.- TKD was devised as a complete martial system, and so it was incorporated into the Korean armed forces.
3.- Political Divisions derived in the creation of different federations, the first ITF in the 60's and WTF in the 70's.
4.- Due to the incorporation of TKD/WTF as an Olympic Sport, the rules and also the direction of the "art" has been castrated, and that's the reason you need to find in another martial arts to complement your "kicking" boxing. WTF policies and its will to enter the Olympic games as done much harm than good. Now the art is almost completely mutilated. However you can highlight the conditioning of the training and also the Kukkiwon as the only institution providing the degrees (dan).
5.- Concerning the TKD/ITF style is much more realistic and has not forgotten the nature of the martial art. Hand techniques are quite complete and the sparring perhaps much harder than what Olympic WTF is.

6.- There is a need to converge both TKD styles to rescue the best of what both styles have developed during this period (more than 45 years). Taekwondo is taekwondo. Don't get foolish when you say I practice Olympic TKD. That's is not TKD.
TKD is a complete, scientific method to provide the taekwondin the best abilities for hand-free fights...

Cheers.-

[mcfenix]

the difference is easy. ITF is a martial art, wtf is a sport

[zhugeliang]

I was a WTF TKD student for 4 years before I quitted it for some reason. I return on training and switched to ITF after an old friend of mine invited me to train together. And I've been training until now. Switching to ITF is one of the best decision I've ever made. Because there're many questions and logics that finally answered after I practiced this style. One of them is the methodology of unarmed striking combat. I highly suggest WTF students to try to practice ITF. I'm not asking you guys to switch styles or quite your school, but it's to feel what it looks like the 'other side' of Tae Kwon Do.

[denisxux]

Somebody: ITF!
Somebody: WTF!
Me: GTF

[ipelengmolete]

I do ITF and used to get into flame wars but I've come to realise comparing martial arts is like comparing a Ferrari to a Land Rover. It really depends on what you want to achieve. Ferraris suck offroad and Land Rovers aren't track tools. It's all about context. ITF is arguably more "combat-oriented", WTF more "sport" (at least, that's the perception). Neither is necessarily superior outside of context!

Only one part of our syllabus deals with "fighting" specifically and that's the self-defense. The other parts, patterns and breaking, which are more like self-improvement, although they also have a competitive element in tournaments. There's also sparring, but that's the sport side...and that's what it is...sport...not self-defence. Soccer players kick like mules, rugby tackles look like wrestling takedowns, but we don't get into discussion about the realism of their movements against 10 crackheads in the street - because that's not what it's about. It's sport for competition against others in the same sport. We do it for "fun" (the fun of winning, but fun nonetheless), not to rescue hostages!

For me, personally, I think the patterns are probably the most important because they are what are used to teach the "non-fighting" and discipline aspects martial arts are known for. They reinforce patience and discipline, for the mental side and coordination, strength and endurance, physically. Our dojang, for example, is more known for sparring, but we do syllabus work the most. And that means, reps and reps and reps of kicks, punches and blocks for patterns.

TL;DR
At the end of the day, it's about committing to something that will improve not only your physical, but mental health as well. For that alone, any legitimate martial art or even sport is number 1. Politics and flaming aside, after that, it comes down to goals and personal preference, not really the "superiority" of one martial art over another. I preferred taekwon-do over most others because I played soccer when I was younger, so the focus on kicking came more naturally to me (ok, that and let's be honest - the kicks are freaking and that no stance is preferred, you learn to be proficient in southpaw and orthodox, going forwards, backwards and side to side.

For the video, I say thanks for it. I always wondered about WTF rules and why they didn't punch to the head. I don't know either about the variations of the rules, but we do continuous fighting and the fight's only stopped for penalties (strikes below the belt, stepping out the ring and any part of your body other than your foot touching the ground and over-aggressive contact - depending on belt, for example) and injuries. And, IIRC, it's light contact for junior belts, for seniors (green belt up), medium to hard contact is allowed. I'd like to say it's full contact, but as our Sabum said, if we went proper full contact, he'd wouldn't have any students left after fights, so realistically, it's hard contact.