As PTA sets ‘video’ tilt, questions raised on online meets

Philippine taekwondo begins to embrace an evolution in its turf with the staging of the first online poomsae national championships on May 29 to 31 with some 700 participants from around the country.

Participants are required to send videos of their routines, following specific guidelines, which will be judged in real time.

The tournament will use a specialized judging app using mechanics that were employed in the groundbreaking First Online Daedo Open European Poomsae Championships held last weekend.

“The objective is to jump-start taekwondo activity in the country,” said Ricky Santiago, chief of Philippine Taekwondo Association (PTA) education committee and referee groups.

Poomsae, unlike the combat discipline of kyorugi, can be staged online because it’s mainly forms and categories are confined to individual events.

But as the Philippines follows the lead of other countries adapting to the quarantine times, question simmered whether online meets can be held even after the threat of the coronavirus completely dissipated.

Santiago said that online meets definitely remove home-court advantage and are substantially cheaper to organize.

“Every participant will be doing his or her own routine right on their own turf, the same way as the judges.” Santiago told the Inquirer. “There is also no crowd watching.”

PTA poomsae committee chief Igor Mella said: “The situation is different online compared to live competitions.”

The father of Southeast Asian Games multiple gold winners Dustin and Enrico Mella said that in online poomsae, the participants have the luxury of doing multiple takes.

“There are some routines that we, as judges, know are difficult; in live competitions you can only do it once. In online, you pick the best take,” Mella said.