Here are the rules for Tae Kwon Do national qualifiers:

1) Compete in the individual state qualifiers like MD and VA. You need to place 1st in sparring to advance to nationals.

2) You need to be 5 years old or older.

3) The USAT site has regional qualifiers listed as 1 through 5 . The states are (Florida, New York, Texas, California, and Colorado). If you go to one of these Tae Kwon Do tournament qualifiers then you need to place in the top 4 in sparring to advance to Nationals. Or you can place 1st in Md, Va or some other state qualifiers to advance, but you do not need to do both.

4) There is no qualifiers for forms. All you need to do is register and show up at Nationals to compete in forms. A good gauge would be to go to a qualifier tournament and if you place in the top 3 then you should consider advancing to nationals.

5) There is a grassroots tournament the day before the nationals in Texas. There is NO wild card that if you place 1st here then you can advance to nationals. A good option here would be if one of our team members would like to compete in forms at national level, but did not make the cut for sparring, this would give them some nice exposure to some new competitors.

6) ANY USAT sanctioned event will require that all competitors wear an approved uniform (Our team uniform is approved just don't forget to bring it on the day of the competition).

7) A USAT approved chest protector.

8) An approved head protector. These can only be in the following colors:
White - Can be worn with both a red side or blue side chest protectors.
Blue - Can only be worn with a blue sided chest protector.
Red - Can only be worn with a red sided chest protector.

9) Arm and leg protectors need to be white in color.Or they need to match in color of the chest protector being worn during the match (i.e., red or blue).

10) You will need to register and become a member of USAT, this organization is the governing group that sanctions these competitions.

**All equipment and uniform needs to be in good shape and not show any tears.

 

If your kid advances to nationals, then they need to be prepared to travel to Austin, Texas this year at the end of June 2009 for the Junior National Tae Kwon Do Olympics.