Sparring
ITF competition sparring rounds are 2 minutes and in national and international levels of competition they hold two rounds each 2 minutes with a one minutes rest in between. Certain rules are no strikes below the belt, no elbow strikes, fighting, no falling down, no going outside of the ring, hit to the groin and knee strike are allowed. The ring is a 9 metre by 9 metre (8 x 8 metre optional) ring marked by square mats or tape instead of a traditional style kickboxing rings with ropes. It has no sides allowing the fighter to move out of bounds. Whenever a fighter creates an infraction of the rules the centre referee will issue a warning to the fighter who created the infraction. Three warnings equals one minus point. If a fighter uses excessive contact, he or she will be given a foul, which is an automatic minus point; three fouls in a bout results in disqualification.
Four judges score the fights in each of the corners in the square ring. After the fight, a judge tallies up the points that were given to each opponent. The fighter who has the most points is the winner. In the case of a draw the fighters go to a one minute overtime round. If there is another draw the fighters go to a sudden death round where the fighter who scores first is declared the winner.
