Overview

Tournaments can either be (1) show/demonstration, or (2) sparring.

Examples of show/demonstration tournaments are kata (poomsae), power breaking, and weapons.  Of these, kata demonstrations are safe to perform because there is no combat opponent.  Power breaking demonstrations have elevated safety concerns because of the risk of breaking a bone, joint, or ligament for the contestant, but can be relatively safe if properly monitored and supervised.  Weapons demonstrations have elevated safety concerns in comparison to kata (depending on the weapon being demonstrated), but are still relatively safe and free from injury. 

In contrast, sparring tournaments are inherently riskier than poomsae, breaking, or weapons tournaments.  

Sparring tournaments that try to minimize risk of injury either implement a "No Contact" / "Light Contact" set of rules, or deliberately minimize the area of allowed contact (e.g. "Restricted Area Contact").

Olympic Taekwondo sparring uses Restricted Area Contact rules.  It is illegal to punch or kick below the belt, or to punch the head.  It is also illegal to sweep, grab, throw, or grapple.  It is also illegal to check the opponent's kick with your knee, or to hold your knee up for more than 3 seconds.  Soft and medium kicks are allowed to the chest or head, and punches are allowed to the chest.  Points are scored with nothing more than a touch to the allowed target area, which encourages touch scoring instead of strike scouring.  Also, points can be deducted for anything that the judges deem to be "excessive force".

Kuk Sool Won sparring uses No/Light Contact rules.  Points are earned if the judges deem that the technique would have at least momentarily incapacitated the opponent had it actually made contact instead of being controlled.

No/Light Contact rules (e.g., Kuk Sool Won) put a greater responsibility on the judges to get it right.  It is more subjective than Restricted Area rules, and therefore potentially less consistent and less fair.  But it allows techniques that, if they were to actually be delivered, could be quite deadly.  But since there is little to no actual contact, it is not realistic for a street fight scenario, and can look like to a McDojo dance where nobody ever actually touches anybody.

Restricted Area rules (e.g., Taekwondo) limit the techniques that can be delivered, and the areas of the opponent that they can be delivered to.  This also makes it not realistic for a street fight scenario, and can breed muscle memory for ineffective street techniques.

Sparring, The Bottom Line: All sparring tournaments that have rules in place for minimizing risk of injury necessarily make concessions that hinder it from a self-defense point of view.  It is unavoidable.  So...

1. Do you want to be able to use all techniques, with little or no touching, which necessarily makes judging more difficult and less consistent? 
        or...
2. Do you want more uniform judging, but with limited techniques? 

Those are your two basic choices, unless you choose a third option-- a tournament that doesn't care much about injuries. 

LMAF Endorsement: To be considered a LMAF Sanctioned Event, a head instructor of any LMAF school must seek approval from the LMAF Board before participating in a tournament that is not organized by the LMAF.

To receive LMAF endorsement for a tournament, a tournament organizer cannot specifically invite, or otherwise "challenge", a LMAF member school to an in-house tournament without privately arranging it with their head instructor first.  Failure to heed this rule will result in an automatic disqualification of the event from LMAF endorsement.

Additional items that will be evaluated by the Board before the LMAF will endorse a tournament that is not organized by the LMAF will include:

1. Who is the lead referee?  How is he/she chosen?
2. How will arbitration of disputed issues be decided?
3. How many judges are there?  How are they chosen?
4. Who is the designated and qualified First-Aid attendant, or “Medic”, for the event?
5. Who is the score recorder?  How is he/she chosen?
6. What is the ring size?  What is the safety perimeter size?  Is the ring padded, and if so, with what?
7. How will ring interference be handled, and who decides?
8. What are the uniform requirements?
9. What are the tournament divisions (ages and belt levels)?
10. What are the rules for time outs and tournament pauses?  For injuries?  For fouls?  For warnings?
11. What are the conditions for disqualification of a contestant?
12. What patterns (poomsae/kata) are going to be included?  Is this for WTF forms only?  Are the forms to be chosen by the contestant?  Or by the judges?  Or some kind of mixture?  What freedom do contestants have in choosing? 
13. Will the judges be able to adequately judge the accuracy and proper technique of the poomsae they are observing, especially if they themselves are not familiar with it?
14. How are points scored?  Accuracy?  Proper technique?  Power and breath control?  How will the judges know these things?