|
Taekwondo: The State of the Art | 
 enlarge | Authors: Sung Chul Master Whang, Jun Chul Master Whang
Creators: Dae Sung Master Lee, Brandon Saltz
Publisher: Broadway
Category: Book
List Price: $20.00
Buy Used: $4.75
You Save: $15.25 (76%)
New (27) Used (29) from $4.75
Avg. Customer Rating:  31 reviews
Sales Rank: 26841
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1st ed
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 304
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.4
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 7.2 x 0.7
ISBN: 0767902149
Dewey Decimal Number: 796.8153
EAN: 9780767902144
ASIN: 0767902149
Publication Date: April 13, 1999
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
|
| Similar Items:
|
| Customer Reviews: Read 26 more reviews...
Surprisingly A Very Well Done Book On Tae Kwon Do June 17, 2008
Being a 4th Dan black belt in Tae Kwon Do, I tend to really dissect books on the subject and more than likely also tend to be more critical of the subject matter than perhaps I ought to. However, in this particular case, I feel that my very critical outlook on this book is actually a good thing, as this book far surpassed my expectations as an overall reference guide to Tae Kwon Do.
I was very impressed with the wealth of general information that was provided by the authors in this book. It was very well thought out and the organization of the material presented was exceptional. This book was so well done, that I even decided to hang onto it and keep it in my own personal library of martial arts book. It is that good!
The basic layout of the books starts with a brief but very informative look at the history and philosophy of Tae Kwon Do from ancient times to the more modern era. This is quickly followed up by a section on warming up and stretching, which brings up the one item that is usually a detractor when not used, but in this case it has been minimized by the use of well drawn human figures, and that is the lack of photographs in this book. Now I don't mean to say that there aren't enough photographs, I mean that there aren't any photographs at all in this book. Now under normal circumstances this would have been a HUGE detractor, but in this case it ends up being only a minor annoyance. At least that is how I looked at it.
The author's chose instead to provide some very well done drawings of a human figure to demonstrate the various techniques explained in this book. And though I still believe that photographs would have been helpful, the drawings themselves were done well enough that I considered them, for the most part, to be an acceptable substitute.
The next few sections cover some basic techniques in Tae Kwon Do such as; stances, footwork, blocks, strikes, and kicks. Of which, the following kicks were demonstrated:
Front Kick (Achieving Kicking Excellence, Vol. 6)
Axe Kick (Achieving Kicking Excellence, Vol. 3)
Crescent Kick (Achieving Kicking Excellence, Vol. 4)
Reverse Crescent Kick (Achieving Kicking Excellence, Vol. 5)
Roundhouse Kick (Achieving Kicking Excellence, Vol. 9)
Side Kick (Achieving Kicking Excellence, Vol. 10)
Back Kick (Achieving Kicking Excellence, Vol. 1)
Hook Kick (Achieving Kicking Excellence, Vol. 7)
Now I must add a particular note here that all of these techniques came with very good explanations to their proper execution and in some cases applications against an actual opponent. A lot of good relevant information was included in this section, as well as, the rest of the book.
The second to the last section of this book was very well done concerning the use of Tae Kwon Do techniques in a sparring type situation. Although I might add that some of it is also relevant to use in a self-defense type situation with just a bit of modification.
The final section in this book is devoted to the eight basic Taegeuk poomse or forms that are required for advancement through the gup ranks and also for the rank of black belt. Now I must admit that I am not a fan of the Taegeuk forms, but they are demonstrated rather well in this book and if you are looking for good reference material to refer to, then this section will definitely be of interest to you.
Overall this is really an outstanding book and one that I highly recommend.
Shawn Kovacich
Martial Artist/Author of the Achieving Kicking Excellence series.
State of the art textbook on taekwondo December 23, 2007
I have purchased many books from Amazon and have never left a review. I feel compelled to write on this textbook because it is an extraordinarily well written and has fleshed out in my mind the history, principles and practice of taekwondo.
All of the important fundamentals are here, with concisely rendered figures of the stances, strikes, blocks, kicks, footwork etc. What is most helpful to my children especially the poomse sections. All of the taegeuk forms are here with explanations and review sections with schematic figures of the patterns. This book is essential for any age taekwondo practitioner.
Great book November 13, 2007
I've found this a really good book. It covers basic techniques and stepping in enough detail to be really useful, then moves on the descibe the forms in three different ways - a text description with notes on specific moves, a description using drawings, and a quick summary of the moves involved. And it includes information on sparring. I own three or four other books dedicated to different aspects of Taekwondo, but this is the one I use 90% of the time.
The only problem I had was with a couple of pages becoming detached, but this was probably from me having it open in my hand while I practiced!
Great Book October 9, 2007
This is a really good book . . . I have been studying Tae Kwon Do for a couple of years now and this book allows be a quick review of some of the things we do at class. The step by step Poomsae picture section at the end is very helpful for polishing your forms.
I highly recommend this book.
Really Good for beginners January 17, 2007
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I bought this my first week of TaeKwonDo. At first it was a little overwhelming. As I learned, the book became a very useful tool. It's really great to practice the physical and read the theory and history behind it in this book. It's a great guide for practicing at home. I recommend this book for any beginner to this sport.
|
|
|
Powered by Associate-O-Matic
| |
