Black Belt Tae Kwon Do: The Ultimate Reference Guide to the World's Most Popular Black Belt Martialart

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Summary: Not a black belt yet ?...
Review: ...come back later, then. This books seems aimed at the black belt athlete who is considering teaching Tae Kwon Do and maybe opening his own dojan. It covers all the aspects of TKD training, from warm up to philosophy to sparring techniques. Its forms session is very thorough and clear. Every TKD instructor should have a copy inside his do bok.

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Summary: which witch is which
Review: dear sir please state which taekwon do form this book is there are 2 styles. international federation and world federation as they are as difrent as cheese and chalk inter being selfdefence and world a sport thanks

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Summary: Excellent book on TKD
Review: First, you should know this book is for the WTF style and forms, not the ITF, which is different. But whatever style you practice, all told, about 40 million people in 167 countries do TKD, making it probably the world's most popular martial art.

I am mainly a karate, kung fu, and escrima practitioner and teacher these days, but I also have a black belt in TKD, and learned many of my most important lessons and basics from first studying TKD. My teacher was the great Ju Hwarn Kwark, who very few people know of, but he was possibly the greatest kicker and puncher I've ever seen, and I've seen a lot.

The book starts with a brief history of TKD, the presents two brief chapters on basic techniques, prearranged sparring, and advanced techniques. The author discusses its popularity as a sport and much of the book seems aimed at helping a prospective instructor become competent enough to open his own school.

Most of the book, however, is devoted to the forms. In fact, 142 pages of the book is just on that. So if you're looking for a book mainly on sparring and practical techniques this might not be for you, although there's a good chapter on that after the forms.

There is also a section on self-defense, and several useful appendices, including rules of competition, weight divisions, referee signs, and a glossary of terms.

One little piece of trivia. You may notice that the stepping pattern of the last form, Il Yo, follows a Swast_ka pattern--except the Oriental version of this is the reverse of the N_zi one. In fact, this symbol on maps in Japan denotes a Buddhist temple, and is a common Buddhist symbol.



Rating:
Summary: Reference Guide for WTF
Review: I am giving my soft cover copy to a friend, and buying the hard cover. There are plenty of Tae Kwon Do texts for the color belts, but this is the first book I've seen that covers all the black belt forms. Excellent illustration, excellent glossary describing the various kicks and strikes in both English and Korean terms.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent guide to the black belt forms
Review: I am giving my soft cover copy to a friend, and buying the hard cover. There are plenty of Tae Kwon Do texts for the color belts, but this is the first book I've seen that covers all the black belt forms. Excellent illustration, excellent glossary describing the various kicks and strikes in both English and Korean terms.

Rating:
Summary: Reference Guide for WTF
Review: I bought the book not knowing that this was for WTF. Although I study the forms of ITF, I still found this book to be helpful. It has good pictures of 1-steps, proper rolling procedures, blocks, board breaks etc.