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

This illustrated book breaks down each of the black belt forms in very easy steps to follow. It has a drawing of each forms pattern next to the photo of the movement in the form, with a description of each movement but just as important the meaning behind the movement. It greatly assisted me in understanding and doing my 2 new forms I needed to learn. With refinements of movement shown to me from my Grandmaster, I was blown away on how easy it was to learning my new forms. A must reference book for any black belt.

As the black belt companion to Tae Kwon Do, this book lives up to it's reputation. If you study WTF TKD this is one of the best books that I know of on the subject. I has all of the Black belt form laid out an section on sparing strategies (though this aspect of the are does change rapidly) and even a pretty decent section on starting a TKD Dojang. Worth every penny.

Very good book great to have around for when you have not practiced in a very long time everything you need is in the book

This book is really awesome! I bought the book that precedes this one and was impressed with it, so bought this one too. It will be years before I reach my black belt, but this helps with my dreaming.

Thorough without being excessively wordy, a good add to the collection.

Mr. Park has created a great set of books for any Tae Kwon Do student. It has really helped me when learning or reviewing forms.

Good ... good pictures/descriptions of forms.

The Black Belt Tae Kwon Do spouts the typical non-sense about the origins and history of Tae Kwon Do; in the introduction, the authors states, "Its [Tae Kwon Do] earliest roots have been traced back more than 2,000 years to 50 B.C." They fail to mention the enormous similarity Tae Kwon Do has with Shotokan Karate and how many of the founders of the original Tae Kwan Do Kwans had black belts in Shotokan Karate. Also, they do not mention that there is another Tae Kwon Do organization, the International Tae Kwon Do Federation, and that a large section of Tae Kwon Do practitioners perform the ITF Hyungs/forms/patterns. It is a key fact that the authors should of mention at the beginning of the book to avoid any confusion and to be honest. The authors state that, "This book has been written to provide information on the advanced techniques of the modern art of Tae Kwon Do." But the book is filled with basic information that any who has practice Tae Kwon DO for a few months would already know, such as the belt system, meaning of dojang, who to practice Tae Kwon Do, basic one step sparring and much more. And the one step examples they show are very simple and impractical; as a counter to a right middle section punch the counters are a right inner block then a left spinning elbow to the solar plexus, left backfist to the nose and a right reverse punch to the face. Another not so fine example, is countering another right middle section punch is by blocking the punch with a right inner arm block then do a right back fist to the face. Chapter 3, "Advance Techniques" consists of rudimentary falling, blocking and striking techniques (the blocking and striking techniques have either only one two photos accompanying them) which are poorly done. The chapter also includes 21 vital points, for neophyte martial artists and non-martial artists that is not a lot, and section on meditation. The majority of the book is dedicated to WTF forms but there is little to no Hae Sul, which is the application / interpretation of the movements in the form. For example, the meaning attributed to movement 15 of Koryo (double outer forearm block) by the authors is "defense against a double attack to the middle section". The meaning for movement 15 of Kumkang, simultaneous upward block and downward block, is "defense against simultaneous attacks to the upper and lower section". Both are fine examples of the unrealistic non-sense that is contained within the book. Ultimately, there is no need to buy a book on forms since the forms can be looked up on Youtube for free. Chapter 8, "Opening Your Own School" is basically a how to guide to open up and run a mcdojang

Good book for all taekwon-do practitioners and scholars. Not the latest edition though. But the essential remains the same.

good way to learn forms .came from a libary marked 10p