Taekwondo Traditions, Philosophy, Technique Book

This ground-breaking text is the first to offer Taekwondo in its totality, documenting the traditions, philosophy, and techniques of the world's most widely practiced martial art. In more than 8600 photographs spanning 896 pages, renowned Taekwondo masters and elite competitors demonstrate over 700 core Taekwondo techniques, including stances, footwork, hand strikes, elbow strikes, standing kicks, jump kicks, ground kicks, avoiding and blocking skills, step and self-defense sparring, Olympic-Style sparring, breaking techniques, and solo forms and patterns. Techniques are named in both English and Korean throughout. Detailed introductory chapters provide an authoritative overview of Taekwondo's history, philosophy, current structure, and contemporary issues, and thoroughly review breathing and meditation, warmups and flexibility exercises, and vital targets. To address the highly specialized and constantly evolving needs of sport competitors, in-depth chapters on Olympic-Style sparring cover basic concepts, current trends, core techniques, tactics and strategies, terminology, competition rules, referee signals, and more than 90 core attacking and counterattacking techniques used by world-class competitors. For forms enthusiasts, 250-plus pages provide a comprehensive overview of 49 forms and patterns embraced by major federations, such as the WTF and ITF.

Inclusive of virtually all Taekwondo styles, this unprecedented work integrates traditional and modern approaches, sport and self-defense, in a single text. Written and designed by the author of the 1136-page Hapkido-widely acclaimed the most comprehensive book ever written on a single martial art-this indispensable work is the definitive text on Taekwondo, and destined to become a classic of martial arts literature. Samples can be viewed online (Google search: Marc Tedeschi or tedeschi-media).

MARC TEDESCHI is an internationally respected artist, designer, and educator, who holds a fifth-degree black belt in Hapkido, a martial art that integrates both healing and combative techniques. He has practiced martial arts for more than twenty-five years, training extensively in Hapkido, Taekwondo, Jujutsu, Judo, and Karate. Mr. Tedeschi's unique ability to blend his skills as a designer, writer, and martial artist has resulted in numerous books, widely acknowledged for their design excellence, outstanding imagery, and clarity of content. He is the author of ten works, including the landmark 1136-page "Hapkido: Traditions, Philosophy, Technique"; "Essential Anatomy for Healing and Martial Arts"; and a unique series of general martial arts books, "The Art of Striking", "The Art of Holding", "The Art of Throwing", "The Art of Ground Fighting", and "The Art of Weapons".