Customer Reviews

Korean Karate

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I had been involved in Shotokan Karate about five or six years before purchasing this book in 1968. Even though it was on "Korean Karate" all the techniques as presented in this text by Sihak Henry Cho, looked a lot like Shotokan karate, only with Korean rather than Japanese terms. Nevertheless, the author explained why he had used the term Korean Karate rather than the present day term of Tae-Kwon Do when writing this book.

This detailed text is organized into nine sections. Part one covers a brief overview on the development of Japanese Karate and Korean Karate (Tae-Kwon Do). The second part deals with calisthenics and stances. The third part explains some basic free fighting basics and foot moves. Blocking techniques are covered in part four. Part five teaches hand techniques and part six covers various front kick methods. Part seven deals with various side-kick techniques, and part eight covered roundkick techniques. The final part explains other kicks such as knee and stamping kicks. Since this book is strictly on fighting techniques, it has absolutely nothing on Karate or Tae-Kwon do kata. This is a fantastic historical book for anyone who is into collecting karate texts.

In conclusion, if you are a Karate and martial arts book collector, this book is a real value no matter what price. It is truly a classic by an early leader in the karate (Tae-Kwon Do) tournament scene in the United States. An excellent book.

Rating: 5 Stars. Joseph J. Truncale (Author: Shotokan Karate Self-Defense: Combat Karate for the Street)