Hapkido: Traditions, Philosophy, Technique: Amazon.ca: Marc Tedeschi: Books

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"This book is in my experience the most comprehensive ever written on a single martial art. It is superbly organized, highly informative, and contains thousands of outstanding photographs. An authoritative presentation of basic principles and techniques, integrated with modern innovations, makes this work indispensable to martial artists of virtually any style."—Professor Wally Jay, founder and grandmaster of Jujitsu America

"Hapkido is an overwhelming achievement. Its comprehensiveness and the quality of the writing and design are unmatched in martial arts literature. The author's integration of history, philosophy, and technique into the larger framework of martial arts as a whole makes this book invaluable to any martial artist. Tedeschi's treatment of weapons techniques is honest, practical, and well worth studying."—Nicklaus Suino, author of The Art of Japanese Swordsmanship

Hapkidoshop.com, December 2000

If you hold this book in your hand, words will fail you...You forget the time and you are lost in the apparently infinite information explosion.

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27 Reviews

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4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
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4.4 out of 5 stars (27 customer reviews)

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2.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful but sadly disappointing, Feb 20 2004

By

Toronto_Matt (Toronto, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hapkido: Traditions, Philosophy, Technique (Hardcover)

That Weatherhill would publish a book of this size on Hapkido curriculum was a great surprise to me and I was very excited to see it. I however found the content to be quite disappointing.

Although Mr.Tedeschi did a fair job at covering the art's background and has filled the book with excellent quality photographs it seems clear that in attempting not to represent any particular school's approach to Hapkido he has created something that really represents an approach that none of the major schools teach from. By trying to please all he has in the end represented none.

As for the manner in which he performs techniques I often questioned whether he was not a practitioner more influenced by arts other than hapkido.His manner of performing technique is not consistant with any of the teachers I've had in nearly 2 decades of study both in North America and Korea and he includes technique from outside the art.

Books by Hee-Young Kimm and Kwang-Sik Myung ( practitioners with whom I am not connected ) still remain the best on the subject, although they have become increasing difficult to find.

The real shame here is that already having book like this on the market another major publisher isn't likely to publish another book of the same nature done with greater authenticity.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Most Thorough of the Big Hapkido Books!, Feb 15 2003

By

C. J. Hardman (San Diego, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

This review is from: Hapkido: Traditions, Philosophy, Technique (Hardcover)

There are two groups of people who will want a book this thorough: serious practitioners of Hapkido or Hapkido bases systems (kuk sool, hwarangdo, etc.), and martial artists who are serious about studying and understanding techniques from any source. Author Mark Tedeschi has worked hard to provide a complete and non-biased book on the subject of Korean Hapkido. From the beginning, Tedeschi offers a series of interviews with the masters of Hapkido based systems, allowing each teacher to offer his knowledge in his own words, rather than lumping this information together to form a general history (he has included a section on history as well, which includes pictures of Hapkido founder Choi Yong-shul and the logos of prominent hapkido associations). We hear the voices of Choi Yong-shul (1982 interview by Jong-bae Rim, Joseph sheya, Ken Cross, and Chin-il Chang), Han-jae Ji, Bong-soo Han, Kwang-sik Myung, Tae-man Kwon, Jong-bae Rim, Merril Jung, Joo-bang Lee, In-hyuk Suh, He-young Kimm, Wally Jay, and Willy Cahill. There are detailed sections on anatomy, accupoints and meridians, pressure points, philosophy, etc. The first part of the book, which includes all of this pertinent information (this is BEFORE the section on techniques!) is 180 pages!

Tedeschi doesn't skimp anywhere. Every section is complete--the technical portion of the book opens with revival techniques (most other books have this information at the end, if at all). Sections move on to stancesm rolling (for falls), attack points, hand strikes, standing kicks, knee strikes, ground kicks, kicks for blocking, jumping kicks, etc. Thoroughly covered are holds, locks, throws, strikes, combinations, etc. Tedeschi shows common and uncommon uses, and differs from the vast majority of books on Hapkido and other martial arts by offering the HOW and WHY of each technique, as well as helpful advice one would normally get from a teacher after oh say, 3-7 years and deep research on one's own. There are sections on weapons (the traditional hapkido weapons--staff, sword, short sticks, rope, cane, etc.), and a bibliography and index at the end. This is also the LONGEST book on ANY martial art that I know of, at 1136 pages. Tedeschi keeps no secrets, and puts on no airs. He is honest, humble, and to the point.

I can only wonder at the effort it has taken to assemble this volume, and the drive of the author to be so complete in his assessment and documentation. Although the other big Hapkido books are nice (Suh and Seo's books on Kuk Sool, Kimm's and Myung's books on Hapkido, Joo Bang Lee's volumes on Hwarangdo), nothing, on any grappling or striking art, compares to the depth of this single volume. That this book is so affordable surprises me--books with half the information sell for more! This volume is a value and a treasure.

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5.0 out of 5 stars AWESOME (in all aspects of the word), Oct 3 2002

By

S. Larkin "mommy,mommy,mommy,mommy,again,agai... (cary, nc United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Hapkido: Traditions, Philosophy, Technique (Hardcover)

This book is

*beautiful
*thorough
*informative
*inspirational

It's also so big, it can be used as a weapon. ;-)

Happy training!

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