Competitive taekwondo is a demanding sport. Containing detailed descriptions and photos, this book aims to guide the readers to victory by demonstrating the skills needed to succeed. Lesley Jackson jumps in.
It’s about time that there were more in-depth books published about the specifics of Taekwondo, so I was most pleased to see this book published recently about the sport. First of all, one couldn’t help notice that this book is by ‘Master Kil’, talk about an appropriate name for his profession, I bet he doesn’t have any discipline problems in his dojang!
This guide is solely focused upon the WTF style of sparring although the ITF athlete could benefit from about 50% of this book as well. Master Kil is highly qualified as a former world champion and coach to the US national team but who is also a martial artist as well as a sportsman when he emphasises that, ‘the proper attitude to winning and losing becomes more important than the result of a match.’ All aspects of competitive Taekwondo are examined here, from detailed pictures and descriptions of attacking and counterattacking, footwork and stances to fitness, weight and match psychology. The parts that I found most useful, as an ITF practitioner, were the Setting Goals and Overcoming Fatigue and Temporary Slumps. It was reassuring to read that this high ranking coach places importance on “understanding what plateaus are,” at least I’m not the only one to experience them then!
The only critical elements I would add are that there could have been some photos illustrating the warm up exercises as, in my opinion, these are as important as the main workout if you are to avoid injury. I also found the ‘Making Weight’ section interesting as although Master Kil sensibly advocates a highly controlled and supervised weight control programme to make your division, his written style can become unclear as to what he supports as he says, “some athletes turn to pharmaceuticals such as diuretics and laxatives.” Weight loss due to dehydration is rightly condemned later on in the chapter but this must be clearly discouraged immediately afterwards to make such practices absolutely unacceptable. This chapter could have had more detail with perhaps some ideas of good pre-match meals or a weekly diet sheet for the training athlete. However, these are small criticisms of a wholly comprehensive training guide for the WTF athlete and coach.
Master Kil has successfully filled a gap in the martial arts publishing market for a book that focuses on the WTF sport of Taekwondo that was long overdue. Please, where is the book for the ITF Taekwondo sports enthusiast? It is sorely needed!
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