Product Description

This ground-breaking work is the first to comprehensively document the traditions, philosophy, and techniques of one of the world's most varied, exciting, and practical martial arts—Hapkido. More than 9,000 photographs introduce over 2,000 martial techniques, including strikes, kicks, blocks, avoiding movements, holds, joint locks, chokes, throws, falls, tumbling, ground fighting, and weapons. Numerous closeups show precise grips, leverage methods, pressure points, hitting surfaces, and direction of force. In addition to self-defense techniques, chapters are included on East Asian philosophy, martial arts history, anatomy, meditation, healing, and pressure point fighting, as well as in-depth, previously unpublished interviews with the world's preeminent Hapkido Grandmasters and renowned Grandmasters of related martial arts. Because of similarities between Hapkido and many other martial arts, including Taekwondo, Jujutsu, Aikido, Judo, and Tai Chi Chuan, this book is a useful reference for practitioners of all martial arts styles, from novices to masters. This unique work of exceptional quality is the definitive text on Hapkido, and destined to become a classic of martial arts literature.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #44235 in Books
• Published on: 2000-09-05
• Released on: 2000-09-05
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 1136 pages

Journal of Asian Martial Arts, Fall 2000
An exceptional work...It covers so much ground and its material is so well presented that no martial arts library will again be complete without it.

Review
"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

Nebraska Hapkido Association Bookstore, December 2000
Interesting interviews, cool historical pictures, and a number of well-written chapters on many aspects of Hapkido not normally written about.

Customer Reviews

Great book for every level of student
This is a wonderful book that I have enjoyed so much. It has given me so many new things to look forward to in my art.

great!
i bought this for my husband who is studying hapkido and he absolutly loves this book. recommend it to everyone!

Reference Book
Hapkido: Traditions,Philosophy,Technique is a very good reference book. First the Good
This book has a lot of pictures with close up and different angles to show details of specific moves. This book has a huge range of techniques from punches and kicks to submission holds to weapons. This book has an outstanding pressure point chart with not only pressure points but bone structure, organs, muscle structure, and even the nerve system.
The Bad
This book has tons of techniques, but there are alot of techniques that are just silly. The one on the cover for instance is a very pretty but not practical. He is performing two kicks, one with the ball of the foot and the other with his heel, and he is lifting himself up with his hands while doing them. This is not going to end a fight. The only other bad thing is that the pressure points that are referenced to in the book are accu pressure points. What does that mean? If you are not familar with that system you are constantly looking back to the accu pressure point chart and back to your technique. While this isn't horrible it can be time consuming.
Overall a very good buy but not a five star.