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Martial Arts Book Review: Palgue 7-8 by Kim Pyung Soo

Author: Shawn Kovacich
Date Posted: July 27, 2007

After rereading “Palgue 7-8” by Kim Pyung Soo for the first time in several years, I was reminded of the first time I had purchased this book and the other two volumes in the series when I was first studying Tae Kwon Do. These books were some of the first ones I owned concerning the martial arts and the Tae Kwon Do katas or hyungs in particular.

Now some of you may disagree with me, but in my professional opinion, I feel that any book dealing with katas, hyungs, or forms, should focus solely on the movements in the particular kata being discussed and the applications of each movement.

Although there were a few fairly good techniques demonstrated, I really don’t know why the author included these and the other brief sections in this book other than perhaps as reference material since it doesn’t really add to the focus of the book. There truly is no need to go into self-defense techniques, defenses against kicks, takedown defenses against kicks, etc., since these techniques should all be learned separately to learning katas anyhow.

It seems that there is a tendency to try and put too little information about a lot of things in a book, rather than focusing on one particular subject and then including as much possible information as you can about the subject in said volume. Now having said that, this book, and the other two in the series, are still cherished and close to my heart as they were instrumental in helping me learn this particular series of katas.

After the customary introduction, the author includes a very brief section on the history of Korea and Tae Kwon Do in particular. Next comes the “meat and potatoes” section of this book, the demonstrations of Palgue #7 and #8.

The layout has improved a bit over the first two volumes in this series, although not nearly enough to significantly impact the reader’s perception of the material presented. All of the photographs are taken from the “top of the shaft” position, although there are a couple side views shown for a few on the different techniques.

The photographs are all of the starting and finishing positions for each of the techniques. There are no photographs to show body position as you move from one technique to another. A definite drawback! What little explanation there is for each move is very basic and quite brief. Not nearly as detailed as it should be. The foot position diagrams are pretty good and they do help somewhat with how your feet should move when moving from one technique to another. However, it could have been done a lot better.

I do have to add that this volume did incorporate a little bit of the applications of certain techniques in the kata demonstrated; however it wasn’t enough to really impact the effectiveness of this book. This volume finishes up with some common Tae Kwon Do terms in both English and Korean.

If you are just starting out and want some really basic reference material for the Palgue series of forms, then this would be a fairly good book to own on this particular series of katas. However, I would recommend Richard Chung’s, “Tae Kwon Do” and “Advancing in Tae Kwon Do” for better reference material not only for the Palgue series, but also for the black belt forms.

About The Author

Shawn Kovacich has been practicing the martial arts for over 25 years and currently holds the rank of 4th degree (Yodan) black belt in both Karate and Tae Kwon Do. Shawn has also competed in such prestigious full-contact bare knuckle karate competitions as the Shidokan Open and the Sabaki Challenge, among others. In addition to his many accomplishments, Shawn is also a two time world record holder for endurance high kicking as certified by the Guinness Book of World Records. Shawn is the author of Back Kick, volume one in the highly acclaimed Achieving Kicking Excellence™ series.

Article Source: JKD Street Combat - online collection of martial arts book reviews.

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