Finaly wore my good lady down and she got me a copy of the 2004 condensed Encyclopedia. Is anyone else disappointed as to the the way the patterns section was further condensed to just a fraction of the information that earlier versions had? Was expecting the same 2 page per technique that early prints had.
The 15 volume one has two pages per technique. The condensed one has always been the way you describe. I have copies from the 60's-2004 and they are all like that
Ahh Cheers for clearing that up. Must be mixing up memories of using both the 15 vol and condensed in days gone by. but hey ho no better handbook for a student than the condensed encyclopedia im sure.
Were there ealier versions which were thicker than the new versions? Cos im sure My instructors version is like twice as thick as mine.
They all contain pretty much the same information with just slight changes, except for the 1960's version which contsains all the Karate patterns as well. Maybe as it was your instructors and you were younger and smaller in those days everything looked bigger ;-) Cheers! Martin
As mentioned already, the condensed version has always been a virtual 'text' only listing of the patterns, which is ashame, as its not cheap and I suspect its what many buy it for,a s the 15 Vols is too expensive. In fact, its part of the reason I wrote my patterns books Stuart
The 15 vol Encyclopedia is on my wish list i just find it hard to justify £250 and almost just as much p&p form Taekwondo Times dot com. You would think the ITF would have a UK distributor for it.
Ok 1st of all it is not the ITF who distrubutes this or has the rights. It is GM Jung Woo Jin of TKD Times. He has printed all the editions of the 15 volumes since the start. In fact Gen Choi could not get a printer/publisher back in the early 1980s, as it was A) too expensive to do & B) no Korean would do it because of the natsy & brutal military dictator in SK. Remember by this time Gen Choi was labeled a traitor as he went to NK & introduced TKD there in 1980, when it was a capital crime for someone from SK to go to NK, never mind enter into agreements with them, like teaching TKD there. So GM Jung took on the task, but retained the rights. He sufferred terribly from the SK dictatorship for it. 2nd - So if other places do sell it, they have probably gotten some sets in bulk or larger amounts then one from TKD Times at a discounted rate & are selling for a profit. What hurts buyers is the expensive shipping from the States & custom duty (if any). I think that Mr. Anslow's 3 book set is great to have. It makes an attempt to include Mr. Anslow's take on how he feels the 3 different ITFs now direct that they are done. Plus he adds additional patters from the GTF & a sillia knife form from pioneer GM Kim Bok Man. I don't believe this has been done by any other publication. He also has both KoDang & JuChe in it, along with the 3 four direction exercises (4 dir punch, block & thrust). This to me is a must buy. While it is in 3 volumes, they are much less expensive than the 15 volume set. But they can be purchased seperately. So you only have to buy 1 volume at a time, or just the books you need to your personal level of rank & training.
Correct! However to truly learn, one must know the answer to the all important needed question of WHY? If you don't know the WHY, you are likely just following along like a mind numbed robot & you most likely will not really understand what you are doing. I not only ask WHY all the time, I try to understand the WHY, as it helps me learn. I add it (the why) as often as I can, so a more fuller understanding & complete learning can take place, sorryn:hat:
Yes they did, as Gen Choi & the ITF entered into a venture where Comdo.com, a group in Canada made a digital or electronic version of the full 15 volumes. So one can view the entire set of 15 books on a CD for about $15USD. Other than that, I am not sure of what elese the ITF can do. They were never run as an efficent business venture. Getting a 15 volume set of books printed & distributed around the world is not something that they are capable of. It takes capital, which they never had & don't have now, as it is split into 3 splinter groups. In fact the ITF would have dissolved back in the 1980s, at the hands of the SK dictatorship if Gen Choi did not turn to NK & receive monetary support from that dictator Also part of the reason of making a condensed big book single volume version of the Encyclopedia was that it would be more affordable to produce, distribute & sell
Oh well i can wait for the paperback edition to come out. Paperbacks are always less expensive than the first edition.
The full encyclopedia in pdf format can be easily found online if you look around. Search torrent or free ebook sites and it will turn up. This is not a comment on the ethics of copyrighted material circulating gratis, just a comment that it is.
Got Legacy and got the 15 volume in pdf form but the inner geek wants a proper copy of the 15 vol set, just so i can say i have one.
I bought my copy in the mid 80's and it was £250 then, so it hasn't increased in price since then. Pretty good really Cheers! Martin
I got mine a while back from monabooks.co.uk - or com, I forget! but I had to email the shop as it wasn't on there site!!
