Читать книгу Taekwondo Black Belt Poomsae. Original Koryo and Koryo онлайн

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Koryo, in its present state, created in 1972 in conjunction with the Taegeuk series of elementary poomsae, effectively supplanted its earlier sibling and is today actively practiced by more than 90,000,000 World Taekwondo Federation stylists in over 200 nations around the globe. Given Koryo’s popularity and its challenging characteristics, it is routinely rehearsed in preparation for tournament competition at the regional, national, and international level. Moreover, documentation of this poomsae is profuse; written and video illustrations depicting the fundamental elements and unique line of motion are plentiful.

So why add to the exhaustive collection of editorial and visual documentation already available to the martial arts community at large on this subject? Succinctly put, poomsae, hyung, and tul clearly represent more than a loose collection of basic movements strung together for aesthetic or health purposes. The tactics, carefully annotated within the time-honored sequences of offensive and defensive strategies that combine to create both poomsae, are more in tune with combat preparedness than they are to sport, as they were originally intended. Relegating the execution of these tactics to a position leading to little more than the presentation of a trophy flies in the face of their authentic martial intent. Subsequently, while true completion of technique is denied by the overarching principle of honor and compassion prescribed by the tenets of traditional, defense-oriented taekwondo, it does not imply that the practitioner need remain ignorant to the practical defensive and offensive applications associated with the kicks, blocks, and strikes unique to both versions of Koryo as mapped out in a later section of this work.¹