Newsletter 4/2015
Taekwon-do the Art of Patterns
By this time you all probably have heard or met Lukas Grygiel, who is behind the Black Belt Project (http://www.itfeurope.org/NL2011-04-29.html). His enterprise with the legendary Jaroslaw Suska and many other champions had a very good reception by the big audience. Now he has a new project in mind which he had just recently realized. It consists of three books: The Path To Black Belt and two volumes of The Art of Patterns, about the patterns of Taekwon-do. I was able to make an interview with the author, let me ask him to speak about his books himself. In this material we discussed The Art Of Patterns volumes. The article about The Path To Black Belt will be coming soon.
Lukas, why have you decided to publish books this time, not another program?
Well, sometimes when I was practicing the patterns myself I needed to check just one or two movements to be sure. It’s just faster to check it in the book then to run the program and rewind the pattern. But of course that’s not the only reason – this book complements the program, you can take it wherever you want, you are not dependent on level of battery in your electrical device and of course I also wanted to honor more people who were competing in patterns. Of course I am aware that many more competitors deserve the honors and I hope to work with them with another Black Belt productions.
How is it to be an author of a book? Have you ever wrote a book before?
I wrote the first book with my coach, it was a book for beginners. We mainly photographed ourselves and some competitors from our club. So I have gained some experience then. When I was writing my books it was similar to creating Black Belt program. I know that people appreciate my project because of my attention to details and my goal is always to put as much value to it as possible. And it pays off, I have heard a lot of good opinions about the books – people saying that they are really complete and make great supplement for the programs. With each new program and book I am getting more experience and I believe that each next product is better. It was great writing these books because I had a chance to cooperate with many great people in the process.
So who is performing In the Art of Patterns books?
Of course we have our Legend, Mr. Suska, who is still the best in the world. Even if he is not competing he is proving that during his seminars around the world. In the first part of The Art of Patterns we will find also Mr. Lylian Doulay and Mr. Massimo Persia. Lylian is current European Champion and was European Champion in 2014 and World Cup Champion 2012-2014 – he is a winner of many international championships around the world. Massimo won World Cup in 2008, got silver at the World Championship 2013 and got 11 silvers in European Championships (meeting Mr. Suska in finals of course). So they are truly devoted to Taekwon-do and furthermore they are great people, humble and hardworking.
In the second part we see also Mr. Mark Trotter and Mr. Maxime Bujold. Maxime is the winner of last World Championships and of course many others (in sparring in patterns). Mark is one of the best Taekwon-do competitors nowadays in sparring, patterns and of course traditional/pre-arranged sparring. He is conducting seminars around the world, sharing his experience. They both were very happy to take part in the project and I am honored to have them in the books.
How did you manage to get the materials (photos) for the books? Maxime lives In Canada, Mark In New Zealand, Lylian is from France, Massimo from Italy… Black Belt became an international project involving people from all around the world.
From the beginning I have this goal to provide the best quality materials for Taekwon-do students and sometimes that requires a lot of work and good organization. We arrange photo sessions in Canada and New Zealand and I got the pictures through the Internet. I also did a photoshoot in Hungary (Massimo and Lylian) and in Poland (Lylian and Jaroslaw). All the pictures are great quality and were taken under technical supervision.
So what exactly is the content of your books?
The first part of TAEKWON-DO The Art of Patterns covers black belt patterns from Kwang-Gae to Choi-Yong. I have included pictures of all the movements, their Korean and English names and the description. With every movement you can also find a diagram illustrating how to change the position of feet to form described stance. And of course information when to use slow/fast/continuous motion or else…
I have also included more detailed stories about meaning of the patterns, so if someone wants to know a little more, dig deeper - he will find that in my book. For the second part, the descriptions of the patterns were prepared by my friend from Argentina - Luciano L. Iriarte, from his great book ‘A day in the eternity’. I strongly recommend it to anybody.
How was the first part of the book received on its premiere In Italy?
I have to say that people were interested not only because of the technical content, but also mentioned that the book is very nicely printed and designed. It is worth having both for technical usage and as a tribute for people who are performing patterns in it. Many people got signatures from the champions and the book became really nice souvenir. I have this great honor to have this book checked by Grand Master Marano, who sent me an email with some corrections and generally spoke highly about my book.
What will be the next Black Belt Project program?
I am working on a Black Belt Sparring right now with athletes like Oleg and Katya Soloveys, Stephen Tapilatu, Neil Ernest and others great competitors. It will be very useful program covering many aspects of Taekwon-do sport sparring. More details will be released at the beginning of next year.
Is there anybody you would like to express thanks to, In particular?
Everybody involved with this project was very helpful, all the competitors and their instructors really got involved in the process of creating and promoting the books. As always I want to thank Master Tadeusz Loboda who helps me from the beginning of the Black Belt Project – without his help the project wouldn’t be, where it is right now. I got a lot of help from Mightyfist Doboks company, that provided doboks for the stars of my book and support me in publishing it. Of course, as I mentioned before – I want to thank also Luciano Iriarte who helped me with the descriptions for the patterns.
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Where can we learn more about the books?
I invite you to visit my website where you can find all the informations.
http://www.tkd-blackbelt.com
Of course there is also a Facebook page at
https://www.facebook.com/TKD.BlackBelt.Project
I also prepared demo versions which can be download here:
The Art of Patterns vol. 1 – www.tkd-blackbelt.com/ART1_demo.pdf
The Art of Patterns vol. 2 – www.tkd-blackbelt.com/ART2_demo.pdf
I am happy to answer all the questions, so please contact
me at info@tkd-blackbelt.com about the prices for the clubs and translations of the books to other languages.
