Turtle Press Tang Soo Do DVDs

As any keen Tang Soo Do student will tell you, there is very little available in the way of study material available compared to the likes of arts such as Shotokan karate or Tae Kwon Do. I should know – I’m just such a student. There’s not very much available in book or DVD format that isn’t associated or affiliated with one school or another, and most long-term students will have an almost identical set of learning material they’ve picked up over the years. As you can probably imagine, I was pleasantly surprised to see that Turtle Press have a couple of DVDs aimed squarely at the Tang Soo Do student, and neither of them endorsing, representing or even showing the logo of a big school or organisation.

The two volumes are based entirely around the standard Tang Soo Do forms, or ‘hyung’, and are separated into Gup and Dan level forms. Gup grades are the beginner grades, in the same way that Kyu and Kup are in similar arts, and the first DVD takes the viewer through the most important forms for these first few years of training;

Kicho Hyung (1-3)
Pyung Ahn (1-5)
Bassai

It’s great to have video references for these forms as they are very important and form the building blocks of so much of the art. Each video is very clear and obviously professionally produced, and has the advantage of being shot from multiple angles, which is great for new students who aren’t sure where their weight should be, or how the transitions between moves should look from behind or from the side for example. The Instructor, Master Song Young Kil, does a nice breakdown after the first run through a form, taking it step by step and explaining each technique as it’s performed, and where the kihap (spirit shout – think kiai karate fans) points are.

The Second DVD moves on to the Dan grade or Black Belt forms. These are the more complex hyung, and while some schools may teach slightly different ones, most will probably teach the majority of the following;

Naihanchi Cho Dan
Naihanchi Ee Dan
Naihanchi Sam Dan
Sip Soo
Jin Do
Kong San Goon
Yon Bee
Ji On

The DVD follows the same format, each form being shown multiple times and from different angles, and it’s a great reference for those advanced enough to draw some learning from them. This goes for students of non-Korean karate arts too, as the forms above are also famously Okinawan/Japanese in origin, just with different names (e.g. Naihanchi = Tekki, Kong San Goon = Kusanku, Sip Soo = Jitte). Obviously the performances and in some cases the moves may vary between some styles, but this leads me on nicely to the main problem I have with the DVDs.

The first thing that struck me when I sat down to watch these DVDs was "That’s not how we do it", and I dare say the vast majority of people who watch this will think the same thing. This is simply because different schools teach things in different ways, and the forms themselves change as the years go by, according to who is teaching and what subtle changes they might make. As early in as Kicho Hyung Ee Bu – the second most very basic form – I started noticing completely different moves. This isn’t so much a critical word against the demonstrator as a warning to new students or to those about to take up Tang Soo Do who might think that there’s only one way to perform a form, and that Master Song Young Kil is showing you it. The back of the DVD box mentions that he’s a master of Tae Kwon Do and Hapkido also, and I think it shows in some of the techniques.

On the whole these DVDs are excellent study aids, the forms are broken down nicely and the multiple views are very handy. Even the ‘pattern’ the form makes is shown on the screen. Just be aware that your school will almost certainly teach some of them differently, and that some of the more subtle touches such as proper stance, ideal weight distribution and the transitions between moves are only briefly touched upon. Given the fact that they’re so well produced, and taking into account the negative points raised above, I’m going to award the Turtle Press Tang Soo Do DVDs a BBM Review rating of….

Tang Soo Do Forms Vol. 1 – Gup Grades

Tang Soo Do Forms Vol. 2 – Dan Grades

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