My brother has been a loyal subscriber of Taekwondo Times for about 30 years. He hasn't practiced TKD in many years now, but still subscribes. I'm not sure why. However, I will have to review his collection and read some of the classic issues some day. I began subscribing to Taekwondo Times a couple of years ago. It was once the premier magazine for Taekwondo in the U.S. Since it is the only U.S.-based TKD magazine, I suppose it still is the premier Taekwondo magazine, but that title is misleading, in my opinion. TKD Times recently began making welcome changes to the magazine. The change appears to be layout/graphics changes only, but it has only been a few issues since the redesign began. There may be others, but these are immediately apparent. Before the changes, the magazine's appearance was less than professional. Each page featured different sizes of type, only to fill the page, by all appearances. The redesign is smart and modern. The body copy is no longer sized to fill the page. It is consistent throughout. The design itself is more technically challenging and advanced than preceding issues. At no point has the redesign interfered with reading the magazine; it has been unobtrusive; in several instances, it has even enhanced the reading experience by graciously leading the reader's eye and effectively organizing content. The redesign noted, TKD Times still seems very vanilla where content is concerned. They have many regular columnists, which after a few issues begins to make the reading experience the same as previous issues; it is hard to distinguish one column in the latest issue from the same column in previous issues. I'm sure the topic is different, but everything else about the columns remains the same: voice, life experiences, advice, recommendations. Few things distinguish the columns from one another. Hence the "vanilla" description. I do not write this to detract from the columnists' accomplishments, achievements or experiences in any way. There is just very little variety within the modern magazine itself. I respect each columnists' contributions, but greater variety would be a welcome feature in future issues of TKD Times. One other item underscores what Robert R. noted in his review. he wrote that TKD TImes is "basically one big advertisement for different TKD products and books." I have to agree. Many magazines today feature many pages of advertisements. So TKD Times is no different in this regard. However, one item underscores Robert's label of "one big advertisement." Each of the columnists has a biography which appears at the end of each of their columns. This biography is overdone, IMHO. Some seem very long for just a bio for a one or two-page column, or even a long article, for that matter. These biographies seem to work too hard to convince reader's that the author is an authority. "Master So-and-So or Sue-and-Sue is owns and operates a dozen successful martial arts schools across six states, has published 8 books on the martial arts, trained in Korea for 4 years, and travels extensively teaching seminars to martial arts school owners. He (or she) lives in (State) with his/her spouse and 3 children." I exaggerate a little, of course, but biographies like this seem to try too hard to convince readers that the author is one that should be heard and revered, instead of letting readers decide from the article content. My suggestion would be to provide a much shorter biography, without all the "so-what" material, and provide a link where readers, if they are interested, may find more information about the author of the particular article, the things they are involved in, etc. It's one thing to tell readers. It's a completely other thing to show readers. Which brings me to my final comment about Taekwondo Times, and other mainstream U.S.-based martial arts magazines in general. There is very little effective "showing" going on. There are lots of words in these magazines, but not enough useful content for the martial artists to go onto the mat and try something they have read in the magazine. Notice I did not say "seen." Because often photographs are too few...leaving out key components to help readers understand how any particular movement or technique is accomplished. This is true in many books also which feature how-to content in some way. If the content is to teach and show how to accomplish some task, please take the time and the photographs to make sure it is explained and demonstrated completely and efficiently so readers can try their hand at the task(s). Although not all articles are how-to, that does not mean that articles can't "show" the reader something...i.e. reinforce important points of the article that the reader gains to learn or remember. I recall that TKD Times was once more "raw" and "unrefined"... and therefore interesting to read. At that time, the magazine was not so self-congratulatory. Writers themselves were not the topic; they were the vehicles. read more