So ive been training Kuk Sool Kwan Hapkido off and on for 18 years (4 in a proper dojang and 14 without access to a hapkido dojang for one reason or another) and about 6 months ago i got hired at a Mcdojo to teach "karate". The head instructor and i have turned it into a dojo thats almost worth what the students are being charged; Part of that was implementing sparring. During sparring what ive noticed is that my Hapkido LOOKS like Aikido (literally like the fancy demos) against the 5-7 year olds and as the kids age up past 12 it starts looking more and more like Yudo. What ive observed is that the younger a person is the more theyre likely to telegraph AND fully commit to their attacks, whereas the older a person is the more work i have to put into baiting them or chasing them down into a lock or throw because they become cautious. Have yall experienced anything like this in your sparring? Do you have any advice for me on how to make my sparring against the adults "yuwanhua" better? Thanks in advance!

Does anyone have any resources or information to learn about the main organizations or federations in Hapkido, like comparing their age, lineage/history, number of practitioners, general reputation, etc? I'd like to be able to get a rough idea of a school's legitimacy based on who they're associated with.

I know hapkido is descended from Jujutsu, but how does it differ? What do they focus more on? I'm looking to learn one of them.

I am in a small dojo, my master of which is quite renowned. Since he left his big dojo at a military base, he hasn't belt tested anyone for a while. We talked recently and I proclaimed that I would like to start testing and he agreed that I should. I have been practicing for around 6 months consistently and he teaches a mix of taekwondo, hapkido, aikido, muay thai, and others. What should I expect? What will I be tested on?

1. Daito Ryu Aiki Jiujutsu

2. Taekkyeon

3. Tang Soo Do

4. Judo

5. Chinese Martial Arts

I have heard that in traditional Hapkido training, a group of students form a circle around one student who then has to react accordingly to the techniques thrown at him/her in a sort of gauntlet. So I was wondering if people actually get hit during this type of training, since techniques are being used at half speed but are sped up over time?

I'm looking for a Hapkido school for older adults. (Not ask after school program.) I'm located in Central Florida, north east of Orlando.

Any out there?

What's a good way to do it without a partner (mostly wrist grabs/milgies/jobki) ? it often feels somewhat awkward, so do I just use a mirror or do what I would do without my partner? or is there another strategy?

I am a 4 degree HPK and 2nd degree TKD. I run a small Dojang that competes in tournaments etc. We do full contact sparring and light sparring. Recently, I’ve been really interested in pressure testing Hapkido techniques. Our pressure test settings go from a hard grab ( shoulder, arm and hair, etc.) to face-to-face street fight situations (hard shoving, inexperienced, bully, moves and so on) While I have her tested techniques before, it was always under the assumption of the setting: someone grabs you you don’t like it and you do your technique with follow up strikes and pins. But I’ve discovered is about 20% of the techniques I teach work regularly namely, particular, wrist locks, followed up with an elbow or pain Compliance moves and come along moves Another 20% are effective in someone more specific situation is particularly hip and shoulder throws, etc.. Surprisingly, maybe another 10 or 15% are very good in very specific situation’s. None of the headlock escapes work very well, because you’re technically already set up for a rear naked choke. Orange belt, double arm, grabs, etc. work OK so long as you aren’t over your head and respect weight class. I am 5’8” and a very athletic 140 pounds. One of my students I use for this is 6 foot 190 pounds— he is able to muscle his way out of a lot of moves. The other student I use for this is 160 pounds and about 5’9”– far more moves and techniques work on him. My question ultimately is how many buildings out there push the pressure test. How are you all fairing with this? What alterations to the techniques have you need to make it more “effective”. Thanks for your input!

Edited for clarity and grammar

Hi everyone,

Just wanted to see if anyone knew of this place? I am thinking about trying to get into martial arts, as a way of self improvement and also to get into better shape. I am currently VERY out of shape, sitting at a desk job for 10+ hours a day and eating like crap will do that.

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Wanted to get your thoughts. I have no idea how to determine if it is a "good" place or not? Any tips on what I should be looking for?

Home - Be Ryong Martial Arts

I just had my first hapkido lesson yesterday, and will have another tonight. So far, I am very intrigued. Does anyone have

a) tips, or advice that you think beginners should know/you wish you received when you were first starting out

b) recommendations for youtube channels, books, etc

https://www.hapkidofightingarts.com/

Does anybody have experience with them? Do they spar on a regular basis?

Looks like the lineage may be more tied to Kuk Sool Won...which I have mixed feelings about.

But as long as they don't teach bullshito and pressure test regularly, I don't really care too much about the lineage per se.

I've recently moved to the Pittsburgh area with my family, and we're wondering if anyone knows of any reputable places nearby to continue our practices?

I saw a video of the president of biyeon kwan Mexico (which is kuksoolwon hapkido) explaining the history and ramifications of hapkido, specially the diferences between the styles loyal to Choi Yong Sul and the "less traditional kwans" formed by Ji Han Jae. He said things like, for example, " if your dojang has forms, then its "traditional korean", while if it doesnt, it is "japanese line"" (ik this may be polemical, and Ive heard bad things about kuksoolwon being historical revisionist).

At the end, he finished the video saying that a white uniform means your hapkido is more "japanese", while if it was black, it was "traditional korean"

He also said that he would do a video explaining the meaning of the white, black, red, gray and the rhombus dobok, but that video never came.

Do anyone here knows the meaning of each one of those doboks?

I asked a Hapkido instructor in my home town if they did sparring at their school. The answer I got was complicated as I got answers from both the Instructor and their assistant: From the Assistant: “Yes we have Hapkido Sparring but it’s Adult Only”. From the Instructor “We wear gear”. We do free sparring”. The way he described Free sparring to me sounded more like Krav Maga Drilling, but I may have misunderstood what he was saying and it could have been regular sparring. So is there a universal definition of what Free sparring is in Hapkido?

Sorry for the long text and broken english

Im currently a black belt 2nd dan in Sin Moo Hapkido, recently I started to have the "neighbor's grass is always more green" feeling regarding the other hapkido schools, mostly because my previous sinmoo dojang close, and now I am in a new sinmoo dojang where we dont really spar (we spar like once per month at best), we dont do ground work, and I feel they dont really teach us how to improve our current kicking techniques, and also we have a single tournament on the whole year. (However, they started reforming this dojang, this last 3 weeks we have been working hard and real, after head of the organization realized our kup students are on dispair with the other schools).

I've also thought about switching to taekwondo or bjj due to this situation.

The thing is, that Global Hapkido association, of GM Hee Kwan Lee has opened a new school 15 minutes from my house, and I wonder if is it worth it to start from white belt on a new hapkido school, so far I've seen videos about their other GHA dojangs on my country and they look great and cool, although I know it might not be a big diference between SM and GHA more than the color of the dobok going from grey to white.

So, I want to know the opinion of fellow hapkido'ers, what do you think? Is it worth it to switch to GHA? Is it really diferent to sin moo or should I rather stick to Sin Moo? Should I rather start a new martial art?

Thank you

So I friend of mine recently told me that he wanted to join Hapkido and asked me to come to class with him to see how it is. The class on that day was mostly wrist locks. Someone threw a punch. You catch it and do a wrist lock.

When I later tried out their techniques on someone who had started a month ago on the MMA school I go to I just could never catch the punch. I have seen videos of street fights. At least 97% of the attackers don't know anything and the way they throw punches makes it easy to do the techniques I was taught at the one Hapkido class. But against someone who knows just a little bit about how to punch (like I said the guy I tried the techniques on joint my MMA gym a month ago) it just never worked.

Now the "bad guys" around here all carry knives, they don't know anything etc. But two of them know martial arts. One knows Muay Thai and the other boxing and MMA (he even went on competitions). When I asked the instructor if they do pressure testing or sparring because a lot of Dojangs don't he said that he is aware of that but he doesn't teach the staff that they teach in the army because he doesn't know how the students will use those (and he also never answered if he does the things I asked).

Now I don't know about you but the last thing the instructor said sounds like bs. But I have to ask. Will Hapkido also help with someone that knows how to fight? I did some research and found that Jin Han Jae even taught Hapkido to the secret service and specifically the unit that protects the president. Which means that Hapkido in it's majority must work. But I don't know. Does it actually work? There is another Hapkido school here that also does kickboxing. Would that school be actually legit and teach you how to use Hapkido on people that know how fight as well (like Jin Han Jae was teaching it)?

I'm posting this for help on overcoming my ego and finding out what to do in this situation. My training partner/student has reached the same belt rank as me, but is far beneath me in terms of skill(Sloppy movements, terrible kicks, terrible conditioning). I'm afraid of them surpassing me in rank and my master being disappointed in me. He expects me to test for my next belt, but I am not confident in my moves to do so yet. What should I do? Should I worry about not being good enough? How do I overcome this overbearing ego that is scared of being surpassed? Any tips?

Edit: My title should be "Problems with my ego"

Hi all, I'm not really all that familiar with Hapkido, other than that it's a Korean martial art, and I've heard that it has some overlap with Taekwondo. I've seen some people compare it to Judo, but I have no idea how solid of a comparison that actually is.

As someone that does Taekwondo though, I feel like I should really have a better awareness of what Hapkido actually is. So I'm asking: does anyone here have any links to a good reputable source of information about Hapkido? I know that the best way would probably be to find a place of instruction and ask questions or try it out directly, but I figured I'd try asking here first and take a shot at the informational equivalent of low hanging fruit.

Thanks!

What is combat hapkido and is it different from traditional hapkido?

Are there any hapkido instructors/schools in Rancho Cordova, California. I’ve searched google and could not find any.

I started hapkido two month ago, but there are a lot of technigues like locks and throws but i have a hard time keeping them apart. I want to train them at home but is there a list of website with the curriculum? Thanks

What belts is everyone here?

Hey everyone, I recently just went to a Hapkido class on Saturday. I was given a small sample of what I'd learn there, but what should I expect from it? I work night shift so this is what's available to me. I tried to find YouTube videos on it to learn and forums to read. The responses were always mixed and lots of misconceptions about Hapkido is my conclusion I came across.