From: acgetche@taco.engr.ucdavis.edu (Adam)
Newsgroups: rec.martial-arts
Subject: Re: hapkido
Date: 8 Dec 92 18:36:47 GMT
Organization: College of Engineering - University of California - Davis


	Someone wanted some information on Hapkido, so I decided to plug in
my $.02 (plink, plink) on my favorite martial art.
	Hapkido originated from Daito Ryu Jujitsu, the same antecedent to
Aikido.  As near as I can tell, however, it has roots back to ancient Korea
during the time of the Three Kingdoms (Koguryo, Baek-che, and Silla) used
originally by the Sillan nobility and Koguryo warriors.  (These ancient
origins are the very same ones my Tae Kwon Do sabunim refers to, go figure.)
	As far as philosophy goes, Hapkido is very "combat oriented".  Our
Hapkido forms (16-step) consisted of learning techniques to counter a set
attack (kick and forward-hand punch).  Techniques learned by beginners include
basic Tae Kwon Do style kicks (Front, Side, Roundhouse), basic Judo style
throws (forward body drop and major outer reap) and escape techniques for
grabs to the hand, elbow, lapel, shoulder, hair, belt, and from behind (most
of the wrist to shoulder techniques are nearly identical barring a few
modifications; and of course some escapes work best on certain types of
grabs).
	From there, practicioners will branch out into punch defense, kick
defense (made me reconsider my head-high TKD kicks, shudder!), throw counters,
chokes, come-alongs, spin kicks, low kicks, flying kicks, 8-direction balance
break, pressure points, control techniqes, more judo throws, and hard & soft
blocks.  There are also weapon defenses and weapon techniques.
	As a comment on its practical mindset, the three main Hapkido weapons
are the belt (as in the one around your dobuk), the kubatan, and the cane.
	There is little Hapkido sparring, per se (most Hapkido kicks are
difficult to impossible to pull, and most of the sweeps/takedowns/throws
end up breaking something if applied in full).  At our last black belt 
test, sparring was done first TKD style (no low kicks, control, etc).  Then
the second round of sparring was Judo style without the matwork.  The last
round of sparring was done as groundwork, starting with both participants
sitting up against the others' back.
	Most falls are judo style (air, side, back, face) but there are a
few uniquely designed for other purposes, e.g. knee-under fall against
someone who grabs your hair -- lock wrist against scalp, apply wristlock,
and execute knee-under fall to break wrist.
	Other styles of Hapkido may be different.  I study in Davis, but our
actual program is in the U.C. Martial Arts in Berkeley (and since the head
of our style also is ranked highly in Tae Kwon Do, Judo, and Kendo, there
is definite cross-pollination) under Dr. Min.

	A final somewhat humorous study related by our main Hapkido instructor,
Dr. Link.  He had just broken his leg (sparring TKD or Judo, I'm not sure which)
and had hobbled into the airport to catch his plane.  He walks up to the
airport security metal detector and puts his carry-on on the conveyor belt, and
hands the security person his keys.  He had a kubatan on this keyring.
	"I'm sorry, sir," says the security person, "but you can't take this
on the plane (points to kubatan).  It's a deadly weapon."
	"What about this?" Dr. Link notes, holding up his cane.
	"Oh, that's just a cane," says the security person.
	Dr Link then asks us which one we'd rather be struck by, humorously
noting the reach difference between his kubatan and cane.  I guess the point
had been driven more forcefully to those of us present, as he'd just
demonstrated several nasty cane techniques.
 
           -- Adam
+--------------+---------------------------------------------------------------+
|Adam Getchell |Surgery-Radiation Oncology    GETCHELL@radonc.ucdmc.ucdavis.edu|
| acgetchell   |ez000270@chip.ucdavis.edu        acgetche@taco.engr.ucdavis.edu|
+--------------+---------------------------------------------------------------+