Hapkido?

[Yung Apprentice]

I've heard of it before, I think it's Korean, but I don't know to much about. Is it a striking art, or a Grappling art, or both? Is it strong, or quick? Is it street effective or not. Has anyone trained in this art here on the board, or at least sparred with someone studying it? If so would you reccomend it or not, and why? Are there any websites that are good?

[Sho]

I don't know much about the art, but it has both striking and grappling techniques. In fact, quite much emphasis is placed on grappling, as far as I know. Gosh, I read about its history a while ago but can't remember. I think it has got some influence from jujutsu - its founder probably studied jujutsu or something. Maybe someone knows a bit more. Unfortunately I have to sleep now, so I can't check it up at this very moment.

[Former castleva]

I really appreciate this art,even though I´m not a practitioner.
Ask something just in case if I´d happen to know.

" I've heard of it before, I think it's Korean, but I don't know to much about. "
Yes,it is.
After taekwondo,it is the most popular korean art but quite different and less "user-friendly" in application (think about TKD as the most popular MA ever...)

"Is it a striking art, or a Grappling art, or both? "
Neither,
it combines grappling and striking into a "complete" art.
One of the unique things is that there is a great amount of techniques with all of the basical and less basic areas covered.
From groundfighting to striking,and from striking to pinning,from pinning to weapon techniques and disarms...pressure points.
It can be said that it combines hard and soft sides,with possibly more emphasis on soft and internal side (which differs this art from many others making it slightly closer to Chinese is that of stress on Ki,fluidity,breathing and meditation exercises are stressed)
It is good to remember though that different hapkido styles are not a few these days...

There is serious emphasis on effective technique,which can be used for both restraining or injuring.

This style also uses plenty of redirection comparable to aikido (hapkido´s sister art.Both founders,of aikido and hapkido studied aikijujutsu (daito-ryu) and jujutsu had a major influence on these both arts.
Besides this,these both arts also had a lot of influence from other arts.
For hapkido these other arts include korean arts like tae-kyon,TKD (if safe to say) and even kung-fu in certain styles.
Weapon techniques have their own base on certain arts)

Besides this common information,
there unfortunately are no actual hapkido boards on www except at www.martialtalk.com which I highly recommend.
http://hapkido.netro.com.au/main.html for great video clips and some other stuff.
http://modernhapkido.org/history.htm Some history.

It is very safe to say these are only some of the sites.

[Yung Apprentice]

There are no strictly Hapkido schools in my city. But there are two TKD/Hapkido schools here. I was thinking about possibly taking a look at them. But I'm kinda weiry because of the TKD. I have taken TKD before in the past, and it was kinda hoaky, didn't teach me much, and very hard to use in actual confrontations, due to my build. In TKD there are many MCdojos, and it's very hard to find a teacher who can teach the practicality of it. My fear is that the Tkd/Hapkido schools teach a watered down version of Hapkido.

[stoli]

Hapkido, have done some and have very good friends who still train and teach it.

Is it street effective, well as always it depends on the person but, imho definately not. Too much emphasis on high kicking and intricate locks to be really effective, think Taekwondo (definately a cr@p art if you want street effective) and aikido.

Still an excellent art if you find a good teacher, as with everything !!

[Former castleva]

Thanks...
my avatar is my pendant. ;)

You mean they are kind of mixture schools?
All I can say is I think highly of both arts if presented well,I´ve heard of sloppy hkd schools being hard on good hkd (actually one very high ranking fellow,I think,once mentioned this) and besides this,TKD seems to have fallen into the well of bad schools in America (I base my knowledge on listening over and over again about this very same issue) not to say there would not be good schools around...

As far as I know,many TKD practitioners seem to pay attention to hkd and cross-train it,add their stuff to their primary art for better and more complete skills.
So maybe that HKD part in those schools is that of grappling etc.?
Striking and kicking skills in TKD and HKD seem to generally have some similarities and are linked in some ways.
But when it comes to principles,tkd is a linear,hard going art while HKD as a whole,tends to go hard but knows how to move with the force.
Water and Circle principles...

Besides that,you might want to check those schools out if you have no choise.I think I can understand your situation pretty well.

[Yung Apprentice]

Well, there are two Kung Fu schools that I'm going to check out first. I was just checking out the Hapkido thing in case I don't like the Kung Fu schools.

One Kung Fu school is a Hsing-Yi school. I've heard how some internal schools, can be about chi loving hippies. But I've heard the guy is very good with his Chi 'Na. And I've aslo heard how Hsing-Yi is a very aggresive art, and has very good street effectiveness.

The other school right off the bat seems like more of a combat oriented school. It's an eclectic school. Lama Pai Crane (I think thats what it's called) is the base, with some Wing Chun, JKD principles. I think other stuff is added too, such as boxing or kick boxing. And one day out of the week the teacher's best friend comes over and teaches BJJ. (but it happens to be on the one day that I can't make it)

Hopefully I'll find something I like in both schools. If not I'll start looking at other MAs.

[Former castleva]

"Well, there are two Kung Fu schools that I'm going to check out first. I was just checking out the Hapkido thing in case I don't like the Kung Fu schools. "

Funny thing btw,I remember having read this claim of some ?KF? practitioner(s) saying that HKD is Korean equivalent to Shaolin KF.

"The other school right off the bat seems like more of a combat oriented school. It's an eclectic school. Lama Pai Crane (I think thats what it's called) is the base, with some Wing Chun, JKD principles. I think other stuff is added too, such as boxing or kick boxing. And one day out of the week the teacher's best friend comes over and teaches BJJ. (but it happens to be on the one day that I can't make it)"
Well that´s a school,lots of stuff from from here and there.Dunno.

"One Kung Fu school is a Hsing-Yi school. I've heard how some internal schools, can be about chi loving hippies. But I've heard the guy is very good with his Chi 'Na. And I've aslo heard how Hsing-Yi is a very aggresive art, and has very good street effectiveness. "
I guess one could say that Hsing-Yi differs from written majority of CMA being an "offensive" art smashing trough,using plenty of fist etc. Just as internal and neijia art as TCC but I think it is nice to compare it to Ba Gua which would be mostly open handed,circular movement...another opposite,even though there are circular movements in Xing-Yi too.

[Yung Apprentice]

I talked to both teachers. I should be visitng the Hsing-Yi school today, if all goes well.ANd the Crane school next Monday. I've talked to both teachers at the schools, on numerous occasions, and they definately seem like they know what they are talking about. The Hsing-Yi teacher, he told me he fuses some Bagua with the Hsing-Yi, so he teaches some open hand strikes.

But he told me they only spar like two or three times a month. I was kinda hoping to spar more than that. Do you think that's enough sparring? That would make a good topic, that I will post. I still would like to hear your answer though.

[Former castleva]

Great.

Well I guess we could soften that up by saying that there are KF styles that do not spar at all,which goes for some other styles too if my memory serves.
But besides,you´d still spar some and probably do plenty of drills (OK,just supposing things here...)

Sounds good,overall...
but as much as I´d like to answer to sparring issue,I do not think I can speak for that very much for not being the correct person I think.I refuse to participate in such conversations to not to give out information which I do not have that much basis on. :)

You might do well writing an entire thread for that since it seems neijia is the way to go for now...turn on the main forum and you´ll be receiving answers I think (not to mention "Internal arts" forum)

I hope this has helped some.

[Yung Apprentice]

Well, I saw the Hsing-Yi school, and wasn't too impressed. It didn't have that hard core attitude people tell me about. It was ok though, and they really do have great Chi 'Na. But I want something more physical. Plus the students there, many were fat, and there was a lot of little kids. I know this has no bearing on the instruction I would be receiving, but I wanted something a little more serious minded.

[Sho]

Maybe you should go there still a couple of times, because obviously schools don't do the same thing every class. Two to three sparring classes a month is perfectly adequate, you really don't need more than that, but of course it depends upon your own training purposes.

[Bolt]

I swiped this excerpt info from a site I knew of :

This Korean Art of Self-Defense is a pure art form and is NOT a sport like many other martial sport types. The fact is, this traditional art was never intended to be a sport, it was utilized as a battlefield art.
The three principles of Hapkido are Yoo (softness, water), Hwa (harmony), and Won (circle theory).
Hapkido (which is a Korean Mu Do) should not be mistakened for Aikido (which is a Japanese Bu Do). Aikido is a passive discipline. Hapkido is a passive (Um) and active (Yang) discipline. There are similarities, but, both are quite different from each other. Also, Hapkido utilizes smaller circles (radii) in executing technique.
The Korean Art of Self-Defense, Hapkido, is considered a "soft" style of Martial Art, in contrast to the "hard" styles that practice the use of brute force-against-force, resulting in size and strength domination. The Hapkidoist redirects, diverts, or suppresses an attackers flow of energy softly and graciously. This diversion or passive act allows the Hapkidoist to use the attackers power against him or herself leading to the attackers defeat or demise. Through the twisting or separation of tendons, ligaments and muscle; application of pressure (cavity press) on specific joints and pressure (meridian) accu-points, very little strength is needed to overcome an attacking opponent.
The Hapkidoist learns to view an attacker as an energy entity rather than a physical entity. In other words, the larger the person that is attacking, the more energy he or she has, the better it is for the Hapkido stylist, and the more devastating it is for the attacker.
Hapkido, defensively, redirects the oncoming attack, and quickly circulates it against the attacker, using small circular, twisting, and angular patterns, that follow through with immediate, joint-immobilizing, joint-locking, accu-point-pressurized, devastation utilizing offensive techniques which are geared to control the attackers violence, rage and render him or her incapable of further destructive action. The Hapkidoist is in total control of the confrontation and thus nullifying the aggressor's attack without the need for uncontrolled damage as seen in many of the "hard" styles.

[fuhok-kid]

Hi yung apprentice, I am a hapkido practisioner and can tell u a lot about the art. Basically, I like to call it the korean version of japanese aikido with the kicks found in Taekwondo. This is partially true. We focus alot on joint locks as well as kicks. It is a very street effective self defence style that is mainly focused on using joint locks to control an opponent mixed with a good arsenal of low and high kicks. If u have seen Steven Segal's movies, you have an idea how the art works. Even though Segal is an aikido stylist, like I said before, the 2 arts share a common past as in they both came from the same grandmaster in Japan. Well I hope this sheds some light on hapkido. You can take a look at this website as well. www.hapkido.com, or just type up hapkido on a search engine and see what you'll find. Good luck.