Mr.Sp

I wanted to know some of the pro's and con's of this martial art.
Thanks.

Tom Yum

You ought to PM Maxx whose on this forum. As Mike has said, he's spent years in the Korean MA's.

I was only involved in them for 5 years. Hapkido, in my experience is a pretty well rounded, traditional martial art. Hapkdio practitioners can kick like TKD fighters and strike/maneuver/escape/get holds like Aikijutsu practitioners.

They're exceptionally good kickers, have decent escapes from holds and are decent infighters.

Combat hapkido is not the same thing as traditional hapkido. The combat style incorporates techniques from thaiboxing, judo and modern weapons.

__________________

Love it, leave it or fix it.

likeWater90

yeah hapkido is very good, teaches you to use your opponents momentum against them. punches are of a boxing style with kicks on a tkd style, hapkido uses locks and throws simular to aikido. dont look for the cons in a martial art coz its hard to find due they all being unique. just dont take up something thats too linear like boxing or something. martial arts like hapkido offer a larger offering to how to deal with different situations. hope this helped

Tom Yum

Like boxing? Maybe the art has changed since I've studied it, but the strikes were more like karate back in the mid 90's - we didn't march up and down the dojang doing reverse punches, but we hit the pork-chop pads: back fists, lunge punch, reverse punch, ridge hand, downard knife hand, outward knife hand, inside knife hand, spear hand etc.

__________________

Love it, leave it or fix it.

WildWest.

We utilise boxing punches too Tom. It depends on the club obviously as another Hapkido club a few suburbs away stick to very "traditional" type techniques and stances whereas we place more emphasis on using the syllabus in a practical manner.

__________________
"Too much weights, not enough speed work"

medic06

Hapkido varies greatly from association to association and even from school to school. The version of Hapkido I trained in looks more like Jujitsu with high kicks, with a little combatives thrown in.

Tom Yum

How are various open handed strikes impractical?

Double knife hand chops aimed at the neck would stun (if not drop) your opponent to loosen his grip or hold so you can control his balance.

Palm heels thrown with the same body mechanics as say a right cross could break a nose, teeth or lead to a knockout. Using a spear hand strike while in your opponents guard or a ridge hand while in a guillotine might buy a second of time you need to get a reversal.

__________________

Love it, leave it or fix it.

medic06

HUH????

You might want to reread his post Tom. . . . .

WildWest.

Yeah, Where are you going Tom??

We also use palm strikes/knife strikes as well, but we apply them in a practical manner. They may be traditional techniques as such but we don't practise them on thin air or in unrealistic situations. But then I never said that in the first place!!

__________________
"Too much weights, not enough speed work"

Tom Yum

This was long ago. We practiced them using the pads as targets and then as they were used in different techniques w/opponents.

__________________

Love it, leave it or fix it.

Tom Yum

http://youtube.com/watch?v=GOCgfuajpJs

Breakfalls, tumbling, escapes, striiking, kicking and grappling all rolled into one.

__________________

Love it, leave it or fix it.

Eagleye

Why not just train Judo and Muay thai? Youll become far more proficient in striking and grappling in a far shorter amount of time.

WildWest.

Because I've done MT for 11 years and got what I wanted out of it.

Judo and MT, while excellent styles with plenty of valid self defence techniques, are also rules based sportive arts. Hapkido does not have that restriction so you can train/encouraged to fight dirty. Not to mention I enjoy the many variations of locking techniques and in-fighting the art has.

But then why does anybody do anything?? When you choose an art you make a personal decision based on what you want to get out of it and what you're looking for.

__________________
"Too much weights, not enough speed work"

kanik

I was actually gonna make a thread like this, or similar. I just recently started Hapkido. The hapkido I do we use a lot of karate-type strikes, boxing punches and boxing defence (eg. slipping, weaving, parrying etc. etc.). TKD looking kicks, notice i said "looking" they are actually pretty different to TKD kicks. For instance, TKD aim for speed in there kicks, haphido aim for power more. Good example is the front kick, instead of the TKD or Karate snap out and back, it thrusts out with all your weight behind it, and doesnt come back as fast. We do snap kicks too though... But yeah hapkido kicks use the hips a lot. Then its got lots and lotsa ways to get out of people grabbing you. Has a lock of wrist locks, and stuff like that. Umm... Its more designed to be used against other martial arts, which is cool. I think It is a really awesome core martial art to do, and to base other arts done around it as well. Or the other way around, for instance, I also do a bit of TKD, boxing, and Karate.

Tom Yum

What style of hapkido is this?

__________________

Love it, leave it or fix it.