The Origin of "Fancy" Kicks

exile

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Ah exile, I was waiting for your "valued" input.

YM, I don't like to have to say this, because your own attempt at sarcasm here in no way justifies an intemperate response on my part, and I think most readers know when someone has nothing to fall back on except clumsy snideness. Just a word to the... wise: it makes you look bad, not me; sarcasm generally doesn't work unless you have already really strong arguments and evidence on your side, and you have neither, as we're going to see in some detail. But, in any case, first check your rep line, and then check mine, and then let's talk about "value(d)", yes? :rolleyes:

In an interview, Won Kuk Lee told of three different schools of Korean martial arts, each claiming to be Taekkyon. Who is to say that what we saw Sung Duk Ki doing was but one variation of that? Korean temples were well known as repositories of Korean culture.

You are, persistently, failing to address the point that the official Taekkyon bodies I cited specifically identify the core techniques of Taekkyon as low kicks aimed at the opponent's legs and feet. Repeat: the official Taekkyon agencies, including the Taekkyon Research Association founded by Song Duk-ki's senior student, Lee Yon-bok, deny categorically the claim that you're making: that high complex kicks à la Taekwondo were ever part of the Taekkyon core repertoire. In passing, note again that none of the Kwan founders were students of Song Duk-ki. The only Gm. I am aware of who did study with SDK—and who, according to his student and our own member, Rob McLain, was largely responsible for his receiving 'Living Cultural Asset' status—was none other than Gm. Kim Pyung-soo, the man who has, in both Black Belt (January issue) and in our own MT Magazine, most emphatically denied the sources of TKD in 'ancient' KMAs. Repeat: only Gm. Kim Pyung-soo, among TKD grandmasters, has actually studied the art with its sole 20th century 'source'. And KPS has attributed the origin of TKD's technique set exclusively to the karate that the Kwan founders brought back from Japan. And you're saying that you know better than LYB, KPS and Song-Duk Ki himself? :lol:

Anyway, I've seen too much with my own eyes (albeit on video since I don't have the money for a trip to Korea) to really put much stock in what you say.

Let me get this straight... your eyes, seeing two people use similar techniques to solve an equation, drop a basketball into a basket, or parallel park, can tell which of the two learned those skills from the other. That's what you're saying? Because, whether you know it or not, that's what you're saying. :rolleyes:


I know you mean well, but you really should stop giving credence to these American and British writers, many of whom are karate-based, for your Taekkyon and Taekwondo information.

Oh yes: those American and British karateka writers such as Lee Yon-bok, Gm. Kim Pung-soo, Gm. S. Henry Cho, and Song Duk Ki himself. Yanks and Brits, every one of 'em! :D And which of the people I've cited is karate-based? Mind being a little bit explicit? Robert Young? Stan Henning (TKD dan ranking). Manuel Adrogué? (fifth dan TKD). Eric Madis? (Tang Soo Do dan-ranked, 25+ years in the art). Please... tell us who you're talking about here, OK? I'm very curious... :EG:

Anyway, Taekkyon must have gotten those kicks from somewhere-they didn't just magically appear. I truly believe the answer is not nearly so cut and dried as you make it out. You Based on who you cite as references, I suppose it would be easy to believe that.

I don't. Not for a minute.

(i) Let me put it as nicely as I can, YM: what you happen to believe is an item for your (auto)biography, having nothing whatever to do with the truth, or otherwise, of the content of your belief. A lot of people believe that a bomb dropped out of a B-52 bomb bay moving at the speed of a rifle bullet, at 35,000 feet, over spot X, will land on X. A lot of people once sincerely believed that the earth was flat. A lot of people believe that walking under a ladder brings bad luck. That's a fact about them, not where bombs land, the shape of the earth, or the relationship between ladders and misfortune. Your personal beliefs are absolutely irrelevant until they're supported by some argumentation and expertise. The people who I've cited have been up one side of Taekkyon and down the other: they've read every bit of available material and assessed it, they've interviewed Song Duk-Ki and the current leaders of Taekkyon, they've investigated lineages and a hundred other things that you haven't even bothered to find out about yourself, let alone carried out. And in some cases, they've been 'present at the creation': they were there when it happened. The question isn't what you believe; and it's not what I personally believe either. I've no interest in your beliefs, per se, apart from what kind of, and how much, evidence you can adduce in support of those beliefs. So far, all you've given is your observations about the parallelism in techniques between Taekkyon practioners who weren't even born when SDK was photographed doing Taekkyon in the 60s, and 'fancy' kicks which were already recorded in photos of TKD masters in the late 1960, when tournament TKD was getting under way and virtually no one was doing Taekkyon except for SDK and one or two of his very small number of students. If the best you can come up with is that 'evidence of your eyes', then you've lost the argument long, long ago.

(ii) Once again, you seem to have lost the thread of what you're objecting to, just as you once went on at length about comments I made about Eunbi/Empi, which you somehow managed to turn into comments about Koryo. In this case, I was saying nothing, absolutely nothing, that would—let me quote you—

YoungMan said:
'...make it sound like Taekkyon was simply the Korean version of karate.

What you apparently were trying to say, so far as I can make out, but which you got rather seriously wrong in actually saying it, is that I am saying that Taekwondo is the Korean version of karate. Whether or not that's my position, it has nothing to do with the present discussion, which is about the claim that TKD's 'fancy kicks' came from Taekkyon. I've presented evidence from a variety of well-documented historical sources that they do not. Your comments would perhaps have more credibility if you were a bit more accurate about the statements you're objecting to :wink1: It would also help if you actually addressed the evidence, instead of complaining (incorrectly, as noted) that it originates with British and American karateka, but we've already covered that ground, I think. :)

I've seen too much otherwise to believe that.

This is probably futile, but I'll try again: you cannot possibly have seen anything which establishes the direction of transmission of the techniques in question. The visual sense is wonderful, but it has no time machine capability. You keep repeating your impression of what you've seen as something like a mantra, but apparently cannot, or will not, recognize that what you've seen does not have any bearing on the point at issue: the direction of transmission. I cannot understand why you don't recognize the fact that seeing that X and Y look similar has no bearing whatever on whether X comes from Y or Y from X. For that, you need historical documentation, sources, records. And in this case, the very people who you're claiming taught TKDers to kick high and fancy deny that TKD and Takkyon have any technical connection. Do you not have any idea how much credibility your claims lose in view of that denial, apart from the independent documentation that supports it, given that your sole source of evidence is, 'Well, they look pretty similar to me'? :rolleyes:


Watching those Taekkyon students move and execute those jumping and jump spinning kicks, it just looked so natural and part of what they do-like it just fit the art. I don't believe for a second that those kicks were imported recently from other styles. It just looked too natural for them to be doing them.

'Too natural for them to be doing that'... too natural for what??. My son ties his shoes like a pro. He learned that from me. 'Just fits the art'... and you are trying to make a historical claim on on the basis of this kind of reasoning??

:lol: :lol: :lol:
 
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Makalakumu

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I don't believe for a second that those kicks were imported recently from other styles. It just looked too natural for them to be doing them.

It doesn't matter what you believe. If the oldest surviving practicioners of Taekkyun say that these kicks were not part of the original art, how can you contradict that? Simply seeing some videos on Youtube certainly is not going to provide equal or better evidence then first hand accounts from the sole person who preserved Taekkyun for the world! Thus, I think I can safely say that these kicks did NOT come from Taekkyun...unless you can provide some evidence from an equal or better source.

With that being said, I agree with this part of your earlier post...

Why? A number of reasons. Difficulty, aesthetics, trying to be bird-like, showing grace etc. Historically, Koreans have always valued mastering difficult activities. Jumping and jump spinning kicks certainly qualified.

I think there may be a cultural component to these kicks that many Americans, who are steeped in a religion of pragmatism, may have difficulty understanding. I don't know exactly why these kicks developed. Maybe they are the Korean equivolent of the Peacock's tail?
 

exile

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It doesn't matter what you believe. If the oldest surviving practicioners of Taekkyun say that these kicks were not part of the original art, how can you contradict that? Simply seeing some videos on Youtube certainly is not going to provide equal or better evidence then first hand accounts from the sole person who preserved Taekkyun for the world! Thus, I think I can safely say that these kicks did NOT come from Taekkyun...unless you can provide some evidence from an equal or better source.

With that being said, I agree with this part of your earlier post...



I think there may be a cultural component to these kicks that many Americans, who are steeped in a religion of pragmatism, may have difficulty understanding. I don't know exactly why these kicks developed. Maybe they are the Korean equivolent of the Peacock's tail?


Nicely put, UpN...

....here's an idea that might be relevant. We know—from the work of Henning on the ancient Korean MAs, from the origins of 'subak' in shoubo, the Chinese generic term for boxing, from the demonstrated Chinese source of the Muye Dobu Ton Ji in a Chinese military manual written 250 years earlier by a Han general (whose text the MBTJ is an almost word for word translation of (as meticulously detailed in Henning's 2000 and Adrogué's 2003 Journal of Asian Martial Arts articles)—that for centuries, the KMAs adopted the techique sets of Chinese martial arts almost literally (and who wouldn't, given the overwhelming effectiveness of those techniques in subjugating a good chunk of the Asian continent?))Well, consider Long Fist ch'an fa (ch'uan fa itself being the source of the Korean term kwan bop, just as shoubo was borrowed as subak). The original graphics for the sole empty-hand technical chapter in the MDTJ depict, as Adrogué shows, what are almost certainly representations of Long Fist ch'uan fa. And what do we know about Long Fist?

The forms within the Long Fist style emphasize fully extended kicks and striking techniques, and by its appearance would be considered a long range fighting system. ...t he Long Fist style is considered to contain a good balance of hand and foot techniques, but the Long Fist practitioner is also renowned for devastating acrobatic kicks. Long Fist’s arsenal of kicks covers everything from a basic front toe-kick to a jumping back-kick, from a low sweep to a tornado-kick.

(my emphases; see here). Instead of desperately trying to accomodate (against the pitiless verdict of careful historical analysis and the documentary evidence itself) the carefully crafted propaganda that the ROK instituted in the aftermath of Rhee dictatorship (and which went on forever after; see Madis' article in Martial Arts in the Modern World) about 'ancient' sources of TKD's technique set, why not investigate the possibility that the complex kicks of TKD represent, in part at least, the influence of northern CMA technique sets, which Hwang Kee and Won Kuk Lee, founder of the Chung Do Kwan, among others, are known to have studied? My suggestion: a constructive line of research would involve investigating the relationship between CMAs, on the one hand, and the modern KMA arts, such as TKD, on the other, where the CMAs emphasize complex, athletically difficult kicking techs. We might find that the sources of these kicks, like so much else in the KMAs, originate in the CMAs themselves...
 

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pretty simple in my mind, Jhoon Rhee, the first TKD black belt to come to america didnt do those kicks. None of the first gen TKD bb's knew those kicks.

why?

they hadnt been invented yet
 

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pretty simple in my mind, Jhoon Rhee, the first TKD black belt to come to america didnt do those kicks. None of the first gen TKD bb's knew those kicks.

why?

they hadnt been invented yet


They had been invented. They were borrowed from hapkido.

Hapkido got them from Kim, Moo-hyung and Jin Han Jae who went to a temple to learn/develop hapkido's dynamic kicking.

Going out on a limb of speculation here, I imagine those kicks were learned by the monks from Chinese buddhists.
 

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Hapkido's kicking standards were not finalized until at the earliest 1961. if you mean to say that TKD took spinning and jumping kicks from Hapkido in the 60's you may well be right.
 

exile

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They had been invented. They were borrowed from hapkido.

Hapkido got them from Kim, Moo-hyung and Jin Han Jae who went to a temple to learn/develop hapkido's dynamic kicking.

Going out on a limb of speculation here, I imagine those kicks were learned by the monks from Chinese buddhists.

Hapkido's kicking standards were not finalized until at the earliest 1961. if you mean to say that TKD took spinning and jumping kicks from Hapkido in the 60's you may well be right.

This would then tie those 'fancy kicks' ultimately to the CMAs, and most probably then to the closest regional styles of the latter, which would likely be Northern external systems, such as Long Fist, which we have documentary evidence (specifically, the Muye Dobu Tong Ji) that the Koreans had been exposed to. But with a slightly more indirect line of transmission.

Great line for further investigation... very promising, given the evidence we already have. Good work, guys! :)
 

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I'd hate to resurrect a dead thread, but I saw something interesting today. I was searching through old Karate pictures at the library and I found something quite odd - a pic of Pat Nakata using a flying kick in a karate tournament. I also saw a pic of Tatsuya Naka performing a roundhouse kick to the head. It appears that Japanese Karate did contain a lot of the "fancy kicks" that some claim are TKD originals that are ultimately connected to Taekkyon. I also found a list of Japanese Karate kicking techs:

Mae Geri Keagi: Front Snap Kick
Mae Geri Kekomi: Front Thrust Kick
Mae Aahi Geri: Front Kick With The Front Leg
Mawashi Geri: Roundhouse Kick
Gyaku Mawashi Geri: Reverse Roundhouse Kick
Ushiro Mawashi Geri: Inside-out Roundhouse Kick
Hiza Geri: Knee Kick
Mikazuki Geri: Crescent Kick
Tobi Geri: Jumping Kick
Ushiro Geri: Back Kick
Yoko Geri Keage: Side Snap Kick
Yoko Geri Kekomi: Side Thrust Kick
Yoko Tobi Geri: Flying Side Kick
Fumikomi: Stomping Kick

It also appears that, contrary to popular belief, Japanese Karate had a large number of versatile kicking techniques in its repetoire which destroys the notion that Japanese Karate didn't really contain a lot of kicking in it. It also shows that TKD is more indebted to Japanese Karate in the kicking department than previously thought. Now, as far as the Axe Kick is concerned, that may very well be a TKD exclusive, at least, to the best of my knowledge thus far. The roundhouse kick/hook kick combo is also present in Shotokan Karate. This establishes that a lot of TKD kicks were indeed part of Japanese Karate. Perhaps Japanese Karate, depending on who you train with, just doesn't emphasize the kicking techs as much, or maybe, in a similar way to TKD, it has the techs present but chooses to emphasize hands over feet instead of vice versa. I posted this because I was reading back through this old thread and noticed that Exile made mention of tournament Karate featuring high kicks, plus I remembered the pics that I saw at the local library while browsing the martial arts section this afternoon.
 

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They had been invented. They were borrowed from hapkido.

Hapkido got them from Kim, Moo-hyung and Jin Han Jae who went to a temple to learn/develop hapkido's dynamic kicking.

Going out on a limb of speculation here, I imagine those kicks were learned by the monks from Chinese buddhists.

Hello all,

I assume this is written tongue in cheek - because there is NO evidence that Ji or Kim ever went to a temple to train in kicking - they were in Seoul - at a time when TKD was gaining some momentum - and from all accounts I have seen and talked to Koreans about, there was a great desire to continue the work of separating the art from its Japanese Karate roots. As a result, the kicks got higher and more dynamic, and with a very different and (dare I say) "fuller" use of the hip and rotation of the supporting foot - a style not unlike a blending of Chinese influences - although there is little evidence that anything from the MBTJ survived into modern times, other than the book itself.
 

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Hapkido's kicking standards were not finalized until at the earliest 1961. if you mean to say that TKD took spinning and jumping kicks from Hapkido in the 60's you may well be right.

Hello all,

I am somewhat lost here. Hapkido has had 10 kicks since its inception in 1948 - and only ten - the others were added by students who moved away from the root of the style to start their own organizations.

Tang Soo Do appears to have had a spinning kick for quite some time before it became a staple in TKD. (Just going by their own histories - no personal experience here).

Although this is fodder for another thread, Hapkido teachers like Ji, who moved to Seoul at the age of 20 or so, only ever reached the rank of 6th Dan in Hapkido (and that is speculative - the last KNOWN rank is 3rd Dan). He started to teach in a huge city, in direct competition with TKD and other already established arts - so it is no wonder he absorbed more kicking from other sources (even if for the most part it violates the basic tenets of the art) to gain more "eye appeal" to an art that to the bystander is, well, down right boring looking - especially when you compare it (at the time) with guys sparring, doing a variety of offensive kicks and strikes etc. So I do understand how it was easy in Ji's mind to add things to get more appeal.

The kicking standard in the art however has never changed from the original 10 kicks - even if the high kicks can be "more fun" to train with...
 

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It would seem that they took the original kicks that were already present in karate, sans the axe kick, and added their own variations to them such as spinning, jumping, etc. where there was no spinning, jumping, etc. As iron ox pointed out, there was a desire to move the art away from the Japanese roots, so it was inevitable that they would take what was already there and modify it to reflect their own personal tastes and/or intentionally change it for no other reason than to try to move it away from the source and make it their own. The kicks became higher and more dynamic in TKD, but they already were becoming higher and more dynamic in Japanese Karate via tournament Karate, so exactly how much of it is a strictly Korean convention is not known. All that we know is that Koreans love kicking and they tailored their brand of the art to emphasize the feet over the hands. The axe kick is the one tech that remains an enigma in my view. Perhaps it was imported from CMA or perhaps it actually is a holdover from an indigenous KMA?
 

SageGhost83

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He started to teach in a huge city, in direct competition with TKD and other already established arts - so it is no wonder he absorbed more kicking from other sources (even if for the most part it violates the basic tenets of the art) to gain more "eye appeal" to an art that to the bystander is, well, down right boring looking - especially when you compare it (at the time) with guys sparring, doing a variety of offensive kicks and strikes etc. So I do understand how it was easy in Ji's mind to add things to get more appeal.

Now this I found to be very interesting. I was not aware that Hapkido and TKD came into direct competition with each other (yeah, I know it is common sense, lay off of me :lol:). This would definitely explain why a lot of flashy kicks made their way into a style that was not originally known for its flash.
 

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Actually, Check that - I am chatting with a friend and she tells me that the Axe Kick actually was a Japanese Karate technique called "Kakato Geri", so I guess that the enigmatic technique actually is accounted for in Japanese Karate. Another one down. Ok, she also tells me that the hook kick was in Japanese Karate, too - "Ura Mawashi Geri". Then there is what she calls "Ren Geri", turbo kicking(in her words, not mine). I guess that she means repeating or multiple kicks in succession, her broken english can be so confusing at times :D. So, every basic kick in TKD is found in Japanese Karate, and a lot of the advanced kicks are found in Japanese Karate, too (sans the new mods made by the kwan founders, of course). The origin of the fancy kicks in TKD is becoming clearer and clearer, and they apparently derive from Japanese Karate and not from Taekkyon or Hapkido.
 

SageGhost83

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So, the updated list:

Mae Geri Keagi: Front Snap Kick
Mae Geri Kekomi: Front Thrust Kick
Mae Aahi Geri: Front Kick With The Front Leg
Mawashi Geri: Roundhouse Kick
Gyaku Mawashi Geri: Reverse Roundhouse Kick
Ushiro Mawashi Geri: Inside-out Roundhouse Kick
Hiza Geri: Knee Kick
Kakato Geri: Axe Kick
Mikazuki Geri: Crescent Kick
Tobi Geri: Jumping Kick
Ura Mawashi Geri: Hook Kick
Ushiro Geri: Back Kick
Yoko Geri Keage: Side Snap Kick
Yoko Geri Kekomi: Side Thrust Kick
Yoko Tobi Geri: Flying Side Kick
Fumikomi: Stomping Kick

It is no coincidence that these techs are found in TKD when these techs were in TKD's mother style/set of styles - Japanese Karate.
 

exile

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So, the updated list:

Mae Geri Keagi: Front Snap Kick
Mae Geri Kekomi: Front Thrust Kick
Mae Aahi Geri: Front Kick With The Front Leg
Mawashi Geri: Roundhouse Kick
Gyaku Mawashi Geri: Reverse Roundhouse Kick
Ushiro Mawashi Geri: Inside-out Roundhouse Kick
Hiza Geri: Knee Kick
Kakato Geri: Axe Kick
Mikazuki Geri: Crescent Kick
Tobi Geri: Jumping Kick
Ura Mawashi Geri: Hook Kick
Ushiro Geri: Back Kick
Yoko Geri Keage: Side Snap Kick
Yoko Geri Kekomi: Side Thrust Kick
Yoko Tobi Geri: Flying Side Kick
Fumikomi: Stomping Kick

It is no coincidence that these techs are found in TKD when these techs were in TKD's mother style/set of styles - Japanese Karate.

As they say on late night TV 'not sold in stores' ads, 'But wait—there's more!!'. The axe kick is also part of certain Northern CMA styles, apparently: we have Fu tou tui, Mandarin for 'axe kick' (as per here) and present, I believe, in Chin Na, among others. We need to check with our friends in the Northern Styles CMA forum. I suspect that something like the familiar TKD axe kick was used across a fairly wide band of northern Asian MA styles.
 

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As they say on late night TV 'not sold in stores' ads, 'But wait—there's more!!'. The axe kick is also part of certain Northern CMA styles, apparently: we have Fu tou tui, Mandarin for 'axe kick' (as per here) and present, I believe, in Chin Na, among others. We need to check with our friends in the Northern Styles CMA forum. I suspect that something like the familiar TKD axe kick was used across a fairly wide band of northern Asian MA styles.

Absolutely! And thanks for pointing that out! I think that, seeing as how karate itself has roots in CMA, the bigger picture is that the techs ultimately all are derived from CMA. I am using Japanese Karate as more of a convenient reference point here due to the more recent ties between the two styles. I think that it is interesting that Japanese Karate, ultimately derived from CMA and Okinawan te, found its way into Korea while Chinese fighting methods were also finding their way into Korea over the years. Kind of like, I dunno, the underlying Chinese influence still flowing back into Korea, albeit from another source (Japanese Karate). So, even if the techs derive from Japanese Karate, tracing them further back will reveal that they ultimately derive from CMA in the end, so we can technically still say that TKD kicks have their roots in CMA. Kind of a weird way for me to arrive at such a theory :D.
 

exile

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Absolutely! And thanks for pointing that out! I think that, seeing as how karate itself has roots in CMA, the bigger picture is that the techs ultimately all are derived from CMA. I am using Japanese Karate as more of a convenient reference point here due to the more recent ties between the two styles. I think that it is interesting that Japanese Karate, ultimately derived from CMA and Okinawan te, found its way into Korea while Chinese fighting methods were also finding their way into Korea over the years. Kind of like, I dunno, the underlying Chinese influence still flowing back into Korea, albeit from another source (Japanese Karate). So, even if the techs derive from Japanese Karate, tracing them further back will reveal that they ultimately derive from CMA in the end, so we can technically still say that TKD kicks have their roots in CMA. Kind of a weird way for me to arrive at such a theory :D.

Great way to put it, SG, and this is very much my picture as well. I see a lot of the story of the KMAs as involving the ebb and flow of Chinese influence, and more generally, northern Asian techniques—stuff that shows up in lots of different places—into and out of Korea. While it's the 'intimate details'—the really fine grained stuff—that we get into all sorts of historical debates and controversies about, the overarching fact seems to be that there are a number of 'key ideas' or technical themes that you see over and over again in the northern Asian systems, and these represent something like a common distinctive profile of those systems, in contrast to others. For example—this is strictly impressionistic, but looking at, say, the Filipine arts, or the little bit I've seen of subcontinental Indian systems, there seem to be very significant differences in the overall 'look' of those arts as vs. the northern Asian systems. Fundamentally, I guess, it looks to me like northern China/Manchuria, Korea and Japan are, in some stylistically deep, basic way, on the same page. Given its geopolitical relationship to China, possibly the world's oldest superpower, it's not surprising in the least that the Koreans have long been influenced by the martial thinking of their ridiculously powerful neighbor...
 

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Fundamentally, I guess, it looks to me like northern China/Manchuria, Korea and Japan are, in some stylistically deep, basic way, on the same page.

Yes, I agree 100%! Chinese kung fu (White Crane, to be exact, although there were probably many more styles) spreading outside of China to Okinawa (leading to the formation of Te), Japan (leading to Japanese Karate and even Kenpo), and Korea (Subak, Kwonbup, Tang Soo Do, and Taekwondo) represents a small example of what I like to call "a martial unity" between the cultures with CMA being the base. I find the prominence of the Yin Yang symbol and it's accompanying philosophy within the Chinese, Japanese, and Korean systems to be another good example of martial (or in this case, philosophical) unity. Perhaps it really is just the same thing interpreted differently according to its new cultural home and practiced differently with emphasis placed on different areas of the tool set according to the tastes and fancies of the new cultural homes.
 

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With all due respect, Mr. Sogor,

a) Ignorance or lack of proof or evidence shows neither truth or falsity (for that matter, there is no evidence Choi, Yong Sul had ANY training — maybe he just watched a couple demos and made it all up, eh? ;))

b) It is the opinion of many, including myself, that hapkido is NOT limited to the 10 kicks Choi, Yong Sul taught.

We could discuss our different opinions on what authentic hapkido is, but I think that would best be done in a different thread.

As for origins of these kicks, it all comes down to conjecture and opinion.

One thing is clear though: it is the Korean arts that embraced and emphasized these kicks.
 

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