FearlessFreep
Senior Master
I just wanted to admit that I am no longer doing true Taekwondo. The last few times I have sought out dojangs it seemed I was running into "martial sport" with some nods to self-defense, but the self-defense drilling was not, in my mind, very realistic or useful. I originally got into Taekwondo as a combination of physical exercise and self-defense; I didn't even know anything about it's olympic involvement or tournaments. When I found out there were tournaments I htought "great, a way to practice these techniques against an opponent" but the more I spent time at it, the moreI realized that tournament sparring was it's own sport thing that had, in many ways, little really to do with the use of Taekwondo as a means of personal combat. It's hard to find a school that treats Taekwondo first and foremost as a means of martial art, personal combat, personal self-defense
So now I'm taking a class in what the head instructor calls "Hybrid Hapkido" which is strongly Hapkido based, has a *lot* of kicks I've seen in Taekwondo, but invovles joint licks, takedowns, falling, throwing, ground fighting, etc... and *all* based on self-defense. It fits in closer with my desire for myself and my family of Martial Art as that tool for both personal fitness but primarily self-defense.
So now I'm taking a class in what the head instructor calls "Hybrid Hapkido" which is strongly Hapkido based, has a *lot* of kicks I've seen in Taekwondo, but invovles joint licks, takedowns, falling, throwing, ground fighting, etc... and *all* based on self-defense. It fits in closer with my desire for myself and my family of Martial Art as that tool for both personal fitness but primarily self-defense.