Hapkido Gongs

[jezr74]

I was listening to a pod cast on the way to work that was talking about CMA Gongs. They described them as habitual actions used to enhance their techniques, like Iron Fist or conditioning knuckles for punches, I'm guessing similar to the makiwara in Shotokan etc..

Are there "gongs" unique to Hapkido, or have you adopted a Gong to enhance a technique you are quite partial to?

 

[oftheherd1]

I haven't personally heard of 'Hapkido gongs', but perhaps other styles or Kwans have something they call gongs.

 

[Instructor]

We use very few training aids. Heavy Bag, clapper style focus target for kicking.... That's about it. The uke does most of the work in Hapkido.

 

[jezr74]

What about "Gongs" to strengthen the wrists and maintain flexibility or should movements.

An example would be, I have a high tension hand gripper on my desk at work and I use it to work my grip strength while reading documents or going through email daily, I'm seeing my hands get more conditioned, but is not something everyone would do, and people at work think I do it instead of a stress ball. I actually hope it will help improve my yusul sparring and strong grip when applying technique.

You may have them but don't realize.

 

[Instructor]

A concept I am exploring with my students is the concept of relaxed yet focused grip. The analogy I use is not a grown man holding an object firmly but that of an infant who doesn't seem to be exerting itself at all yet has a killer grip.

The training itself seems to provide most students adequate grip force and we have basic stretches to improve flexibility. I personally believe that if you get the form of a move right you don't really need superhuman grip, it's mostly about hand placement and technique. I've seen children bring down much larger adults.

Here is a video of some of the stretches we've been doing if your interested: Pre Practice Stretches (Every Practice) - Hapkido Online

That being said, no harm in strengthening your muscles, I say go for it.

 

[jezr74]

A concept I am exploring with my students is the concept of relaxed yet focused grip. The analogy I use is not a grown man holding an object firmly but that of an infant who doesn't seem to be exerting itself at all yet has a killer grip.

The training itself seems to provide most students adequate grip force and we have basic stretches to improve flexibility. I personally believe that if you get the form of a move right you don't really need superhuman grip, it's mostly about hand placement and technique. I've seen children bring down much larger adults.

Here is a video of some of the stretches we've been doing if your interested: Pre Practice Stretches (Every Practice) - Hapkido Online

That being said, no harm in strengthening your muscles, I say go for it.

I'd be interested to hear how you develop with that. Your right about not needing too strong a grip, I'm just hoping to get past 20+ years of working behind a keyboard grip I currently have.

 

[Instructor]

The key I think is learning to relax the muscles you aren't using. If you ask a student to grab as hard as they can you'll notice they tense up. You can see it in their set of their shoulders. For some reason we instinctively try to tighten our hand with muscles who aren't even remotely connected to it. This is bad because it has the overall affect of causing great fatigue in the body simply for a closed hand.

But a student can be taught to relax the shoulders and the upper arm while flexing the forearm muscles that mostly affect grip. This reduces fatigue and allows greater power and energy where it counts. I suppose the term, energy management could be used.

 

[jezr74]

Working through this at the moment, enjoying this aspect of Hapkido.