That is a good point. More importantly, Hapkido is primarily a defensive art, not offensive. Something Uncle seems to have a complete lack of knowledge about. You will seldom be attacked by Hapkido, rather you are more likely to be defended against by Hapkido.
Hello all,
I'm sorry, this notion is not strictly correct. While Hapkido's initial training is geared toward defensive action, the bulk of the material is offensive in nature with the general theory that the best defense is a faster offense.
This has been an interesting thread thus far, and is really going in several different directions. But I would think that is an outsider looked at the state of Hapkido today, they would think it is a highly questionable art. Virtually no one stands by its Founder, most people do not have the entire curriculum at their disposal, and instead of learning it, whether it be here or in Korea, things are cobbled on and called Hapkido when they really have no use in the art as most of the situations that these "add ons" want to address are already dealt with with in full curriculum of Hapkido.
I don't someone needs to be a student of Hapkido to be critical of much of what one can find say on Youtube...even a mediocre martial artist could see that most of the compliant stye "Hapkido" on there is lousy and useless. In many cases, in my opinion, Hapkido suffers most from the attempt to make the "circle more round" by thrusting add ons into a curriculum they really don't know.
As far as the relationship of TKD and Hapkido, at least it is my understanding (and I have no idea about the Kukkiwon style, only with the ITF or General Choi) the General Choi approached Hapkido Master Chung Kee Tae and asked him to add some "ho shin sul" to the TKD curriculum, and thus the self defense techniques in the "orange book" are all Hapkido.
I don't know if they complement each other or not.
The point that the MMA ring is not a fool proof proving ground is well taken, as intent is often as much in question as is technique. A realistic street confrontation that lasts more than 30 seconds seems too long. Unless there is some overriding need to control someone, it seems the order of the day is to make sure you can extricate yourself from the situation and leave, not pin someone, etc.
The jail guard topic was interesting. One of my earliest Hapkido instructors was GM Fred Adams, a slight but strong man that was a prison guard who was often sent into cells alone to extract prisoners, which he did with great efficiency, but I dare say that in today's litigious jail environment his methods would not be allowed.
Lastly, while all the anecdotal stories are kinda fun to read, they are only really useful to "your" perspective, there is a youtube video that shows a BJJ guy "besting" a Hapkido guy....there is no information about the Hapkido guys actual background or technical skill, just that he was a Hapkido guy - so to me those types of comparisons are weak at best. That's really the same for the "I know my art works because me and my students have thrown down some whoop ***" - I have NEVER met a martial artist that was not a badass in his own mind at least...these types of comments used in context to show some level of experience are great, but otherwise they seem silly. And I know this because I know I am awesome at "gooseneck" locks - in a bar I worked at this guy was being unruly, and I got him in a perfect gooseneck and escorted him out the front door....YEAH, my technique totally works! - Except the guy went to his car, got his Mack10 came back and shot out every window in the club - but my gooseneck lock was perfect....its all context.
Interesting thread. Everyones contributions have been great so far!
