Which style - BJJ or Hapkido

[T.Durden]

The school I'm helping instructing at is a fundamental Tae Kwon do school. If it's not from Korea then they really dont respect it. However I know enough BJJ to teach it, so we have discussed adding the grappling class to have a more well rounded school.

however now the idea is tossed out to have that as well as a hapkido class, only the way they presented the hapkido is as if it's the second coming of christ. they said that they will charge at least 120.00 a month because the class is so sought after that the room will be full immediatly and all that. they went over some of the moves, and i gotta tell the truth..it doesnt seem practical, but then again im into ground fighting completely.

what is the general perception of Hapkido? would it put more students in than BJJ?

 

[bushidomartialarts]

what's the demographics of your area?

the bjj will pull in the majority among your 18 - 30 year old guys. it's still all the rage among the kids out to prove to themselves how tough they are (not knocking it -- that's how and why i initially got involved).

older folks and families will gravitate towards the hapkido.

as always, though, the spirit and quality of the teachers will have a much greater affect than the specific art taught. and if you have mixed feelings about the hapkido, then you'll fail as a teacher. you can only teach what you believe in.

 

[T.Durden]

The area has all ages, but in order to get the school up and running the focus was on little kids.
now they want to add more programs, how ever my thought was the same - alot of rougher, grown men are going to be there if there is BJJ.

However, the hapkido that i did get to practice just didnt seem realistic . i'd throw a punch and the person on the other end would miss or tell me to grab them another way or what not..it took like three times for the move to be effective and even then it just didnt seem as to the point as BJJ. i'd rather go straight for a choke or joint manipulation rather than slap a punch out of the air..it works in movies but i doubt alot of that can transfer into reality.

 

[bushidomartialarts]

that, my friend, is the age-old debate of mixed martial arts vs. traditional martial arts.

there are countless long, ultimately pointless and boring threads about which works best, etc. right here on this forum.

the training methods are different from your bjj. more rigid, stylized. hapkido will teach a defense that works against a, but not b. bjj will teach a defense that will cripple a man, provided that man's not allowed to gouge your eyes or bite you.

neither is better. what really matters is how much passion the instructor has for the art.

i never say 'if i was you', cos i ain't you. if i were me in your situation, i'd make the school primarily hapkido (wider base demographic), but have a bjj class available a couple nights a week for the guys who want to bang it out some.

just my 2 cents.

 

[Rook]

The school I'm helping instructing at is a fundamental Tae Kwon do school. If it's not from Korea then they really dont respect it. However I know enough BJJ to teach it, so we have discussed adding the grappling class to have a more well rounded school.

however now the idea is tossed out to have that as well as a hapkido class, only the way they presented the hapkido is as if it's the second coming of christ. they said that they will charge at least 120.00 a month because the class is so sought after that the room will be full immediatly and all that. they went over some of the moves, and i gotta tell the truth..it doesnt seem practical, but then again im into ground fighting completely.

what is the general perception of Hapkido? would it put more students in than BJJ?

That depends alot of the demographics of the area. BJJ is very popular with a segment of the population, whereas Hapkido has more of a broad based appeal. If you have a lot of young adult males, or a lot of law enforcement people, you might get a good class, if not, you would probably be better with hapkido.

 

[FearlessFreep]

However, the hapkido that i did get to practice just didnt seem realistic

Then don't teach it. If you don't believe in it, you won't be able to teach it effectively

Right now I think BJJ is appealing to a certain audience, if that's the audience you want. Traditional Hapkido will be able to bring in a different type of student so it's probably not a matter of which wll bring in more students but what kind of students you want...and then it 's just a matter of marketing to get them in and good teaching to keep them there.

i'd throw a punch and the person on the other end would miss or tell me to grab them another way or what not..it took like three times for the move to be effective and even then it just didnt seem as to the point as BJJ. i'd rather go straight for a choke or joint manipulation rather than slap a punch out of the air..it works in movies but i doubt alot of that can transfer into reality.

They have different usages for different situations. Part of the difficulty in seeing the value in some of the techniques you would use in Hapkido are that to use them effectivley takes a lot of practice and it can be difficult to practice them fully. For example, if you go for a throw based on a wrist manipulation, it's a fine balance to get enough resistance to make the thrower really work the technique properly without hurting the partner. BJJ is very effective for certain goals but is not as 'destructive' so it tends to be easier to drill at a higher level of 'realism' and thus it's easier to see as a beignner how it fits together and would be useful. Actually, it's easier for you to hink you see it : )

I will caveat that by saying that depending on the Hapkido instructor, there seems to be (from what I've heard) and growing emphasis on 'demonstration techniques' that look cool but are not as practical.

My instructor is a 6th Dan in Hapkido but also trained BJJ under David Myers and is no slouch on the ground and while I don't really enjoy fighting on the ground, I take it seriously as a component of the whole. Both the Hapkido and the BJJ have their practical usages and effectiveness, but it can be hard to see at first when you are just getting exposed to the techniques and training them for the first few times.

 

[zDom]

The school I'm helping instructing at is a fundamental Tae Kwon do school. If it's not from Korea then they really dont respect it. However I know enough BJJ to teach it, so we have discussed adding the grappling class to have a more well rounded school.

however now the idea is tossed out to have that as well as a hapkido class, only the way they presented the hapkido is as if it's the second coming of christ. they said that they will charge at least 120.00 a month because the class is so sought after that the room will be full immediatly and all that. they went over some of the moves, and i gotta tell the truth..it doesnt seem practical, but then again im into ground fighting completely.

what is the general perception of Hapkido? would it put more students in than BJJ?

IMO, it really depends on the instructor. I've seen great hapkido and I've seen crap "hapkido."

If you've every FELT great hapkido, it would make a believer out of you.

If you are looking at a solid grappling program to round out our program, BJJ may be the better choice. Hapkido as I study it has grappling in it, be we don't focus on it to the degree BJJ does (too much OTHER stuff, such as throwing/falling, wrist locking, and kicking to work on).

I have never known hapkido to be a crowd-drawing art, personally. If you are looking for numbers, BJJ may actually bring MORE people to the mat. (Of course, your mileage may vary where you are at...)

One thing does concern me, however: you said you "know enough BJJ to teach it."

I don't know what rank BJJ considers proficient enough to teach at, but in Korean systems it is at least a first dan black belt.

I can tell you that while I only learned a few more techniques between purple and black belt, my understanding of hapkido in general grew by leaps and bounds with the additional years of repetition.

 

[MJS]

However, the hapkido that i did get to practice just didnt seem realistic . i'd throw a punch and the person on the other end would miss or tell me to grab them another way or what not..it took like three times for the move to be effective and even then it just didnt seem as to the point as BJJ. i'd rather go straight for a choke or joint manipulation rather than slap a punch out of the air..it works in movies but i doubt alot of that can transfer into reality.

Alot of it is going to come down to how things are applied. One of my pet peeves, is when I'm doing a tech. and the other person is going half way with me. What I mean by that is: when doing a choke, rather than the hands be on the neck, they're on the shoulders, when punching, they stop 5 inches away, rather than really trying to hit me. In reality, we're not going to know how someone is going to attack us, and we certainly can't tell them to attack a certain way, so we have to be able to adapt to what is being done.

As for your original question: I really don't know alot about Hapkido, but I personally don't see any reason why you can't do both. By offering both, you're catering to more people, who may be looking for something specific out of their training.

Mike

 

[Carol]

I agree with Mike, I like the idea of both.

Hapkido may encourange more family participation.

BJJ may attract a fresher segment of customers or even encourage retention in your current students.

"No bad student, Daniel-san, just bad teacher."

IMO, no bad style either.

 

[matt.m]

If you hold a blue belt in BJJ then by all means teach a bit if the bug has hit you. I am hapkido biased, but I do have a dan in judo so my feeling is this.

If you don't believe in the hapkido then by all means don't do it. I have seen/felt great hapkido. I have also seen/felt crap "hapkido" as well.

So good luck in your decision making.

 

[CuongNhuka]

It depends on the demographs. But all-in-all, I think BJJ might bring in more. mma seems to be one those hot topic items, and bjj is considered one of the best for that genre of fighting. right up there with tae kwon do. but it depends. and if they charge 120.00 bucks for it per month, then few people will want to train in it. it would be simply too expensive.

 

[FearlessFreep]

BJJ is going to attract the demographic that is currently into MMA. depending on the style, Hapkido will probably attract more of a 'variety' of famlies and youth and such. Also, from what I've seen, BJJ will be more geared toward "it's on, lets; fight" and Hapkido instruction will be more on "It's about to happen, stop it before it does" or "It happened and I wasn't ready, now what?" (that may not make much sense, so if it doesn't I'll try to explain better...or maybe Im just wrong)

BJJ tends to have a much longer ranking system (years between belts) than the Korean arts I've seen so the ranks don't quite line up in that a blue belt in BJJ has probably been doing it much longer than a blue belt in Taekwondo or Karate

 

[Ybot]

However I know enough BJJ to teach it, so we have discussed adding the grappling class to have a more well rounded school.

How much is "enough to teach it"? IMO if you are not a Brown belt or higher, you'd better have a brown or higher who can visit and instruct every so often. In addition to that you should be a strong blue or purple belt too. I'm a BJJ purple belt who has been training for 6+ years and short of doing small club things on the side while I still train with my instructor, I wouldn't dream of openning my own class on my own.