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Hapkido, a Korean martial art, means "the way of coordinating energy". Hapkido's history is rather lost, but sources attribute it to two Koreans, Choi Yong Sul and Ji Han Jae. The main belief concerning Choi's education in the martial arts is that Choi was sent to Japan at a young age, it is claimed that Choi worked as a houseboy for the Daito-ryu Aikijutsu master Takeda Sokaku (Morihei Ueshiba, a famous student of Takeda, went on to found Aikido) and studied Daitoryu.
On his return to Korea, Choi began to teach martial arts. One of his students, Ji Han Jae, claims that he incorporated traditional Korean kicking and punching techniques (from taekyon and hwarangdo) and gave the resulting synthesis the name Hapkido in 1959.
Many sources claim that Hapkido evolved naturally from Korean martial arts and some even deny the Aikijujutsu connection The Korean tendency to deny Japanese origins stems from some animosity toward the Japanese concerning their part in the history of Korea.
Hapkido is considered to be in between the hard and soft when it comes to the martial arts, it employs "soft" techniques similar to Aikido and "hard" techniques similar to Taekwondo. But most of the “hard” techniques exert circular movements. Hapkido is a broad martial art, and different hapkido schools headline different techniques. However, a foundation of techniques are found in each school (kwan ), and all techniques follow the three principles of Hapkido:
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Hwa, or non-resistance, is simply learning to avoid a direct confrontation of an attack by staying relaxed and using the opponent’s momentum against them.
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Won, the circular principle is an idea to gain momentum and advantage by executing the techniques in a natural and free-flowing manner by redirecting strikes in a circular movement and causing the opponent to lose control and/or balance.
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Yu, the water principle, is to be like water, direct, free flowing and strong. At times it is calm and peaceful but it is also strong as it can be most powerful thing in the world, able to cut through solid stone to form great canyons.
Hapkido training takes place in a dojang. A typical training session will contain technique practice, gymnastics (nakbop), solo form practice (poomse), sparring and exercises to develop internal energy (ki). |
