Hapkido Classes
Hapkido is a powerful and innovative Korean Martial Art. Literally translated, the word Hap means coordination or harmony, Ki denotes the essence of power, and Do means the art or the Way.
HISTORY OF HAPKIDO
One of the most influential persons in the development of Hapkido is Yong Sul Choi. He was born in 1904 at Chung Buk province. The Japanese Army invaded and ruled Korea from 1910 – 1945. During that period it was uncommon for Korean families to be relocated to Japan. Yong Sul Choi’s parents died while he was a young boy and he was sent to Japan. While in Japan, he was taken in by Master Sokaku Takeda who taught a weaponless martial art known as Daito-Ryu Aiki Jujitsu. Master Takeda taught Choi this art that emphasized the use of joint locks, strikes, and nerve attacks to neutralize an opponent. Choi remained in Japan and studied under Master Takeda for 35 years.
In the winter of 1945, Choi returned to Korea by ship and arrived in Pusan. He then boarded a train and traveled to Tae Ku City where one of his traveling bags was lost. In the bag was his money and certificates that he received while he was in Japan. After losing his bag, he abandoned his plans to return to his home at Chung Buk and decided to stay in Tae Ku. He became a bread salesman on the street. After a year of hard work and saving, he was able to save enough money to begin raising pigs. In order to feed his pigs, he traveled every morning to the Suh Brewery Company to obtain free left over grain chaff.
One morning a group of men tried to steal Choi’s place in line and he defeated his attackers without much effort. The owner (Suh) of the brewery saw this and sent one of his servants to get Choi. Afraid he would lose his place in line he refused, but he was assured he would get his grain. Suh told Choi that he was a black belt in Judo and he wanted to know what type of martial art that he used to defeat the attackers. When Choi explained, Suh, in return for private lessons, provided Choi with grain, money, and the use of his private dojang to teach other students. One of Choi’s most known students in the western world is Grand Master Bong Soo Han. Grand Master Han is commonly referred to as the Father of Hapkido in the Western World.
Historically, this was an art confined to the nobility and upper class society. Today, students of all backgrounds, ages and physiques practice it. Hapkido is a very realistic style of self-defense. It is a counter attack technique of self defense based on the understanding of the biological kinetics of the human body. The techniques are practiced slowly at first, with actual pain compliance being very important. We believe that if you do not train to pain compliance, then you will not fully understand or have the confidence in your techniques to use in a high-pressure situation. Until you train in these different scenarios, you won’t totally comprehend how these differences will affect you.
Hapkido makes use of hundreds of pressure points all over the human body, allowing the practitioner to successfully defend himself against attackers of any size without any reliance on brute force. Hapkido employs the philosophy of using minimal force to overcome a stronger opponent. Therefore, great strength is not needed to apply the techniques effectively by the use of pressure on certain joints and pressure points.
Traditional Hapkido includes hand strikes, twisting and throwing techniques as well as a powerful arsenal of kicking techniques. The training involves many aspects of the martial arts. Beginners learn how to kick, fall, defend, escape, and attack. Hapkido is taught in a systematic and logical manner that leads the student through the system in a positive, goal oriented fashion. Knowledge and techniques are taught in a building block format where each belt level is correlated to the next level of understanding
So this is what they call mother/daughter love???
Don't you just hate it when this happens?
Don't worry.... this will only hurt a moment.
