Hapkido

The Korean martial art "Hapkido" literally translates to "The Way of Coordinated Power" and consists of hundreds of techniques that flow easily from one technique to another to provide the practitioner an infinite number of ways to defend oneself. At first glance Hapkido might look like other martial arts like Tae Kwon Do or Karate when it comes to punching and kicking; the joint locking is similar to Aikido, the throwing techniques look like they're from Judo and the grappling and escapes are similar to Jiu-Jitsu. The difference is that Hapkido has combined all these elements into one single art because it is a (combat) martial art.

Understanding the nature of Hapkido requires the knowledge of actual combat or self-defense situations. First, in real situations there are no rules. Second, there is no way to predict the situation an attacker will create. Third, the only way to defend against any given situation must be by reflex appropriate to a given attack. Obviously this requires a great deal of dedication to the art, but like life itself you get out of it only what you put into it! Although no one can learn every Hapkido technique overnight the average student will be able to defend him/herself in approximately six months.

A unique aspect of Hapkido is in its emphasis of redirection of aggression. Because strength is not a pre-requisite it is ideally suited for men, women and children whether tall, short, fast or slow, everyone can benefit from Hapkido.

Like all Martial Arts, Hapkido's techniques are based upon specific principles. The three principles of hapkido are the Water Principle ("Yu"), Circular Motion ("Won") and the Sum Principle.

If you would like to learn more about Hapkido in depth, there are two very good resources linked below:

• In depth history of Hapkido: Hapkido-Info.Net (pop-up).
• In depth description of Hapkido: wikipedia.org (pop-up).