Anyone here been to a hapkido seminar?

[Judo_Iaidoka]

I was thinking about mabye going to a hapkido seminar, I do aikido regularly and Ithink it might help me have a new look on application of technique, any of you ever think about or attend a hapkido seminar or any other Ma seminar that has helped you?

[D.Kaiser]

Well, I hav'nt actually attended a Hapkido seminar for some time but I did train in Hapkido for several years prior to training in Aikido. You will find Hapkido to be a little harsher than most Aikido with emphasis on kicking techniques and finishing strikes. Movements and techniques tend to be tighter and harsher without the partner "cooperation" sometimes found in Aikido. You may also find your ukemi to be better than an equivilent ranked Hapkido exponent. If you do not have any basic Karate or Taekwondo training you may be at a small advantage as most Hapkido seminars will also empahsize kicking techniques. However, you will definately learn something that will make your Aikido more effective. There is an article posted on www.aikidojournal.com by Elis Amadur comparring some of the techniques common to both Hapkido and Aikido that you may find interesting.

[jcouch]

These are my thoughts as both a Hapkido and Aikido student. For reference on perspective, I have about 2 years in Hapkido and 9 months in Aikido.

Hapkido is a very mixed lot. A lot of places calling themselves Hapkido tend to be TKD with a few joint locks thrown in. Then there's the "Combat Hapkido crowd".

Hapkido and Aikido come from the same root martial art - Diato Ryu Aiki Jujitsu. When you have a look at the mid to higher ranking blackbelts, you'll see the very obvious similarities in techniques. There's about as much variation in a technique between Hapkido and Aikido as there are betweeen two Aikido schools (look at Kotegaeshi for an example of this variation). It is likely that at a Hapkido seminar you'll do a much wider variety of techniques other than empty-hand. For example at the last one I attended, we did ground fighting (escapes from traditional jujitsu -guard/mount), chokes, kicking and short-staff (chung-bong - slightly shorter than a Jo). Your normal Aiki prinicples can still be applied to all these types of situations. If you have it handy, have a look at the cover of TKD Times from about last August. GM Myung is on there and you'll see a number of the techniques in action.

Find out who is doing the Hapkido seminar - both the school and the teacher. Do some very careful background checking if it isn't one of the well-known Grandmasters like Ji Han Jae, Kwang Sik Myung or Bong Soo Han (there's obviously others, but this should give you a rough idea of what I'm trying to say about backgrounds).

That said, when my school has Hapkido seminars, they are widely published and open to all martial artists. All that is required is an open mind. One of my nidan Aikido friends from another of the local schools is going to be turning up to the next one, and the aikido students of our school always attend.

If you're in the Seattle, WA area, drop me a PM and I'll send you the details of when our next Hapkido seminar is on. G.M. Myung will be the teacher at this one.

[Judo_Iaidoka]

This is the site of the hapkido style i would be getting the seminar from, http://www.hapkiyoosool.com/
I met the guy online, its in ft.lauderdale florida, he says he has about 4 seminars online. He also said he had been doing hapkido since he was 7, he didnt mention anything about doing tkd at all. And i cant see anything on the site about tkd.

[jcouch]

Ok, I've heard of these guys. They have a good reputation. When that dojang first opened up, the owner sent a collection of emails around the place. They weren't the best phrased, and sounded a lot like a McDojang. The people on the list took him to task and slowly they dug into the background etc and changed their minds from thumbs down to thumbs up.

From what I've heard (and I've never been there, so this is only second-hand knowledge), they're definitely on the harder (technique-wise) end of the Hapkido scale. My guess is that it won't be as flowing movements as what you're used to with Aikido. Take what they teach you and see if you can blend it with more of the Aiki principles that you're familiar with from your own school.

[Judo_Iaidoka]

Just what im looking for, I like the harder style locks, ive learned a bit of them in jujutsu (us jujutsu federation style).