Hapkido Karate: The 'Soft Art' with Hard Results

When I mentioned to a few family members and friends that I was going to take a Hapkido Karate class just about everybody to a person responded the same way: Hap what? What-kido? My understanding of the Korean martial art at the time was that it was a blend of a few different arts. I believed it contained: the punches and kicks of Tae Kwon Do; the throws of Judo, and the breaks and limb locks of Aikido. As it turned out I wasn't too far off the mark. I selected Kwon's Hapkido School in Redondo Beach, California not only because it was near my house but I had heard that Master Kwon was the real deal so to speak. By that I mean he's a Korean martial artist who grew up in Korea and has practiced the art for almost all of his sixty odd years.

Not knowing the studio custom I put my fist in the palm of my other hand and bowed to the master. Master Kwon smiled with a huge grin as he welcomed me into his office. Even though he was a small man, no taller than 5 foot 4 inches, his Master's uniform of black pants and dark jacket with spider stitching made him an opposing figure. We had a nice chat about my goals and about the art itself. I then learned that when one enters the studio one bows to the Master, then to the flags (United States and Korean) and then to all black belts present at the time. (Fist in palm not necessary…but thanks for trying). I was given an all white uniform with a white belt and we headed to the mat. After some not too difficult warm up exercises we got down to business. The first item on the docket was learning how to land when you hit the ground. We began with two types of falls. One was the back fall and the other was the front fall. (Both are fairly self-explanatory). Next we did shoulder rolls. I was having a blast until I realized that we were focusing on moves of a defensive nature. Moves that would have meant that if this were real combat I'd be knocked down, pushed over or rolling away from some big oaf kicking the stuffing out of me. Just what exactly had I signed up for? We were barely ten minutes in before I was puffing like an outdated, under-fueled steam engine. There's something about two hundred pounds up, two hundred pounds down, two hundred pounds up, two hundred pounds down that can get a card carrying member of the two hundred pound-ers club huffin'. These defensive moves took me back to an old phrase from my youth. When I played football my defensive back coach loved to holler, "defense wins the game fellas, defense wins the game."

And then we moved onto the kicks. This was the time where my superb flexibility was going to come in handy. Oops, wait a minute. I possess no flexibility. In his thick accent master Kwon said, "Okay, you need 'lot of stretching!" Tell me something I don't know. That first day we went through the front kick, which is usually aimed at your opponents shin, knee, groin, or abdomen. It's a quick kick that you fire out and then rapidly recoil. Next we moved to the side kick. This kick can be low (shin), mid section or a head shot. This, it could be said, is Jean Claude Van Damme's second favorite kick…in the movies that is. This kick takes a good deal of hip flexibility to generate significant heat. Once again, "…need 'lot of stretching!" The last kick we attempted was the roundhouse kick, which is a soccer style kick. Once again the hip needs to rotate, the ankle needs to spin, and you need to fire this off the ball of your foot. Oh yeah, trunk rotation and balance are necessary, too, and it is also a plus if your opponent holds still. In other words, the stars really need to align if one plans on landing a significant kick without missing, breaking your foot, or landing on your behind. But if this last part should happen hey, hey, hey, we know how to land with dignity.

Hapkido was started by grandmaster Choi back in the 1940's. His story is an interesting one in that back in the day Choi was kidnapped and taken to Japan. After some time he escaped his captors and ran away to the home of grandmaster Takeda who was master of an art similar to Aikido. (Aikido is the art that Steven Segal practices). Choi studied under him for several years until master Takeda committed suicide. Master Choi returned to Korea, modified what he'd learned and voila; Hapkido was born. One of Choi's best students was a man named Ji Han Jae. He is credited with bringing the art of Hapkido Karate to the West. It is also believed that at some point he showed his techniques to Bruce Lee. Mr. Lee apparently borrowed and modified what he learned and incorporated it into the martial art he created: Jeet kune do. Are you still with me? Good. Loosely translated Hapkido is "The Way of Coordinated Power." Or "The Art of Coordinating Internal Strength" It is taught to the Korean military with the Special Forces soldiers learning an advanced form. Although incredibly devastating it is considered a 'soft art'. That is to say when an opponent attacks you take his energy and use it against him with a throw, kick or punch, break or… (Cue the music) worse!

I was and am still seriously impressed with Hapkido. I respect it beyond words. It takes strength, speed, patience and in my case a lot of stretching. In other words, it takes a heck of a long time to be even half decent at it. But, being a youngster in my early forties I should have this baby down by my eighty-third birthday tops!

Some places to learn Hapkido in the Los Angeles area include:

Kwon's Korean Hapkido School (The school mentioned in this article)
2772 W. Artesia Blvd.
Redondo Beach, California 90278
310-371-3348

Song's Hapkido West L.A.
Culver City, California 90066


Song's Hapkido School
4426 Lankershim Blvd.
West Toluca Lake, California 91602
818-760-7161