What do I think of Hapkido?

Shanghai based MMA coach and Kunlun Fight ringside commentator Ramsey Dewey answers questions from the viewers. What’s the deal with the Korean martial art of hapkido? Is hapkido any good? Are hapkido schools McDojos (or McDojangs in this case) Can hapkido practitioners do all those cool looking demo moves in a real fight? Can you use hapkido in MMA? And if not, does it really matter?

This channel features original music by Ramsey Dewey

[darthdj]

I took hapkido at my university for a year. They did sparring in deeper belts and always encouraged me to try other martial arts to get better. Pretty cool of them

[RatEmpire]

I've done hapkido and thought the blocks and blows were cool. Then I was attacked outside a pub. my training worked.
hapkido used in real life looks nothing like in the dojo. It's messy because violence is messy. but the concepts work.
I assume this is true of most martial arts so criticize none

[SatoshiEK]

I wanna see a fight between a Krav Makido master and an Ameridote master now

[dougrouse]

Hapkido black belt here to offer my two cents. I got my black belt at a not for profit club so we really never did any demos (though obviously many Hapkido clubs do). Hapkido was actually created by a Korean man who was taken to Japan as a result of the Japanese occupation of Korea, hence you see the Japanese influence. IMHO, I would say Hapkido is more a combination of Taekwondo and Judo than Taekwondo and Aikido (though we did practice wrist locks). We actually did four different types or “rounds” of sparring. First round was only kicks and punches allowed (punches to the face and kicks to the leg were allowed). Second round was Judo-style grappling. In my club however we had a lot of former wrestlers so we would typically allow double leg takedowns, etc that wouldn’t usually be allowed in Judo. Third round was ground work and fourth round was all of the above. I personally liked this because it forced you to be a well-rounded martial artist. There were people from wrestling backgrounds whose wrestling skills could often carry the day regardless but having a round dedicated just to kicks and punches meant that they would have to get out of their comfort zone.

As I’ve already alluded to, cross-training with other martial arts was welcomed and encouraged. Many of the black belts had solid backgrounds in other disciplines (wrestling, Taekwondo etc) so in my experience, it helped me to become a well-rounded martial artist. My Hapkido background translated pretty well to when I joined the MMA club as a university student, certainly no matches there were one sided (admittedly most of them were better than me on the ground).

Certainly you get clubs that focus more on forms/martial arts acrobatics, that’s really down to the head instructor. I’m personally not opposed to forms as I think it helps people learn techniques in isolation before you pressure test them and because I believe it makes training more accessible to older students. I believe any martial art has the potential to be cult-y, but I’m happy to say that wasn’t my personal experience at all with Hapkido :)

[BionicBurke]

If your Hapkido Dojang does not do full contact sparring (including grappling), find another one. Hapkido was first formed by Choi Yong-sool after his indentured servitude in Japan under the Takeda family. He was treated as family and trained in Daito Ryu Aikijujutsu. He teamed up with a TKD practitioner and a 3rd Dan Judoka when he returned to S.Korea. This became how Hapkido was formed. Power strikes from TKD, throws and locks from both Aikijujutsu and Judo, and the Newaza of Judo. Hapkido is actually used by the South Korean military. It also has techniques in many military training programs. I absolutely hate the demonstrations honestly. They really don't do it any favors. In this day and age, showing off more realistic techniques (instead of the techniques that are just ways of teaching you body mechanics) would be far more effective.

[bastiaan]

Hapkido has punches, kicks, throws, chokes, locks, ground fighting, multiple attacker fighting and weapon fighting. You're sure to pick up something new. Pick the style or styles that work for you - might as well be Hapkido.

[erikuu]

Did 15 years of HKD, did some professional mma fighting, trained in other disciplines and worked in the private and bar security field for 10, and I can say hands down HKD was the best tool I had for the type of work I did.

[ThinBlueLine]

As a black belt in Hapkido I can hopefully clear up any misconceptions about Hapkido. It derived from Daito-Ryu-Akijujitsu. Hapkido Grand Master Choi Yong-Sool, and Founder of Aikido Grand Master Morihei Ueshebi were students of Takeda Sokaku who was considered the founder of Daito-Ryu-Akijujitsu. So while Aikido, and Hapkido share some similarities they are completely different arts. To answer the persons question yes some Hapkido schools do put an emphasis on demos to promote the art. True of any art. My school, and federation do not believe in demos. The one thing I truly enjoy about Hapkido is my instructor is versed in several martial arts. I also was well versed in several arts before I took up Hapkido. As a corrections officer I have used Hapkido many, many times over the years in helping to subdue unruly inmates. So as you answered yes it can work, however it completely depends on the person.
P.S. the Mortal Kombat character you're think of is Scorpion!

[jonparker]

I am a Hapkido practitioner, I used to do some amatuer boxing as well. As a boxer I always had a hard time facing a grappler. After practicing Hapkido I was attacked by someone trying to take me down. I used a move my Hapkido instructor taught me to counter the attack, I subdued the attacker.

[TheeJordanRossi]

lol. Scorpion initially got me interested in Hapkido.

[Eidenhoek]

I hope everyone understands the difference between being a person that can fight and being a person skilled in whatever type of movements. Someone can be exceedingly proficient in Hapkido, for example, really fluid with those movements, regardless of whether or not the style is meant to be used in a fight.
That said, if it's being presented *as* useful in a fight, then it's the art being misrepresented.
To clarify the point; Magnus Carlsen is REALLY good at chess. He's, to my knowledge, not good in a fight. His lack of fighting doesn't make him bad at chess, though; even if he _thought_ chess skill was applicable in a fight, even if he believed and promoted that and trained in chess for the purpose of fighting, that wouldn't change that he's good at chess. It *would* mean he's deluded and misrepresenting what chess is really for.
Note: Assuming that chessboxing starts with the chess portion, he probably _could_ beat most people in the first minute, so technically, yes, he is REALLY good at one half of a combat sport.

[jc-kjyc]

Hapkido was my first real martial art, some Judo as a tiny kid aside, and I loved it. You're completely right, it didn't teach me how to fight, but it kickstarted my love for martial arts and it put me into shape as a teenager. I've been doing MMA for years now and didn't step into a Hapkido Dojang since around 2013, but I still remember it fondly and am really thankful for what it did for me.

[ironmikehallowween]

I studied Hapkido and was an instructor for the adult morning classes. The really good instructors taught evenings. I think it has some very good concepts. It has some fabulous TKD style kicks, as well as knees, and elbow strikes. It has a few really good Judo type throws and take downs. It has some fairly useful joint manipulations that are also utilized in jujitsu. The hand strikes are certainly not as powerful or effective as boxing, It also leaves a lot to be desired as far as submissions go. I think it can be a highly beneficial art to know, if you also combine it with Boxing, some wrestling, and or BJJ and actually train, mixing all those techniques together.

[AF-dqvn]

Thank you for bringing it out so well
Being a Hapkido instructor myself I totally see where the question is coming from.
Unfortunately some martial arts more then others have drifted from real technique to fancy demo training, similar you have in Ninjutstu for instance...
When it comes to real self defense technique [which Hapkido, Ninjutsu, Silat and so on have been created for] the techniques in these various martial arts actualy have alot of similarities and are not as pretty.

So back to the ending, training is what matters and your goal is the path...

[One_Proud_Papa]

Have studied hapkido for several years at my church under a group of teachers, each black belts in various techniques. The primary Sensei 's teaching base was in Aiki-jujutsu, judo, and Shotokan Karate. Others were BJJ, Taekwondo, and other disciplines. The idea was to give you options to use for self defense. Not everybody will be able to punch or kick their way out of trouble, perhaps they will excel at wrist or finger locks or throws. Everyone is different. The first thing they taught us was how to escape if someone grabs you. No high-flying throws or kicks, just how to escape and run away screaming for help. Then, you learn how to fall without hurting yourself. In fact, you don't learn to throw until your third belt level. Sparring doesn't start until your 4th level belt. BTW, I don't know if it's the same in other dojos, but in ours, it usually takes about a year before you level up. This is not a McDojo deal.

Oh, did I mention that this was all free? You only pay for your gi and belts, after you advance to your 2nd belt.

[tzaeru]

For a little while I was kinda in with the group dissing aikido and the likes as bullshido. And yes, some aikido guys market it dishonestly, making it bullshido. But in the end, the question is - does aggressively calling out whole styles as bullshit actually benefit anyone? Will it cause good things to happen? Will it even be neutral?

Even if someone thinks that they are learning fighting skills from aikido, but also acknowledges that fighting on da streetz would be dumb and that the best self-defense against an assault is not being in a situation where there might be an assault and second best defense is running, is it really a bad thing? If they're excited about aikido and it's the only physical exercise they really feel like is fun to do, it's not really away from me. Even if they think they're learning actual skills for physical dominance of another person.

A good point on that there will always be someone in a popular-enough style who actually knows how to fight. There's a video floating around of a bouncer doing legit aikido moves on a rowdy customer who's part of a group starting a brawl with the bouncers. In that particular case, an aikido technique (it was that classic spinny arm lock that ends up with another person on their stomach on the ground, kote gaeshi or something like that) worked. Now the small, easily neglected piece of extra context was that the bouncer who did it was also a muay thai coach and a live long martial artist with legit combat sports experience, who does aikido because he finds it peaceful and fun and useful for pacifying drunk customers. He was also a very large and strong guy, so that obviously helps.

Good video as pretty much always! Hopefully my random monologues aren't too annoying to read, I guess I just like to write my thoughts somewhere as they come when I'm watching interesting videos.

[ajaxdonqueso]

Hey! I trained hapkido for about 3 - 4 years in college (got about halfway up the belt ladder). Hapkido shares a lot in common taekwondo, aikido, and jujitsu. As it was taught to me, there were two students that both trained aiki-jujitsu. One moved to Japan, and his styles eventually developed into jujitsu and aikido. One moved/stayed in Korea, and hapkido developed from that. Hapkido draws A LOT from other styles and, like most folks have said, we practiced a lot of varying styles in my dojang. My instructor was big on training jujitsu/grappling and submissions. He went so far as to make a "house rule" that you only could win/end a sparring match if you submitted your opponent. We were encouraged to have striking skills and practice those sparring, but we as a class all knew that the fight was going to the ground eventually. Particularly in the higher belts, there was a LOT of rolling. A lot of hapkido's forms have good information and do work, and a lot of them are pretty painful. LOL. On the flip side of the coin, a lot don't make a ton of sense or aren't super practical. You have to sift through the techniques and find the ones worth applying, then use them judiciously, like any technique. My instructor and classmates all were students of several martial arts and encouraged diversifying, gaining experience, and expanding your "toolbox", as my instructor put it. Great video, great perspective. I highly enjoy your pragmatic approach to traditional martial arts. Thanks for making awesome content!

[Shrapnel]

It was a side not, but is important. A very athletic practitioner of a style could likely beat a wimpy practitioner of another style. Kabib Nurmagamedov, if restricted to aikido, fought against me, and I got to use jiujitsu, I probably wouldn't last long. He'd just make it work. If you give a trained marine corps sniper a flintlock musket, and put him against a near sighted civilian who never used a gun before, with the civilian armed with an M249 light machine gun, the marine would likely win. It doesn't mean muskets beat machine guns, but that the user matters.

An olympic gold medal wrestler against a full time accountant who tried muay Thai one Saturday night a week for 3 months would probably squash the "muay Thai fighter". That doesn't prove that muay Thai is garbage.

This is a problem of the style vs. style debate. It never controls for the practitioners' ability level.

[Punster]

Aikido and Hapkido has same Chinese characters- 合气道

[mrjamiebowman]

I'm almost a 2nd dan and I've learned quite a bit of practical self-defense from Hapkido. I find a lot of the techniques very effective at stopping an attack very quickly (.. if successfully executed properly...). A lot of the techniques are bone-breaking and debilitating. I think they could be hard to apply in some cases... The joint locks are also great at controlling and restraining subjects. It's not a fighting art but I think it could be very useful for stopping the average attacker on the streets.