Hapkido and Temple Stay
Last night I had my first Hapkido lesson. I did some stretching, and learned some falls and rolls. I'm still sore! At the end of the class we were supposed to do 70 pushups, but I could only manage 35 and then my arms went all noodly.
After class everyone pitches in to clean up the dojang.
Although I joined the "adult" class which goes from 9-10pm, none of the other students is over 16. In Korea kids commonly take some form of martial art training, but once they get to school most stop. The average high school student here just doesn't have time for much of anything besides school. Once they reach adulthood most Koreans rarely engage in such training. Adult Koreans seem to prefer activities such as hiking in the mountains, and playing volleyball or badminton.
The lessons cost $70/month, but that's for training 5 days/week. The club is open 24 hours/day for anyone who wants to workout.
I'm lucky because the owner/teacher (who everyone calls Kangjangnim) at this school in little old Chilwon is a relatively famous former national Hapkido champion. He's very nice and a very good teacher. When I first met him in February he brought me to his house to have supper with his family. I wanted to wait till I had lost some weight and was in better shape to begin training. And here we are.
The belts in Hapkdo...one starts off with #10 Gup and works their way down to 1. At that point you're ready to test for your first degree black belt (dan). Training 5 days/week it's definitely possible to go from beginner to first degree black belst in about a year.
Why did I choose Hapkido over Taekwondo? Taekwondo is a sport that relies almost entirely, and I think to its detriment, on extremely flashy kicks. They look very impressive and I admire the skill it takes to execute them, but to me it just doesn't make any sense to try to kick someone who's a foot away from you. Hands are much faster in closeup situations. Taekwondo relies on keeping your opponent away, at least kicking distance away, but what if your opponent gets through your defenses and puts you in a hold of some sort? And again, Taekwondo is a sport. Hapkido on the other is an art. It's a complete self-defense system that doesn't exclude any weapons, i.e. elbows, knees, locks, grabs, holds, joint control, kicks and punches. It has pretty much all the kicks of taekwondo, plus the close-up fighting you find in aikido or judo.
While I never have and don't feel the least bit threatened here, I wanted something that would help me get into really good shape, and this is it. The fact that it's also a very effective means of self-defense is just a bonus.
For those who are interested here's some history on Hapkido....
Hapkido is known as The Royal Korean Martial Art due to its main influences being those arts that were used to protect the royal families and significant religious figures of the Korean Dynasties.
One should understand that Hapkido was not created or invented by a single individual. It was developed over hundreds of years by thousands of people as part of the history of the Korean Peninsula.
This evolution of Korean martial arts dates back to 3 A.D. The era of the three kingdoms. During that time several different native Korean martial arts emerged. Each one specialised in a particular discipline in much the same way that Taekwondo focuses mainly on kicking today.
This evolution continued up until 1910 when it stopped until 1945. During this time Korea was occupied by Japan and all native Korean arts, particularly the martial arts were suppressed. Only Japanese arts were permitted to be practiced.
Once Korea was liberated the old arts started to re-emerge having been practiced in secret all those years.
It was then that the man who is commonly known as the founder of Hapkido returned to Korea from Japan where he had been taken during the occupation. His name was Choi Yong-Sool. There is much debate about Choi's life. Some say he was taken to Japan as a servant, others as a student, there are no records to support any one argument.
But what is known is that while in Japan he studied the art known today as Aikido.
On his return to Korea he noticed many similarities between Aikido and the native Korean martial arts. Choi then studied under many different Masters of the native Korean arts, remember each one being a different discipline. He gathered their techniques together.
He then combined these techniques into the art we know today as Hapkido. He decided on this name after first using several others.
Choi Yong-Sool had many students, more than some other Hapkido Grand Masters, outside Korea, would have us believe. Some even openly take credit for founding the art.
In Korean Hapkido has a similar meaning to Aikido in Japanese and many Japanese would claim that Choi just copied Aikido. The truth is that there are many elements in Hapkido that are not anywhere to be found in the Aikido syllabus.
Despite all the politics, claims and counter claims. Hapkido has flourished throughout the world. It is now one of the fastest growing and most practical self-defence martial arts in the world. It is versatile and offers the students a lot of variety in their training, it is adaptable and not bound by impractical rules.
For this reason it will continue to go from strength to strength in the future.
My temple stay? Unfortunately there is no temple stay program at TongDoSa temple for foreigners. However, a friend of mine found another temple that has a very flexible schedule. It's at a temple called Haeinsa near Daegu. It's about 2 hours from where I live. I'll do it after my trip to China, probably from August 28-30. It only costs about $10 per day.
Here's a couple of links...
Temple Stay
Recollections
My next article will contain some new photos - I promise.
Take care
Pierre
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