Is hapkido similar to Judo?

[kungfufighter]

I was just wondering if this MA was like Judo where you have a lot of grappling and locks and throws and stuff.

[Coges]

There are probably heaps of threads to explain Hapkido, but I'll give it a go for you.

Hapkido encompasses (without getting into the debate of traditional vs. non-trad) various strikes, kicks, joint locks, breaks, controlling techniques, weapons (both use for and against), ground fighting and breakfalls.

From my limited knowledge the areas that may seem similar b/w Hapkido and Judo are probably quite different. Others can probably add more info as I have had no real experience with Judo.

[AndyShaw]

The Durham University HKD club's website has this interesting page comparing it with other martial arts:
http://www.dur.ac.uk/hapkido.club/menu.htm

[korg20kbc]

Hello,
Interesting question.

I'd say that hapkido and Judo are very different and should not be studied at the same time as each other.

Why?

Judo's body movement system is based on the flexion of arms and body or a pulling movement with the arms and torso (biceps, upper back and abdominal strength).

Hapkido movement is based on extension of the arms and torso (triceps, deltoids and lower back muscles like erector spinae)

It may seem that you'd get a good complimentary workout from doing both systems but, I believe, you'd end up doing neither well.

yah

[Juego Todo]

This is just a little addition to what everybody else has already mentioned. I'm sure that there are other threads out there addressing this topic or similar, as well as better contributions than mine. Nevertheless, here it goes; please bear with me.

In my mind, I loosely compare hapkido (Korean) to jujutsu (Japanese), just like taekwondo to karate, similarly with the Trans-Am to the Camaro Z28 of the 70s & 80s. There are similarities and, yet, there are those things that make them distinctly separate.

It's been said that a lot of the Japanese arts (dare I include some Korean?!?) originated from jujutsu, going on to focus on one part of the total fighting system (e.g. striking aspect became karate; upper-body grappling aspect became aikido; traditional weapons aspect became kobudo; etc.). Having said this, hapkido & jujutsu are similar in that they both incorporate striking and grappling. Jujutsu & judo are also similar due to the fact that the latter derived from the former. However, IMHO, although jujutsu seems to be the common element, hapkido & judo seem to be more different than similar.

Hapkido uses techniques similar to aikido's shiho-nage, sankyu, etc. Even the meanings of hapkido & aikido are similar when translated into English. Still, hapkido retains its Korean distinction of having a considerable kicking arsenal whereas aikido really has no hitting other than for the purpose of adding a distraction (e.g. backfist strike) before attacking an upper limb, etc.

As we have learned, Japan's occupation of Korea had influenced the latter's martial arts. For example, Korea fashioned one grappling art after Japanese judo and thus called it yudo. It also adapted to kendo and called it kumdo. Even the original taekwondo (not its parent art of taekyon) under General Choi Hong Hi (before the split between ITF & WTF when all of them were simply TKD) had its exponents wearing Japanese-like dobok and its patterns/hyungs (the Chon-Ji series) were originally similar to Japanese katas.

Back to the original question:

While it's possible that hapkido could have been influenced by jujutsu (somebody out there can confirm this thought's validity or invalidity), judo has derived from jujutsu yet it looks nothing like hapkido except for perhaps a few throws (e.g. o-goshi, ippon seoi-nage, etc.) and arm-locks.

Judo has throws, takedowns, groundwork, strangles & locking submissions or holds but it has no atemi/strikes, except in its self-defence or kata applications.

Hapkido, on the other hand, has many strikes with the whole body using the circular hitting concept for power derivation, as well as grappling, but no real focus on groundwork (unlike judo) if at all.

Hope this wasn't too confusing. Cheers...

[bearhug]

Great post.

I would like to add that in judo most techniques start with unbalancing opponent, whereas in Hapkido most throws rely on joint locks and pain compliance.