Hapkido & Kung-fu

[wazzabi]

i've become very interested in learning hapkido in the past year. i started martial arts through chinese kung-fu. i was wondering if both martial arts are compatible or complimentary in any ways, or are they in fact contradictory to each other? will i have to unlearn what i've learned from kung-fu to be good at hapkido? or can i keep some of my old kung-fu habbits?

[American HKD]

i've become very interested in learning hapkido in the past year. i started martial arts through chinese kung-fu. i was wondering if both martial arts are compatible or complimentary in any ways, or are they in fact contradictory to each other? will i have to unlearn what i've learned from kung-fu to be good at hapkido? or can i keep some of my old kung-fu habbits?


Greetings

Kung Fu has hundreds of styles so your question is vague however, all MA have similarities, so some things will be similar and some things won't.

I suggest you study one MA at a time, in gerneral I believe a person should master a system before swicthing from system to system and getting limited knowledge of many arts.

"better to be a master of one, than a jack of all trades"

[Downstroke]

Hi there,

Like American HKD said, it largely depends on what style of kung fu you practice. Equally, it depends on what style of HKD you learn.

I have trained with some masters whose HKD is very Chinese in influence, while other's styles will be very similar to Japanese systems. Some HKD schools do as much kicking as TKD, while others never kick above the waist. HKD is a bit of a magpie art that takes influences from all over the place.

I would sugest that if you are interested in cross training in HKD, try to find a school that will teach you what your present kung fu school doesn't cover, eg: if your kung fu is striking orientated, find a HKD school that will compliment it with locks, throws & grappling. Other than that, just use your common sense. The principles of HKD tend to be the same throughout most schools, it's just the importance that specific techniques hold may vary.

[zac_duncan]

I've studied HKD for ten years and just recently started studying XingYiQuan for a different perspective. A lot of what I've found in XingYi fits nicely with my HKD, especially in regards to principles, though there are some technical conflicts (the punching method, for example). At the same time, I'm inclined to think that a style like Hung Gar would clash with my HKD to a point that the two would be completely incompatible.

Not knowing what style of CMA you studied, we can't say whether it'll blend well with HKD or not. Even if we did know, it would depend strongly upon the "flavor" of HKD at the school you looked into. The only way to really know is to go to the HKD school, train, and see if it works.

Good luck.

[wazzabi]

i studied Lo Han fist (a northern long-fist style based on Shaolin) and Fuqian White Crane. Lo Han had many long range punches and other long hand techniques while white crane had mostly medium to short range punches. White Crane also had many throat pokes, eye pokes, sideways chops, and only used the phoenix eye fist to punch. White Crane's blocks emphasized on redirection and needed very little strength to block. there were many circular blocks which looked like a crane's wing flapping to the side. the method of generating power to strike was the same in both styles, just hitting hard while keeping the limbs loose until the point of contact with the target, which was when you'd tense to cause damage to the target, and also breath out.

[zac_duncan]

What I know of white crane should blend well with most flavors of HKD. I think my teacher's teacher (grand-teacher?), studied a bit of white crane at some point as we use some redirection methods that look quite "craney".

In general, it sounds like it would work. The only styles that one might have to "forget" would be something like Hung Gar which (as I understand) emphasizes hardness and power.

Again, good luck.
-zac

[wazzabi]

one more thing, about the style of hapkido. it's eagle hapkido, taught by grandmaster hwang in shik. one of the reasons i want to learn hapkido is because of the reputation of this instructor. i'm just wondering if my white crane/lo han background would be compatible or conflicting with the hapkido style he teaches.

[zac_duncan]

I don't know anything about hwang-in-shik's flavor of HKD, but as far as I know he's a legit hapkido man. I don't imagine that there would be a conflict.

Still go and train with him for a bit. That should tell you a lot.

[Thomas]

i've become very interested in learning hapkido in the past year. i started martial arts through chinese kung-fu. i was wondering if both martial arts are compatible or complimentary in any ways, or are they in fact contradictory to each other? will i have to unlearn what i've learned from kung-fu to be good at hapkido? or can i keep some of my old kung-fu habbits?
Personally I think any cross training and exploration is a good thing. From what I know of CMA, I imagine the concepts and applications would fit fairly well with the concepts and applications of Hapkido.

My advice would be to discuss your past expewrience with the instructor and see if s/he can offer help in intergrating the skills and concepts. If you are looking at a short term experiment with Hapkido, I imagine you will find lots of ways that Hapkido will fit your CMA. For the long term though, you will need to learn the Hapkido concepts in depth a bit before trying to integrate the two systems. I would advise patience and focus on the core concepts before integration.