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Jointlock
27-Sep-2003, 10:17 PM
This post was inspired by some of the things that were said in the skin toughining thread.

While idealistically we as hapkido practitioners want to flow, harmonize and use circular techniques it is not always possible, you may not always have time to step out of the way. Also in our school we talk alot about Um and Yang (Yin/Yang in Japanese) and the opposites that Hapkido is comprised of.

Um: being the more soft, flowing, circular, mental aspects

Yang: being the hard, distancing, angled, physical aspects

Hapkido is comprised of opposites in the techniques and the theories. We practice the "Wae Gong" phyiscal techniques (Yang) and we practice "Nae Gong" meditation and ki breathing(Um). We do punches and kicks(yang), and flowing throws and jointlocks(Um). You can go further and say that a crescent kick which is circular and has no focus is um, and a side kick which is very linear and focused is yang.

Also the theories of Hapkido have opposites which we practice:

"Yoo" Flowing as in water (Um) is the opposite of "Kang" Hard as steel (Yang) which when you make a focused kick and tighten your stomach and your whole body for that split second you want to be hard.

"Won" Circular theory (Um) is the opposite of "Kak" angles (Yang). A lot of the foot work that we do has to do with stepping to the side and then coming into the opponent and delivering angular kicks, also the different angles of the jointlocks.

"Hwa" Harmony or nonresistance (Um) is the opposite of "Kan" distance (Yang) Keeping the proper distance from the opponent so they cannot hit you instead of melding with their techniques.

Thomas
29-Sep-2003, 03:55 PM
Nice post... well articulated. I do think that sometimes we tend to focus our idea of Hapkido as being defensive and full of joint locks and we sometimes forget to see the offensive side. The idea of opposites really is key in Hapkido (althouh you could argue this a spart of the circle theory and say that there are no opposites, just a different spot on the circle of that attribute.)