Hapkido as adjunct to TKD, & with dodgy wrist?

[Iam]

Hi all,

All being well, I should be going for my TKD BB in December, but, my self defence moves (locks & throws etc) are pretty shabby.

So, assuming I can find an instructor with no objections, with classes at times to fit in with my TKD training & so on, I'm considering training in Hapkido for (probably no more than) 6-8 months to improve that aspect of my MA training.

Does this seem like a moderately good plan, or are there major flaws in it?

Another concern, is one of my wrists ain't quite right ... I broke the thing a few times as a kid, it's not quite straight, & (best explanation any doc has given me) one of the ligaments is knackered. Which means that twisted/with weight on it in the wrong way/direction, the head of the ulna pops out of place (only moves about half an inch though), I go ouch, & I drop anything I'm carrying.

It pops straight back in again, but it's not exactly fun, & the more times it happens, the more unstable the joint becomes. Now, it's not a problem with TKD (that said, 20 yrs ago it was bad enough that just the normal snapping motion of a knife hand block would cause me gyp) ... I know how the damned thing works & I go months without popping it, plus, with the wrist locks etc we practise in TKD, I wear a brace on it, & take care, have my partners take care, & (mostly) have them practise on the perfectly normal right wrist.

I can breakfall & do rolls with it, press ups on it, do weights with it, & (with a bit of care) punch the bag & break boards with it (though not as full on as with the good wrist).

I guess this will be something for discussion with any instructor, but is that wrist problem a bar to training in Hapkido?


Other than that, a couple of curious questions if I may ...

Do you do hip twist or sine wave movement with Hapkido, and, what is the usual type of sparring like?

Thanks.

[Kraen]

Your wrist is your own health; only you (and a certified healthcare worker) can make the call on that.

There is no such thing as sine wave in Hapkido. As little movement as possible is preferred. Sparring is light-contact anything goes as opposed to full contact, limited rules.

Well. At least that's how it is at my club.

-Kraen

[Mitch]

Hi all,

All being well, I should be going for my TKD BB in December, but, my self defence moves (locks & throws etc) are pretty shabby.

Without wishing to start any form of argument, your primary skills for self defence are awareness based, then they are verbal, they should include decent use of a fence under pressure and then pre-emptive striking or flinch/cover block followed by striking. Locks and throws are a worthwhile area of study and fascinating in themselves (I choose Judo for my study and love every minute of it) but they are a support system to the primary physical self defence skills, which are striking.

As an ITF stylist you should be concentrating on punches, elbows, forearm strikes etc etc which you are familiar with. I suspect you will have to abandon or heavily modify sine wave to make them work in a SD setting however.

Beyond that I think Hapkido would be an excellent art to invest time in.

Mitch

[Coges]

No sine wave in Hapkido but we do have (what we call at our club) rhythm. It's basically a way of disrupting your opponents balance. Either up and down or circular or both. Not in the way that proceeds a technique like sine wave though.

I think it's a great idea to supplement your training. Especially if you feel there is one area that you are lacking in. 6-8 months may not be enough time though. To be any good at joint locks you have to learn a whole heap of them, pick the ones that suit you best and then drill them over and over and over. Just the same as anything else. I think you might find your timeline restricting in this aspect. Also, does your club teach any locks at all?

Some clubs have full contact sparring and some clubs have none. It depends on what's around you.

On the wrist, good luck. There is nothing worse than training Hapkido with a crook wrist. It's the one part of the body that gets a full workout in every class. Obviously when you're doing the technique you're not going to hurt your wrist but it'd be a pretty one sided affair if you never got thrown due to your wrist (I had a training partner like this once where I had to accomodate for his injured wrist. It caused bad muscle memory as I had to grab lower down his forearm so as not to hurt him).

[SsangKall]

how about boxing? you modify your stance, pick up your hands, tuck your chin, and then you have a whole new range and arsenal of high percentage moves.

i find myself using the dirty judo techniques in self defense, but it only became a reflexive response after years (not months) of practise and getting beat in the dojang (boxing in the morning, submission wrestling after kung jung mu sul class at night 2x/week)

[Iam]

Thanks all.

I'll have a hunt around for a class, see what's available.

[Iam]

Sorry, failed to answer the question re my club, rude of me.

Yep, we do practise locks, escape/release movements, & takedowns ... these are a required part of gradings, generally practised in one class in every three.

(My standard is pretty poor, despite this, as when/where I initially trained, this was virtually no part of the syllabus).

Thanks again all.