Hello all, I have primarily been a Japanese martial arts practitioner but have always had interest in and respect for Hapkido. Having been aware of Combat Hapkido for sometime through magazine articles (yes, I know that CH is a different creature from Trad. HKD) I recently dropped in on their website the other day with thoughts of purchasing some of their materials to use for ideas to use with my own martial art of Aikido. I noticed that they have videos for rank requirements and appear to offer rank certification (essentially distance learning). This brought some questions I'd like to ask of any of Combat Hapkido folks here. 1) Have any of you actually obatained rank through studying the videos without an instructor and successfully obtained black belt rank. 2) For those of you who have had formal instruction in the system, have you ever been present for any of the tests by such individuals or know any practitioners who have gained rank in this manner? What was your impression of their skill and understanding of the art? I would assume that those with previous martial arts experience might well be able to develop some skill in the system through the video materials and a training partner. Anyhoo, just curious. Thanks in advance for your input!
Greetings - I am a 4th dan in Combat Hapkido who regularly instructs the art at our own school. No. I haven't met any Combat Hapkido people who have earned rank this way either (they may exist but I've never met any that I am aware of). No. To be honest, I really like the video sets that are available through the ICHF but see them as more of a "reference set" for classroom instruction than as stand-alone materials that will "instruct" a student. Granted, working through the material with a partner and learning it can probably work for a great deal of the material, providing that you have a background in the underlying priciples (footwork, etc) of Hapkido or a similar art, but I still don't see a person going from "zero" to black belt without an instructor. That said, we now have a couple of people (black belts in other arts) who live a bit far away for regular class attendance who have chosen to purchase the videos and work through the material with a training partner. They come to class periodically (once a month or so) and work through specific requirements and bring up questions with the instructors. We haven't graded anyone yet through this but so far it looks promising. The video set is a good reference to the requirements, which if used in conjunction with an instructor, can be very good. Here's a link to a review I did of the ICHF tapes along with a discussion along similar lines as your question. Feel free to bring up any questions you'd like and I'll try to answer to the best of my ability.
Hi THomas, Thanks for the response. I guess using videos only for training would be a little like learning to speak Korean but never having much opportunity to actually converse with a native speaker. For the folks you mentioned who are using the videos because they are too far away to get regular instruction but close enough to drop in on occassion for training and clarification have probably the most ideal situation for successful distance learning. On the subject of Combat Hapkido, from the video clips I've seen, they appear to be pretty good quality and can probably provide some good ideas to work with. Would be great to make one of Pellegrini's seminars - will have to keep an eye on the website for any that are within easy driving distance.
As someone who came into the ICHF back in the 90's while Combat Hapkido was still relatively young, I would estimate that the majority of the 1st Generation ICHF Instructors obtained their Black Belts from the ICHF Homestudy option. All the instructors I knew at that time had purchased the videos, made a video of themselves, and sent the video in to be reviewed by Grandmaster Pellegrini. The training was also supplemented by attending an ICHF Double Impact Seminar, or something similar. I am not assuming that every ICHF Blackbelt started out from video testing, but it would be safe to say many did. This has changed nowadays, as there are more ICHF schools available to train at. Stay Safe, Train Hard! Jeff Brown American Freestyle Hapkido Association www.afha-hapkido.yolasite.com
