Absolutely, positively right....and this is the heart and soul of the Western "academic" approach to teaching. In fact, such an approach is so inculcated in our pedagogy that going back to the original Confucian approach is often considered confusing and primitive by comparison. However, my own teacher was still heavily influenced by the Confucian Model as are the more traditional practices of, say, the Japanese RYU-HA systems. The poor Korean culture has had Sooooo many headaches in wanting to keep its traditional values and practices but knowing that modernization is necessary. I'm sure their collective back-sides are red and sore from rocking back and forth sitting on the fence, as it were. In fairness, though, let me also say this. The traditional practices of martial arts are founded in military science and behaviors. These behaviors and practices tended to be limited in number to the most basic and effective that one might teach a new recruit before using him in a military action. We MA practitioners have the luxury of embellishing, ruminating upon, waxing poetic and even mixing-and-matching practices from many places. For instance the original 32 methods of General Qi's "Boxing Canon" identified 32 ways of using the body for unarmed combat. The General left it to his drill instructors to teach the recruits what the actual techniques were for each of the methods. All HE did was identify the method that the trooper ought to be familiar with. Since then, however, some methods have become practices in their own right and some have probably been forgotten. See what I mean? We modern-day practitioners have the freedom to play-around with stuff that used to be a matter of life-and-death. Thoughts? Best Wishes, Bruce
based on what i can tell so far about bjj....it's about performing in randori and competition. this is just my impression so far in the club i'm with, which i suspect is pretty common in bjj dojo. little different from where i received my hapkido black belt. like anything, there are people more serious than others. maybe an online martial arts course is a bit, yes, greedy or commercial. but based on what i've seen of bjj in a few months, there aren't going to be many people making black belt, or any belt, that have not put the work in.
Giovanni, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is a great art and makes a for great cross training if you do hapkido. It is my opinion that training in BJJ makes your hapkido and Kuk Sool locks better, not because the hapkido locks need to be changed, but because students understand principles of standing body positioning better after learning positioning on the ground. I believe that training non-compliantly in some areas will help you realize how to actually apply some of the hapkido techniques that are harder to control (that is to say, practice full speed without injury). Also, if you do a hapkido lock and it doesn't work two things will happen. You will either face a punch or a tackle. That's why two arts I cross train in are BJJ and western boxing, but as I said I do not include these as rank requirements in my hapkido curriculum What is also great about BJJ is the philosophy. Few people remember it now, but one of the original reasons that the Gracie's promoted their art through the UFC was to show that it was possible to end a fight by submission without excess damage to one's opponent. far cry from the "ground and pound" mentality MMA changed to. Back on topic, has anyone that comes from a hapkido background that does not use hyung (forms/kata) decided to introduce a forms into their curriculum. If so, why and which ones did you use? (Bruce, I think I remeber some old posts where you commented on this).
actually convergencezone....i have found that my hapkido training has served me very well in both bjj and aikido. i was already training non-compliantly with some fellows at my dojang. my bjj gym also teaches muay thai. i'm interested in how my former kick and striking practice fits into the thai art.
One of my future projects is to write out a progression of non-compliant drills for use with standing joint-locks (that actually use hapkido, not BJJ) . I already do this, but it is not in a standard progression. My instructor called it "Su Sparring", where you baiscally stand and grip each others doboks and fight for standing locks. We also allowed locks in free sparring. I do have specific drills I use to work up to this, but I'm always on the lookout for further ways to teach non-compliance through progressive drills before getting peole into sparring. Any ideas? In college I used to do Kyokushin, and more recently I used cross train in Muay Thai, but can't find the time anymore. wish I could, but am getting kind of old for that sort of thing anyway.
my friends and i never did anything very organized. it was more like a judo match, gripping throwing etc. or, later, we would try to attack in any way, and elicit a response. that was pretty difficult because you have to trust yourself and your partner.
Bruce, Again, kind of off topic, but I was interested in the 32 method boxing cannon you mentioned, and a google search turned up this article that I thought might be of interest http://www.aikidojournal.com/?id=2610
I need to answer two ways on this one, C-V. One way is how I was trained and the other way is what I have done with it. My late teacher developed 5 forms which embody the major principles of his take on Hapkido. Since he was originally trained by JI Han Jae I suppose a case can be made that the SIN MOO Hapkido is likewise represented to some extent. The problem with these forms is that they also reflect Myung's experience with KONGSOODO, and then, only the more Japanese side of things. I've really come to have a problem with the more JUDO-esque side of things. Waaay too much like wrestling when all is said and done. So I keep and teach the forms because they reflect my teacher's take on things. OTOH I have also realized that there needs to be a balanced approach towards transitions, fluidity, balance and the interface between using biomechanics for striking/kicking and the same movements for grappling and even armed material. For these I find that the Chinese forms are much better and this may be where the KUK SOOL people have a training advantage. But for folks who want to stick with the Japanese approach they can still learn the SHOREI forms such as SUPERANPEI, SEISAN, SAIFA and so forth. The KYOKUSHIN people use these as well as the common SHORIN Kata and I don't think it has done them any harm. ;-) Best Wishes, Bruce
bruce...i think jigoro kano would also agree; this is the beauty of judo. the way i was taught judo was that kata, randori, and shiai are all equally important. kano postulated that judo was a martial art, not a sport only. cheers.
