Difference between Combat Hapkido and Regular Hapkido?

Our place does teach stick fighting. I've done it a little bit, just for fun. It seems very interesting. Really though, people actually walk around with these sticks? I guess it's better than knives but it just seems odd lol.

 

yeah, my instructor said the exact same thing actually.

 

One thing I really like about having basic knowledge of using sticks is that they are the easiest weapon to find and/or improvise. I don't train in sword or sais or nunchuks or whatever because the chance is pretty small that if I need one, I can find one. It's very easy to get a single stick (handle, rolled up magazine, etc)

Yes, the cross over is amazing.

In Combat Hapkido, it is an add-on system (although it is highly recommended). It supplements the Hapkido core system exceptionally well. The downside is that you may not always have a high level stick guy around to supervise curriculum and instruction. In the federation in the past, people have come and went. When the federation has a guy (like Bobby Taboada and Julius Melegrito), we see loads of seminars and video resources. When we don't it's up to individual schools to seek this material out.

For (black belt) rank testing in Combat Hapkido, the appropriate level of empty hand material is required. At the dan ranks, it is recommended that students add on other components to round out skills, e.g., stick/knife, cane, 'combat throws', pressure points, weapons disarming, Police Defensive Tactics, ground survival, short stick, and so on. There is a lot of leeway left to individual schools (e.g., our school requires the basic level of ground survival for 1st dan, and we also require basics of weapons disarming and in eskrima stick use). Alot of it revolves around the strengths of individual instructors (and many come from other systems).

 

I'm going to look more into it. Our instructor has 2 places... one of them is a bit to far for me to travel which I think is where they do the stick training. I'll have to find out if he is at my place during the week sometime.

 

Where are you based? (I'm sure you mentioned it earlier but I can't be bothered to search for it!)

 

I'm in Md. on the eastern shore... the western shore is where ALL of the schools seem to be, but it's over an hour for me to go over there, and with our schedule, that just doesn't work.

 

Clearly a stand-in. You can tell it's not Hannibal by the lack of Tapout/Affliction bling.

 

Funnily enough I thought about that when I was shooting it!!! Ill make up for it on the next one!

 

nice hair by the way :evil:

 

As mentioned I did CH within Progressive Hapkido, with input from JKD and kali via Ollie Batts in Cambridge and we did lock flows almost identical to Hannibal's vid.
There were differences obviously but in structure it was very similar to that. Good vid.

 

Thats my "War Hair" - I don't get much choice in styles at work so I go a bit nuts away from it!

 

I have a lot of hair, but I just don't grow it. It's much easier to just buzz it and be done lol.

 

On another note, I had class last night, which went well. I remembered all of my movements and aside from just a tweak here and there, they want me to test for my orange belt (which if anyone here doesn't know doesn't really mean anything lol it's just the second belt up), but I told them to make sure when I tested that if I didn't do everything perfect to fail me. I don't want to just move along through the belts.

Question for Thomas: Do you feel when it comes to moving up further that it's best to try to remember each move, or does it all just wind up getting used as you get higher and into the more real life situation type stuff?

It's sort of hard to explain... for instance... what I am doing for the orange belt, ie. the corkscrew, the arm dislocate, etc. Does that all come up again later in the higher ranks, but you are just getting prepared for it by doing ... well baby steps I guess would be the phrase?

 

If you trust your instructor/s (which you should if you're paying them to teach you to fight), then don't insult them by telling them how to grade you. Trust that their judgement is both more informed than yours, and in your best interests.

 

Might as well give up grading then. No one is perfect. A grading isn't testing you for perfection but skill and understanding.

 

Great questions - I will try to give some insight as best I can...

Orange belt is actually a really important rank - the first four belts (yellow, orange, green, and purple) contain the bulk of the basic strikes/kicks, breakfalls, footwork, movement, and key techniques. There is a lot to put together at each rank.

As someone else said, 'trust your instructor' in their evaluation. By seeing how you perform, the instructor is looking to see what is good and what needs work. It can take a long time to become really good at even some of the beginning techniques - as long as your progress is good at this point, you will probably pass (and you will be fine tuning those techniques throughout the rest of your studies anyway).

Generally the lower belt ranks (yellow-purple) tend to spend more time on learning the basics and applying them in fairly straight-forward ways. Hopefully, you'll get some variety in drills, sparring, partner work, etc, but for the most part it is about learning the very core material. From blue and up, it seems to get easier in a way - the material comes to you quicker and it all fits together. Usually around 2nd and 1st geup (last two ranks before 1st dan), we see it start to "come together" for students - the footwork and the distractions and the smoothness, and the beginning of being able to react quicker when something goes wrong.

When we "test", we tend to run students through the curriculum "by the number" (partnered up and go through each category and technique to their level) to make sure students know (and can do) all of the techniques right back to yellow belt and up to their current level. We then intersperse drills, sparring, applications into that format for the formal test. We do a lot of informal evaluation in class to watch how people are developing, but we do expect students to know all of the material for each grade from beginning to current.

Actually, if you dissect the curriculum up to 1st dan, there are only really about 23 distinct techniques (not counting strikes, kicks, breakfalls) and at each level, the techniques repeat themselves in new settings with new angles variations, and applications. The first two joint locks at yellow belt (defenses against same side wrist grab) come up time and again throughout the curriculum (even into 4th dan)... just in different entries, variations, and so on.

 

Ok excellent, thanks for that info.

 

Thomas, does your place charge for testing/moving to the next belt?

 

Yes, we do. If I recall, we charge $30 for testing (includes certificate and belt). These prices can vary by school. We also require that people are an active member of the ICHF (which has a renewable fee for the year).

On the instructor/charter side - the charter holder has to register all promotions with the ICHF and submit paperwork and a fee to the federation. To test for higher grades, these are supposed to be in order at the federation.

For students who wish to train without grading, they just pay tuition.