about starting Hapkido at the age of 50. Convince me why I should. BTW, my martial arts background is Nidan in Judo, Purple Belt in BJJ
Why Hapkido? I was thinking the same as above - are you still training Judo & BJJ? I guess this is to add striking to your skillset? But if that is the case Hapkido is one of many styles.
I moved to a new area and haven't found a BJJ gym that I gel with yet. I've been wanting to get involved in another style of martial arts for quite a while now.
Like I said above, I just moved to a new state, haven't found a BJJ gym that I like yet. I would definitely like to add striking to my skill set. I have no experience with striking.
Well, more like asking for advice. My age being a major concern right now. I've had multiple injuries from decades of training and competing. There's a Hapkido school 10 minutes from my house and basically don't really know anything about the art. No better place to go to than a Hapkido forum?
Depends what you are looking for and what is in your area. As far as Hapkido goes, I like it a lot and would imagine there would be a lot of cross over concepts to both Judo and BJJ, making it fairly easy to pick up the techniques. Usually in Hapkido, we do a lot of breakfalls, strikes and kicks, standing grappling, and throws. The core operating system is well suited to flexibility and the art works well from a self defense perspective of 'levels of force', being able to escalate from a low level of force to a higher level, with a lot of play in between. There is a lot of variety in Hapkido schools, with various 'kwans' focusing on different elements of the art. Some do more acrobatic breakfalls, and some fewer. Some do more resistance than others and some build in various weapons (especially short stick and cane). Very few have patterns to learn. Age shouldn't be an issue, but if you have injuries that limit you, let the instructors and partners know ahead of time. My advice would be to stop in and see if you can do a few trial classes and see if it fits what you like. Edit - If you have specific questions, fell free to ask and I will try to answer as best as possible. I trained in traditional HKD through 2nd dan and then in Combat Hapkido through 6th dan
Never done it but I have a really good but really expensive book about it on my shelf - the encylopidea of hapkeado. Its not kung fu but it does have a lot to offer. as always in practice more about the instructor and the club than the art.
seems a little obtuse to me to be doing hapkido as a judoka and grappler. if you want to learn striking, i would say join a boxing gym, not hapkido. or a muay thai gym, also not hapkido. btw i say all this as a black belt in hapkido and a blue belt in bjj
why - because the encyclopaedia of hapkido is a brilliant book and I picked it up in a closing down sale for £15 quid.
You can always try anything, but missing it's sparring component, and dodgy nature of some (not all) clubs, it's likely to be a waste of time. And considering there's a pandemic on, you'd be better off doing yoga at home for a few months, before going to any classes anyway.
I would say give Hapkido a go, do 5-10 classes and see how you feel at that point? You might not even like the instructor. Just go and try it, though as Dead_Pool says perhaps wait until the pandemic dies down.
This is a really good point. I have people asking to join my TKD classes and, of course, I welcome them. But I'm almost embarrassed to bring them in at the moment because we aren't able to do the padwork and contact work that form such a big portion of my classes. As a TMA class we obviously have linework and patterns too, which I also love, but without pads, sparring, and self defence work I just can't show people what we're really about so they can make an informed decision.
If your base is judo/bjj it will skyrocket your hapkido effectiveness, especially for self defense encounters and you'll probably have less injuries. All the while, you'll learn new techniques that will fit easily with what you've already learned. so less injuries, more learning. Are you in California OP? There are some schools better than others but California has some authentic schools. Kim's Hapkido schools under the curriculum of Chong S Kim maybe of interest as well as the group carrying for Bong Soo Han at his Santa Monica Location. You might also want to look at hankido, which is in buena park. Hankido is a hapkido derivative that has a lot of innovative elements. Different Hapkido schools have different striking methods and specialize more in kicking, sweeps and footwork. Few have outstanding hand strikes or punches imo. the han pul group was interesting but i haven't found anything confirming that they continue to exist. If punching is essentially to you, then i'd probably look at a boxing school.
You may want to consider what you will do 20, or 30 years from today. When training partner is not available, what will a judo guy, BJJ guy, or Aikido guy do daily during old age (such as 70, or 80)?
I think you should if you want to. I was a Sandan in ****oryu Karate' 35 years ago and had studied Judo and Japanese Jiu Jitsu, as well as many others. I drifted away from it, got old, overweight and out of shape (which it seems you are not). But six months ago I started training in Muay Thai and BJJ at age 68. I love it! I don't think 50 should be a problem at all for someone with your background. My advice would be take it slow. Different arts stress the body in different ways and just because you can work wonders in Judo and BJJ, you can still get injured in a new art if you go at it with your usual pace. Get back in touch with that "beginner's mind." Also to that end, do more warm-ups and stretching than usual at first. Finally, forget about what you know from other arts at first. You are not giving up your skills in those arts, but if you try to apply them in the new art, it can stunt your learning.
i agree overall. i def don't think judo or bjj will stunt his learning though for hkd but that's just personal opinion
