It seems that few people know about this martial art, although it's what I've been studying 12 hours a week for the past year and a half. Anyway, there seem to be a lot of people from time to time who badmouth it, for various reasons, although it seems that no one really knows too much about it. I thought I'd post some of the criticisms I've heard on this forum (from doing searches) and responses. Kuk Sool Won doesn't allow you to train in other martial arts: As far as I know, this isn't true. Two of our blackbelts, and myself, also train in Taiji. We have several people who are in Tae Kwon Do as well. Our fourth degree blackbelt, who trained under Kuk Sa Nim for a while, continued doing Tae Kwon Do for a few years while learning Kuk Sool Won. The history isn't what it claims to be: I don't think Kuk Sool Won makes quite the same claims about its history as Hwarang Do, which seems to strongly state there is a connection to the Hwarang warriors. The Kuk Sool textbook vol. I does mention Hwarang warriors, as well as various other Korean groups, but doesn't claim any specific connection to them. Kuk Sa Nim's (In Hyuk Suh's) grandfather, supposedly did train the Korean military in martial arts somewhere around the late 19th/early 20th century, so KSW does claim some connection to Korean military arts - perhaps somewhat unjustifiedly. The connections it tries to make to family/tribal martial arts and temple arts may actually be due more to Chinese and Japanese influence than anything else. However, Kuk Sool Won, at master level, does teach horseback sword fighting, which is definitely related to military training. Also, several of the weapons forms are actually reconstructed (and are still in the process of being reconstructed) from ancient Korean manuals, which I haven't seen, but supposedly a few blackbelts from my club have. In fact, in Davenport, every year, Sa Bum Nim Jan Butler has a little clinic/tournament, where various things like knife defense, and other interesting topics are tought. Every year, also, master Jack Harvey, from St. Louis, who is working on one of the long staff forms comes in to teach the latest version. Every year, it's slightly different. Also, the ideal length for a long staff keeps changing, since the conversion from whatever units are used in the old manual to feet is rather difficult to determine. It should be noted, though, that all of these things are usually not taught until around 4th degree blackbelt, and everything below that is much less ambigious in how it should be done. KSW doesn't usually claim that all of its techniques have this ancient heritage. When I was tought oue bohk soo, I was told that it was developed mainly as a defense against Judo. Certain other things, like parts of Maek Chigi/Maek Chagi were developed as a defense against Tae Kwon Do. Kuk Sool Won is just Hapkido with forms: Well, this is partly true. I suspect that much of Kuk Sool Won was taken directly from Hapkido with little or no modification at all. However, there are a few points: 1. Hapkido has not remained very standardized over the years. Kuk Sool Won has. So, some of the Hopkido out there today, if it is more like the original Hapkido, may be a lot like KSW. Some of it, however, may be very different. 2. Traiditional Hapkido does not include weapons (I believe) or grappling. Kuk Sool Won does. Any versions of Hapkido with weapons or grappling would have had to come after Kuk Sool Won was developed, so Kuk Sool Won did not merely copy them. 3. At master level, there are a lot of unqiue things, like horseback sword fighting, that Hapkido doesn't teach. 4. Well, as was said before, we do have forms - maybe that's not so exciting, but they're the coolest looking forms this side of Kung Fu And on Gary Goodridge: A UFC competitor who entered under the art "Kuk Sool Won" but had never really studied it, and supposedly was awarded a 4th degree blackbelt just for UFC. For the record, the Canadian schools at the time (I don't know about now) were not actually part of the parent Kuk Sool Won organization. Some master or other had broken off and copyrighted Kuk Sool Won in Canada, and started his own organization there. The 4th degree black belt that was given to Goodridge was not given to him by Kuk Sa Nim, or the Kuk Sool Won association. Edit: Oh, I almost forgot this one. Your uniforms are just so. . . flashy, and you guys jump around a lot Well, the flashy uniforms are only used by blackbelts for demonstrations and other events. In practice, they wear plain black dobohks, sometimes with a small trim around the bottom. And there's not nearly as much jumping around or acrobatics as some people seem to think. Maybe other schools do more of that, but not at mine. We don't even really do that stuff in demos. There is a lot of falling, though, and we do occassionally do some acrobatics during warmups (cartwheels mostly), but probably not as much as we should.
I can post a link to a really crappy vid of myself doing my form as a white belt. I've gotten way better since then, though.
Go right ahead, though I can't reciprocate; My white-belt TKD stuff is on VHS and I don't know how to transfer it
Ok. . . this is me as a white belt, doing my form. This is back when we used to go all the way over to Huff Hall after practice to grapple (now we just go to the combat room - scary sounding place), so this isn't where we usually practice. Keep in mind I look **MUCH** better now, doing this form than I did back then. The end is pretty cool, though. https://netfiles.uiuc.edu/tapetrsn/www/Mark.MPG
Hehe, I found this there, too, from last year. Me grappling, as a yellow belt. The bluebelt was from Davenport, where they focus heavily on grappling, so I'm not too ashamed. I don't know why I'm posting this - I just found it in the same place, on a friends netfiles account. https://netfiles.uiuc.edu/tapetrsn/www/MOV09691.MPG
Well, you've certainly proved your point. That was pretty damn cool, and some of that stuff won't even appear in my forms for another few months! If that was you when you sucked, you being good has gotta be amazing
thanks. I wish I had a video of myself now - not just to show here, but so I could chart my progress. Well, gotta go pick up my grandma for thanksgiving.
Thanks. Oh, and I just realized, I forgot to mention, yellow belt comes before blue, in case anyone didn't realize that, in relation to that second vid I posted.
Nice post. I must admit, aside from the Goodridge incident which I'd read about in "No Holds Barred" by Clyde Gentry (Milo Books, 2002, 5th edition), I didn't know anything about Kuk Sool Won. However, giving an arm wrestler a 4th dan when they'd never studied it just for advertisment purposes was enough to bring the art way down in my estimation, so I'm glad you cleared up my misconception that it was the head organisation that did this. And you're right, that form looks pretty cool
