As in many martial arts, Hapkido has its own distinguished characteristics. The Hapkido structure has more than 270 minor techniques, with the possibility of more than 10,000 variables. The addition of 3,864 attack and defense techniques, to the multitude of counter attacks and combinations, make for endless flexibility.
It is this unique advantage of Hapkido that makes it the origin of all martial arts of the orient. Some may wonder how one can learn and master 10,000 techniques. It is not so difficult as it may appear. Once the fundamental techniques have been mastered, it is quite easy to learn and perform the many variations.
The fundamental techniques of Hapkido are classified as follows:
1. Empty hands against empty hands.
2. Empty hands against a weapon.
3. Weapon against weapon.
Each category is divided into offensive and defensive techniques and each of these have joint locking and striking techniques. Within the joint locking techniques, twisting, throwing, paralyzing, and strangling techniques are included. Within the striking techniques, kicking, punching, hitting, cutting and stubbing techniques are included.
The techniques with weapons include dagger throwing, sword and long knife, club, cane, pole, spear, rope, stone throwing and stone holding techniques. In using various weapons for either offense or defense, there are various position techniques, in standing, sitting, and lying down.
Hapkido is especially powerful because when being attacked, you attack the weakest part of the opponent's body with a stronger means, namely attacking the arteries, veins, nerves, organs, and weak areas thereby altering the opponent to your advantage. At the moment of attack, through a special breathing technique called Dan Jon Ho Hop, total concentration of your body to a certain point, produces super human power when striking the target. This combined with proper timing can be fatal to your adversary.
Besides fundamental techniques, attacking weak points and power concentration through Dan Jon, one outstanding feature of Hapkido is the usage of the opponent’s power to your advantage.
The art of Hapkido can help in the following areas:
confidence
self-defense
self-discipline
better concentration
the coordination of mind, body, and spirit
stress reduction
correct posture
weight control
better health
courage
Hapkido.
Hapkido, demonstrated here by former Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Jim Gott, is a comprehensive Korean martial art that utilizes techniques from a variety of different combat styles.
Hapkido is a comprehensive self-defense system which encompasses all ranges of fighting and is a combination of a number of different styles, including judo, aikido and taekwondo. Defensive responses can range from "soft" aikido-type moves to "harder" karate-style techniques. Such versatility gives hapkido practitioners an effective answer to virtually any situation.
Although hapkido can be used in tournament competition, it is not a sport and many of its techniques are potentially lethal. However, hapkido's philosophical approach to combat is not aggressive. Practitioners only use fighting tech- niques to counter an opponent's attack. And, in most cases, they attempt to turn the attacker's own force against him.
"The unique thing about hapkido is its ability to draw in ideas and techniques from other martial arts, thus making it a truly comprehensive discipline which evolves over time" says hapkido black belt Mario Ceravolo.
From Martial Arm
Hapkido practitioner becomes skilled in numerous kicks, punches, and blocks. From Aiki-Jujitsu (the predecessor of Aikido) it gets most of its grappling techniques. Thus, the Hapkido practitioner spends an equal amount of time learning techniques such as throws and joint locks. The benefit of studying Hapkido versus studying one striking style and one grappling style is that the practitioner learns to use the two approaches to compliment one another. For example, a Hapkido artist might use a punch to distract her opponent while a difficult throw is set up. Conversely, a Hapkido artist might spin or off-balance his opponent to decrease their ability to defend against a kick. Along these same lines, the Hapkido artist learns to counter in the opposite manner of an attack, thus confusing the enemy. As such, linear attacks are countered with a circular technique and circular attacks are countered with a linear technique. Hapkido artists also learn vital targets and pressure points in order to immobilise their attacker as quickly as possible. Similar Styles: Combat Hapkido - Very similar to traditional Hapkido, this modern version uses Muay Thai striking techniques instead of getting its strikes from Tae Kyon (see Muay Thai under kickboxing styles). Cuong Nhu - A Vietnamese style which incorporates both Karate and Aikido. Kajukenbo - Named after the five styles which were combined to create it: Karate (ka), Judo and Jujitsu (ju), Kenpo (ken), and Chinese Boxing (bo).