ng and competing in Asian martial arts. The first episode showed the two guys going to the Phillipines learning and competing in the Filipino stick fighting martial arts called Kali/Eskrima. After the first show I missed a couple of other episodes featuring other different Asian martial arts style.Tonight's episode was quite interesting as it featured the Korean art of Hapkido. I am always intrigued by Hapkido because some people say the Korean art share the same ancestry as the Japanese martial art of Aikido, my own martial art style. The mother of Aikido is Daito Ryu Aikidjutsu and it is said that the founder of Hapkido also studied Aikijutsu under the same teacher as O Sensei, Aikido's founder.
Although I have done some research on Hapkido and even viewed some video clips on Youtube, I have never seen a feature length TV documentary until tonight.
As I see it the main difference between the two arts is that Aikido is a defensive martial arts while Hapkido has both defensive
and offensive elements. While competition is forbidden in Aikido , Hapkido actively promotes tournament fighting. While Aikido techniques are mainly confined to grappling and throwing, Hapkido techniques also includes striking, kicking and ground fighting.Looking at the combatants bashing each other in the tournament , Hapkido looks a lot like the kick boxing styles eg. TKD , Mixed Martial Art and Sanshou with lots of emphasis on kicking, punching, clinching and takedowns.
The closest resemblance to Aikido is in the basic Hapkido kata training. I see the Aikido equivalent of throwing and projection techniques eg kokyu nage, shihonage, tenchinage, kotegaeshi, koshinage etc. In the joint manipulating training I see elements of Aikido locking techniques such as ikkyo, nikkyo, sanky0, yonkyo, etc.
The circular movements and footworks are also quite similar to Aikido's except in Hapkido they are more linear and angular.
In my opinion, the two arts were the same when they were practiced as Aikijutsu and as they evolved over the years, each developed in separate ways. While the modern incarnation of Aikido focuses more on personal , moral and spiritual development using vigorous martial arts training as a vehicle, modern Hapkido developed into a martial arts system focusing on competition and personal survival.
Hi,
ReplyDeleteIf you're interested in viewing, and even maybe trying out, a hapkido class, GM Julian Lim (8th dan KHF) teaches the art in Mont Kiara. I'm sure he would welcome questions on the differences between aikido and hapkido, and you'd be able to see the differences up close.
You can get more information from http://www.jlim.net