Last month I spoke about how knowing a variety of martial arts skills can be beneficial to your practice (part one). Today I’d like to play devil’s advocate and argue the contrary. So why are more skills a bad thing?
Skills, skills, and more skills (part one)
By the time you’ve reached black belt in Hapkido, you’ve accumulated hundreds of Hapkido techniques: from the basic punch to the more complex self-defence skills and the multitude of variations. In this three part article I’d like to talk about
Training beyond black belt (part two)
[part 1] Before Christmas I surveyed some of Chang’s Hapkido Academy (CHA) black belts to discover what keeps them coming back after achieving their black belt. I’ve received over a dozen responses now from black belts across four of our
Training beyond black belt (part one)
To achieve a black belt in Hapkido requires many years of practice. Practicing anything long term requires energy, passion and commitment. But like anything else, our ability to perform a technique effectively will eventually decay – that’s why continued practice,
Mentally tough Hapkido.
There are three factors that will influence our sporting ability: our fitness, technical skills and mental skills. Many people spend loads of time on the first two, but neglect number three. In sport however, an athlete’s mental toughness is a
Believing it to be so.
The Guardian newspaper recently reported on a study done by Charles Lee at the University of Virginia. He took 41 undergraduates who had previous golf experience and enthusiasm for the sport, and randomly split them into two groups. The first
Do you have competitions?
When meeting someone new, and after answering the ‘What do you do?’ question, nine times out of ten the person will follow that with an enquiry as to whether I compete. My answer is always, “No”. And then I usually
Hapkido training as we age.
How old do you feel? I often find that the way people answer this question has a direct correlation to how active they are. The greater the activity level, the greater the difference between reality and fact. If we look
Power and vulnerability.
Many are afraid of being vulnerable. But is vulnerability really a bad thing and something to be fearful of? When we punch, for example, we actually put ourselves into a deeply vulnerable and off balanced position; but this same body weight
Kibon dong ja (Basic movement)
As a white belt we learn basic stances (front, back and horse riding) and spend hours simply walking up and down the mat. I remember it being the part of the class I always hated; but now as an instructor