Sometimes a student has difficulty executing a skill they’ve been performing well for months. How come? Surely that’s a problem? There could be many reasons a technique stops working: lack of practice or bad posture, poor alignment or loss of
Being the best
Another old story for you… A young man turned up at the school of a famous martial arts instructor. Upon arriving, he told the Master that he wanted to become his student and be the best martial artist in Japan.
Boredom vs. concentration in sparring.
Recently, a lower belt student told me that when he spars with more junior belts he is often afraid of hitting them. He also disclosed that he gets bored sparring with the junior or less ‘able’ students. My response to
Taking time to appreciate a black belt.
Last month, after years of training and months of testing, one of my students received her black belt. As is the custom, the belt was presented to her at the end of a recent rank test. She was called to
Practising what we’re bad at.
I had a student about 4 years ago who complained to me that people were advancing ahead of him and that I wasn't teaching him any new skills. To some degree this was actually true; he had reached a bit
The opponent within.
I was teaching at a seminar a couple of weekends ago….After performing a joint lock, someone asked me, do you then break their arm with this? Without thinking I said “no, I would never break their arm. Why would I
Transforming an enemy into a friend.
The name ‘Hapkido’ actually combines three Korean words: Hap means the coordination of mind and body, Ki is the inner power needed to create hap, and Do refers to a disciplined life. It is this concept of discipline that can
Where is your mind?
“Where your mind goes your ki will follow.” A student can often get dragged out of his own experience when catching sight of his reflection in a mirror. Often students’ kicks improve remarkably as soon as I hold up a
Attending ki class a few times is not enough.
You have a cloth which you dip in coloured water – but for some reason you only dip partially – then you take out. A little bit has changed colour but not the whole. We can do this a few
Struggling with difficulties
A student came to me last week and said, “I love Hapkido, but I think I’ve reached my peak”. I was a little confused because that was not what I was thinking at all. “What do you mean?”, I questioned.