Question about TKD and Hapkido

I was wondering if these styles are good for starting out in martial arts. Since I'm still young, I wanted to know if their type of training is good and will it benefit me at all? I've heard that TKD and a lot of the Korean arts don't train you as well as other martial art styles do.
I would appreciate any thoughts on this, thanks.

 

Depends what you want out of training and how/to what extent the school in question addresses this need/these multiple needs.

 

My first style was a Korean hybrid-style very similar to Hapkido. Like you, I was fourteen when I started. I think it would be an excellent foundation as it makes you familiar (not necessarly an expert) with many different ranges of the martial arts (striking, throwing, grappling, etc).

Taekwondo can be very different from school to school. From what I've observed, while there many great TKD schools out there, but there are some "McDojang" style schools who push a watered-down product. Karate can be bad for this as well.

Out of curiosity, where are you from?

 

Are you looking for a Korean arts specifically? Or would other striking arts suit? Karate/kickboxing/boxing? I think you said you started kungfu in another thread.

An idea of your area and where you're willing to travel to is useful also.

 

Depends on what you're looking for really.

What she your reasons for learning martial arts?

 

Try something out and see if you like it.

What good does it do, if we were telling you to do... I don't know, Luta Livre or JKD* because it's awesome, and you hate it wholeheartedly?

*I don't train either one, so yes, I just picked two random arts.

 

Hey guys sorry for responding late, I was studying before

There's a few karate and taekwondo schools in my area also some bjj schools, there's a kung fu school not too far and one further out, another taekwondo school that's far but they combine hapkido with taekwando which seems like that combines a good mix of training. I wanna train to get in good shape, strong physically and mental and also for self defense.

Well right now endurance, staying in shape, health and get skilled in self defense training that actually works, meaning I'm not looking just to go to one of those places that would promote me to black belt and just look cool wearing one.

Really? That sounds great, so a school like this would pretty much cover all forms of fighting. What did you learn? Did you learn a lot of good moves from standing strikes to throws to grappling to forms and such? Were the exorcises and conditioning good? Cause most of the taekwondo schools I know don't teach much of that, I rather avoid McDojang type schools.

I used to live in CT but live out east in NY now.

Yes I did mention kung fu, I just started getting into it but I was thinking of other schools as options in case I decide to eventually switch or start doing taekwando/hapkido first and then do kung fu after. I don't really care much about the style as long as it's good training. I just thought a taekwondo/hapkido hybrid school would be interesting because there's not many and probably would teach a variety of things from kicking, striking, throwing, etc.

 

I don't know what Luta Livre is.

 

I can't speak directly for Hapkido, as the style I studied was Hapdosool. The founder had a Hapkido background, and I always understood the two arts to be very similar.

We learned strikes, throws, grappling techniques, small joint manipulation and tumbling. Anyway, the reason I said we became familiar "many ranges" and not "all ranges" was because we did not seem to cover much in the way of trapping. Things could be different in Hapkido, but I'm not sure.

The quality of instruction was legit, as Hapdosool practitioners did very well at Kickboxing, Jiu-Jitsu, and MMA fights with no cross training. My former instructor was, and still is, extremely competent. Your mileage may vary from school to school.

I believe they cover some weapons as well, but we did not touch weapons where I trained.

ETA: I don't want to derail this thread, so this is all I will say about this here; don't be too hasty to quit Kung Fu. I used to train Hung Fut in my early 20's, but did not have the patience or discipline to keep it up. I wish I could go back in time and stick with it. Kung Fu takes a long time to become proficient with. If you stick with it now, you could be very good when you're older.

 

If you want to be good in a fight then you'll have to focus on a school who trains athletically, with resistance in training and with sparring under a permissive ruleset at one or more ranges.

If you want true self defence then I'd suggest looking into a school that covers the breadth of this topic as it is considerably broader that being nice with your hands in a street fight.

My two pence is that the CLF will teach you strong physical skills and get you in shape and flexible. You may also spend a lot of time working in things which in my opinion might not be the most practical but can still be fun if you are into it. So maybe you should stick with it.

The other option is to learn to box/Thai box/grapple and attend self defence seminars from reputable figures.

 

Getting in shape is always a good reason to start martial arts! Loads of places can do that!

Learning to defend yourself has almost nothing to do with martial arts, so look up Geoff Thompson and similar authors on how to defend yourself.

What you probably meant was "I want to succeed in a physical confrontation". This is called fighting and has everything to do with martial arts! Pick a place that allows you to hit/grapple each other with the least amount of rules!

 

I have been fortunate enough to train in both of these arts under some good instructors and really see a lot of positives in both. In my opinion, it really is the instructor that matters more than style.

In my opinion, Taekwondo teaches some great strikes, kicks, combinations, and footwork and allows students to practice them against resisting opponents with a decent array of targets and decent level of force. A lot, of course, depends on the school and instructors, but if you train in a 'good' TKD school, you should learn some very stand up striking. eventually, you may wish to expand your standup training against different rulesets, allowable targets, and levels of contact, all of which you can do through competition or cross training.

I like Hapkido (and Combat Hapkido) for its broader applicability towards self defense. The falling practice alone is worth the time to study. Hapkido also does a nice job of addressing different levels of force, especially if you look at it from a self defense perspective, and builds a nice system of strikes/kicks, joint locks, and throws. Hapkido provides a good basic level of self defense skills. For improved self defense, you may wish to cross train or study elements of other RBSD arts for the improvised settings, weapons, legal aspects and so on.

Combining Taekwondo and Hapkido works pretty well too (depending on which styles of TKD or HKD you study, there already may be some crossover of techniques)... it is an easy step forward to add the sparring/resisting opponent to the self defense scenarios to make it a bit more realistic.

As far as weaknesses go, neither art is well known for their ground grappling or ground survival skills (cross training is a must!) and depending on the schools, you may very well wish for more flexibility in sparring and practice situations regarding levels of force, allowable targets, street clothes, and so on.

Edit - I also recommend checking out some trial lessons at the local dojangs and picking the one that fits you best (of course, you also have to know what you want to get out of it)

 

New York is rife with quality schools - Renzo has a school out there which to me would be a must go.

Similarly there are a raft of boxing schools in the area, and as a foundation art I am a huge advocate of that style. The important thing is that you enjoy it - the art is secondary to that outside of specific training needs (competition, professional skilllset etc)

 

I never heard of Hapdosool, I don't know of any TKD place like that but I guess I could ask. Yes I think I will continue with kung fu, it does take a while, would you say kung fu is a great gateway for me training in other martial arts when I'm older? Though if kung fu does offer a good range from all different ways of fighting, it might be good for me.

Oh no I haven't quit, I still like CLF. I was just searching for other options just in case I decide otherwise but you are right CLF sounds like a well trained system for fighting. So far I've been learning forms and conditioning with a little bit of some basics on how to get out of wrist grabs and stuff. Again I don't know much about their priorities yet, it does feel more fluent than a karate class though which I like. I'll probably stick with it for a while if I ever decide to change to something else. Thanks for the response.

I'll have to look him up, thanks for the info.

That's what I'd worry about that if they don't offer ways of fighting or escaping from being taken to the ground. I think that is important to learn in a martial arts school, and knowing how to defend from striking, trapping, kicking, etc, is what I'm looking for, besides just hitting eachother until your arms bruise or kicking your legs till they feel a little numb.

I could do that as an option.

Hey thanks, I don't know much about it but I could look into it.

 

That's okay, that wasn't my point at all
It's a Brazilian grappling MA.

Anyway, my point was: Look what is available to you, so you can reach it.
And then check the clubs out and find out, where you like it.
If you don't like the place, where you want to train, chances are you won't go regularly.

So, if we were to tell you: JKD is the best ever do that!
And you would check it out, but don't get along with the instructor and/ or students, there really isn't any need to go there, only because someone thinks it's great.

Or the other way around: If you would get warned not to do... I don't know... Wing Chun, because it's always bad yadda yadda yadda.
You might not check out the school next door, even though it might be an awesome school with superb training and people you like - but you would never know, because someone told you "WC is bad", so to speak.


Also: If you like your current school, I agree to stay there and keep learning
Why start hopping schools, if there is no need to?

 

HDS is a pretty obscure style of martial arts. I don't believe there an more active schools. My former instructor now teaches BJJ and MMA.

I believe Kung Fu would be an awesome fountation style. I don't believe that you could walk directly out of the Kwoon and into the Octagon, but you would have a solid foundation to build on, depending what else you decide to do in the martial arts.

 

I see what you are saying. I would choose to stick with one school for now, which I agree with you. So what would be my best option to get the best training? Train at a school that teaches a much better style but the students and the instructor isn't the best fit for me or train at a school that teaches a style that's not as good as the other school is but the students and the instructor is a great fit? This is a very difficult decision for me cause both can have their pros or cons, how do you choose between something like this?

Really appreciate the advice.