Hello everyone, this is my first post on this forum, but I have been reading it for a few weeks now. I have just a quick question. I have trained in the past in Kali, Silat, JKD, Muay Thai, and Groundfighting. The opportunity has arisen for me to take Combat Hapkido. My question is this, Do you think that this will be much different than what I have learned in the past, and do you think this will make it that much harder? From what I have read about Combat Hapkido, it seems to be effective and very realistic. Anyway, any info that anyone could give me would be very much appreciated.
First... Welcome aboard! Second... since you have been reading for a few weeks there is no need to rehash things about Combat Hapkido. My advice is, try out whatever you can, and if it appeals to you then do it. Take care.
CTSMaster: If you look in this forum, you'll find quite a few posts about Combat Hapkido (or ICHF, or Cheon Doo Kwan Hapkido... all the same). My post about the May 3rd Seminar gives a pretty good list of what we do at the seminars. From a personal opinion, I think that if you like cross-training (as your resume seems to show), you will probably like Combat Hapkido. GM Pellegrini has assembled a great crew of masters and grandmasters from lots of styles (Carlson Gracie does the ground fighting, GM Shuey does the cane training, etc.) and al of them conduct seminars on various aspects of combat and self defence. There are no tournaments and everything is aimed at practical self defence. I have used the videos (great!), been to a seminar (see details in the post), and trained with my master often (he has been a charter member for years). I personally love Combat Hapkido. Some detractors will argue that it is not real Hapkido... it does come from a Hapkido base but really has evolved greatly in a very short period. If you are looking for classical traditional Hapkido, you may wish to look elsewhere. If you are looking for a practical self defence style with tons of cross-training and a practical outlook, check out the ICHF. (www.ichf.org)
Dragon man: nice to "meet' you as well. CTSMaster: another bit of advice I would offer is to try out the Combat Hapkido for a while before really committing to it. In my experience, the Comabt Hapkido instructors I have met/trained with/observed have all been excellent. However, if you are at a school with a lousy instructor, then it doesn't matter how good the system is... Good luck and let us know how it turns out!
