Heya, I have a few questions. I'm planning on starting to train in my first MA in the fall so I'm trying to figure out exactly where I want to start. 1. How similar is Kuk Sool Won to Hapkido ? I have been able to find alot of information about Hapkido but mostly what I hear about Kuk Sool Won is that it's very similar to hkd. I like the way Hapkido is fairly well rounded and seems more oriented on being practical. 2. My current plan is to enroll at the Kuk Sool Won school in the evenings and also take TKD as a college class during the day. Keeping in mind I've had no training in MA yet, is this a good idea ? Will the two arts interfere with eachother ? 3. These are the types of MA's available in Lawrence: White Dragon Kung Fu Aikido Tae Kwon Do Judo Kuk Sool Won If you were learning MA for the first time which two would you pick and why ?
If I were first starting out, I'd focus on one art to begin with. I'd want to be able to work on my basics, and get those ingrained into my muscle memory. I would'nt want the added confusion of how I should execute a kick, punch, block from my different instructors. In terms of picking an art for the first time, I'd say it's preference. Although something as straight forward as TKD may be more advantageous for a beginner than say KSW. This is purely based on the intricacies(sp) of the two arts. Just my 2 cents
I would only take one. Beginners frequently believe that the more they train the better they get. That is not always the case. You are so busy training, you don't see what you are supposed to be learning. Relax. Take it easy and have fun. Just take on class. Kuk Sool Won is very cool. It has lots of acrobatics stuff in it. It is a well rounded style, armlocks, kicking and punching, the acrobatic stuff. I liked it. Tae Kwon Do is pretty obvious. Punches and kicks. Not as fancy as Kuk Sool Won. Judo is all throws etc. So if you want to punch and kick you would not want to take that. It is nice to learn what it is like to body wrestle with someone. Freqently a puncher and kicker will go right down if you tackle them. They are not prepared for it and don't know how to grapple on the ground. Akido is cool also. It is more of an advanced martial art in my opinion. In these types of arts, the beginner usually does not show much improvement for some time. Maybe a couple of years. After that though, they can become better than people who went into a martial art that provides quick results. Never heard of White Dragon.
Kuk Sool Won shares a common origin with Hapkido and Hwarangdo. They all cover pretty much the same ground, in the same sort of way, but have now developed along their own paths, slightly different variations upon a theme. If you are interested in reading a good article about their common origins go here: http://www.hwarang.org/Contemporary.html IMO, if you are just starting Martial arts, then stick with one, until you at least understand the basics, maybe give it three four months at least of KSW before starting the TKD. Else you may find yourself getting confused, as the kicking techniques are similar but have enough subtle differences in order to make difficulties in learning both from scratch. Same goes for everything else.
Basically, and from the beginner's perspective, Kuk Sool (Won) is Hapkido with forms, and Hapkido is Kuk Sool (Won) without them. Kicks are pretty much the same as Taekwondo anyway so that aspect wouldn't confuse you. Kuk Sool forms, however, are flowing and circular (pretty much) by nature, whereas Taekwondo forms are pretty much hard and linear. Pugil
My advice is a bit different. I would say "Go to all of the available schools and try them out... you can probably get a few free lessons. Join the one that fits your needs and the one that best matches your learning style and personality. The name doesn't matter as much as the quality of instruction. All things being equal, I would probably choose Hapkido (or Kuk Sool Won)." Good training
Wow thanks for all the advice! I think so far I'm going to start Kuk Sool Won first and then after a few months I'll decide if I want to start training a second MA simultaneously.
Well, no, not really The selection is fairly limited in Lawrence. There is like two TKD schools, one aikido, one Kuk Sool Won, and one guy that teaches kung fu. The TKD schools around Lawrence are extremely kid oriented and doesn't seem to be what I'm looking for. However, TKD is taught as a class from KU and I've corresponded with the teacher and have heard more or less what I wanted to hear. First of all it's an adults only class, since it's college. It's not ATA (No offense, I just don't like certain parts of the structure of ATA), it's WTF, it focuses on self defense/sparring and the teacher is willing to do lessons outside of class. There is only one Kuk Sool Won school so my selection there is fairly limited too. I'm definately not even going to consider contract enrollment, seems like a really dumb idea to me. I'll probably never enroll on a contract in my entire MA career, unless I've been going to the same school for multiple years and know 100% that I want to stay there for the next XX years (unlikely). I'll definately take you up on your advice and check out all the schools at least once though, rather than dismissing the other schools outright. So, the revised plan is. Enroll in Kuk Sool Won starting in a month or two, in the process also get some free lessons from the TKD and maybe Kung Fu schools to see how those schools are. If Kuk Sool Won is at least a decent school I'll stick with it and then pick up a second MA later on down the road. Otherwise if the kuk sool school is a McDojo I'll just drop Kuk Sool Won and see which school/style is my next best choice.
KSW/TKS Diffs I have studied both TKD and KSW (KSW much more in depth). I agree with everyone in saying that you should start with one then maybe blend with the other. One thing to note if you want to mix the two. I'll preface this by saying this is not an argument in favor of one or the other, or my way of saying one is better. I'm just stating differences as I see them. From what I've seen and learned while taking TKD and KSW there are definite differences in kicking style. TKD kicks generally seem to have much more of a snapping action then KSW. This generally will give you a much faster kick on the TKD side. The emphasis in KSW in kicks is more power than speed. As an example in TKD the first fundamental kick I learned was the front "snap" kick. This, as I was tought, was performed by raising the knee and snapping the foot out making a fast strike with the ball of the foot. This kick is taught in KSW with out the snapping motion. We are taught to raise the knee and extend the foot straight out while thrusting forward with the hips making it a point not to snap at the knee. Obviously this is a slower kick, but it is also not meant to strike usually as high as the snap kick in tkd. The target for this kick is usually the solar plexus in KSW. It is my understanding that in TKD the front kick usually targets under the chin or so (I could be wrong on this). What's my reasoning for saying all this you may ask. Just to let you know that when you mix the styles you may have to be careful with your kicking style depending on which class you happen to be in at the time. If you use a KSW style kick in TKD or vice versa your instructor may repeatedly try to correct you even though in your eyes there's nothing wrong with what you're doing. Whew! Sorry for the long post :Angel:
