A philosophy, a way of thinking about techniques and training...

• You will find that Modern Hapkido seeks to balance the traditional elements and newer innovative methods of Hapkido for you. You will also learn additional effective concepts from other martial arts all with the goal of increasing your chances in real life confrontations.  You will gain knowledge of the history and techniques of traditional Hapkido.   Knowing your art's past history and trying to improve upon it, will allow you to avoid mistakes in the future.

• For example, we retain selected breathing exercises and breath control techniques from traditional teaching of Hapkido that are vital to focusing and conserving energy while at the same time eliminating certain high risk and outdated techniques that might get you hurt in most real fights.  We believe that yells and shouts are a part of both focusing force and distracting your adversary, so we do not throw them away just because they do not fit with many contemporary instructors' views of what is easy to sell or explain to new students.

• We encourage multiple strikes and kicks to soften up your opponent rather than relying only on joint locks and throws as stand alone techniques.  While we appreciate the symmetry of a beautifully executed throw or takedown, sometimes what you need to do is hit him a few times before applying a throw or joint lock for a takedown.

• We have reviewed and modified weapons techniques both on offense and defense to take account of advances in defensive tactics instruction and to reflect the wisdom and experience of other cultures which have grown up with the stick and knife as part of their heritage.  For example, frequently defenses with a cane are demonstrated that resort to blocking with the non-weapon hand and then inserting a strike or lock with the cane.  This is contrary to the common sense logic of weapons based systems like the Filipino martial arts which would direct you to hit with the weapon first (a tactic that you should find safer to implement). It is our belief that some traditional Hapkido techniques were originally taught to warriors who had shields on their non-weapon hand, and now need to be updated.

• Without expecting you to become an expert at several other arts as you train in Modern Hapkido, you can be taught to incorporate techniques such as trapping as a part of your arsenal of offensive and defensive techniques and thus improve your Hapkido.

A set of techniques...                                

Comparisons with traditional Hapkido and "Combat" Hapkido

• It is a complete martial art that includes kicks, strikes, punches, joint locks, chokes, take downs, throws, ground fighting, and pins.It is part of the Korean Martial Art, Hap Ki Do, that is often described as "The Art of Coordinated Power" because you use your mind, body, and skill to defeat attackers who may be younger, larger, and stronger than you are.

An approach to self defense...

• You will train just as you would have to fight or escape in the real world, using quick counter attacks for grabs, punches, and kicks aimed at you. All of these techniques are 100% Self Defense. This style of Hapkido works for men and women.

The Example below shows Vic Cushing escaping from a choke against a wall (being executed by Jim McElroy, one of his students).  He swings both arms are swung around striking the attacker's left arm, the attacker is slammed into the wall, hit in the back of the head, and kneed on the tailbone.