Hapkido Skills

These are a few of the more commonly recognized skills taught in Hapkido. This list is not exhaustive, and serves to highlight those taught to students from beginner through intermediate levels. The following photos are high resolution, and may take time to load.

Of all self defense skills, falling is the one most likely to be used during the course of a person’s life. While a small percentage of people will ever need to fight off an attacker, most will experience tripping, slipping, or accidentally being knocked down. Learning proper falling skills can help minimize injuries in these instances. Falling skills are integral to Hapkido, and are taught starting at novice levels.

Hand Strikes

Hapkido’s principles of redirection and flowing defense are particularly evident in it’s hand strikes. Used primarily to facilitate a joint lock or, after an escape from a hold, to prevent further aggression, Hapkido’s flow to and from its soft deflections maximize their effectiveness.

Kicking

Trademark of most Korean martial arts is a wide arsenal of kicks for varied ranges and purposes. Hapkido epitomizes this trait by its unique teaching system which provides simple yet effective kicks to the novice and progresses to high flying, coordination building, kicking combinations for its black belt practitioners. In this way, challenge is balanced with skill level at every rank, maximizing technique practicality for the student.

Joint Locks

One of the hallmarks of Hapkido is its use of joint locking skills to dissuade or prevent further threat. Joint locking offers a range of defense options not present in other skill areas: the ability to temporarily immobilize or inflict pain on a captured limb, or to disable it if the danger escalates. Therefore Hapkido offers a defensive force continuum matched by few other systems. This can facilitate self defense choices ethically, morally, and legally appropriate to most situations.

Throws

Throwing is introduced after Hapkido students learn required falling skills. This facilitates safe practice, and development of the key abilities of moving in accord with another person and blending with their motion. Learning such mutual cooperation and respect is cornerstone to this set of spectacular defensive skills.

Mental Training & Meditation

While everyone has limits on their bodily prowess, physical skills can be improved with mental training. Learning to develop proficient relaxation and imagery skills are core to Hapkido. These same skills have been used by elite athletes for decades with the same goal: to improve physical performance by sharpening the mind. Beyond the physical benefits, Hapkido also uses meditation with the aim of character development through mental discipline. The side effect of increased stress management capacity may benefit students in their daily lives as well.

Hapkido Skills

Hand Strikes

Kicking

Joint Locks

Throws

Mental Training & Meditation

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