Looking at whether Hapkido is effective in a street fight

Founded in the 1940s in South Korea, Hapkido went on to enjoy quick growth as a martial art, before eventually declining in popularity. One reason for this could have been because of the growth of MMA which arguably took parts of the Hapkido system and perfected them. At the same time, Hapkido is still practiced and relevant today and is trained by many.

Like all martial arts, one of its main goals is to be an effective form of self defense. In this article, we shall go over just how effective Hapkido is in a street fight. Here, we shall give a neutral look that is based on its positives and negatives. Ultimately, this should give you a better idea on Hapkido and how useful it is for defending yourself.

Learning Hapkido will make you better at fighting

If your goal of learning Hapkido is to become a better fighter, then it does just that. In short, Hapkido is a very general, broad curriculum that covers practically every part of fighting. This includes takedowns, grappling on the ground, submissions, strikes, and weapons. The problem with this system is that it can be too broad at times and get bogged down in trying to teach a bit of everything.

Nonetheless, Hapkido will teach you about fighting. For example, imagine being taught how to do an armbar from a mounted position. This armbar may not be as effective or efficient as one taught in BJJ or Judo – but it’s still better than nothing. This example can be applied to practically every area of Hapkido. You may not become the best boxer learning it, but you’ll still pick up a few useful tips that will help you.

With this said, Hapkido is actually very good for getting the average person and making them better at fighting. Just remember, it isn’t as specialist as certain other martial arts out there but offers a ‘Jack of all trades’ approach.

Hapkido does teach some nonsense

As mentioned, Hapkido is not bad when it comes to teaching self defense. However, part of the reason for its popularity decline is that it’s still got some pretty question techniques that are thrown in. An example of this could be its standing wristlocks that are still regularly taught. In previous generations, standing wristlocks had a much better reputation but aren’t appreciated these days by most martial artists.

The reason is that they may look great in a drilling scenario, but when punches are thrown, they’re borderline impossible to stop with your hands. Therefore, if you train this part of Hapkido extensively, then you could be wasting your time. Furthermore, you could even be putting yourself in further danger by relying on unrealistic wrist locks.

For the most part, these come from parts of Aikido and Japanese Ju Jitsu which are universally seen as ineffective for the most part. In some rare cases, Hapkido gyms may even teach stuff like Chi which is even worse. In brief, because Hapkido is such a large system, it allows certain teachers to get away with teaching nonsense without getting tested. This brings us to our next point…

Your learning depends greatly on each gym

One of the issues found with Hapkido is that some gyms can be great, whilst others can be awful in terms of what they teach. As previously mentioned, this is because there are no real checks in place and as a teacher, you can almost teach whatever you like. This can lead to some questionable techniques being moved. An example of this could be seen with sparring. In a good gym, sparring will take place which is a good way to pressure test your knowledge in physical form. It’s one thing being able to perform a throw, but against a skilled, resisting opponent this could be much harder.

As a result, it’s believed that sparring is the best way to test this knowledge and without it, it’s difficult to say what is legitimate or not. Sadly, some Hapkido dojos don’t spar which isn’t good but it goes on. In this case, your training is almost as good as useless as your moves aren’t tested or challenged. If you do train at a gym that spars then great, but otherwise Hapkido may not work in a street fight.

Is crosstraining the answer?

Let’s imagine you train Hapkido but you’re not fully sure that it works – yet you still enjoy training. This would be a good opportunity for cross training. For example, you may enjoy the weapons aspects of Hapkido but feel your particular gym lacks when it comes to boxing. In this case, it may be best to train boxing or something different elsewhere, as well as learning Hapkido.

This covers all areas and would make sure you can defend yourself, whilst still learning Hapkido. In fact, many martial artists often cross train which isn’t necessarily a bad thing and only brings positive. So, if you train Hapkido and you’re skeptical that you’re missing out – then crosstraining may be the way to go.

Conclusion – Hapkido does work in a street fight…kind of

Whether its weapons or fist fights you’re looking to learn – the chances are that Hapkido offers something for everyone. The real issue is not in the art itself, but more to do with the way it’s trained. Put another way, the Hapkido system is fine when taught correctly, but sometimes it’s taught badly. So, in some cases, you will see UFC Champions such as Robert Whittaker who is a Hapkido black belt. In other cases, you could find Hapkido black belts who have never sparred or trained properly.

One other point often raised is that Hapkido is less effective than the likes of Judo or kickboxing. This is down to personal opinion and it may be correct. At the same time, it doesn’t mean that Hapkido is obsolete and useless either. For example, if Judo was a 9/10 for street fighting and Hapkido was a 7/10 – it would still mean that it offers a good self defense system.

This means that it may be a complex answer as to whether Hapkido works or not in a street fight. However, as long as you find a good gym that does sparring and common-sense moves, then you should be fine. This may mean figuring things out on your own and questioning moves intensely, but in the end, this should determine whether your training is good or not.

If you want to learn more about Hapkido then check out this book here.