Why Hapkido is NOT Effective In Modern Day

Hapkido sounds like an effective and well-rounded martial art if you were to describe it to somebody. However, modern-day watering down of curriculum, McDojo’s, and lack of innovation and change have left it in the past. This is a real shame as other than Pankration there was not really a single martial art that encompassed well-rounded fighting techniques until people started cross-training after watching UFC.

Hapkido has its roots in 1900s Korea and was the closest thing we had to mixed martial arts up until 1993 when the UFC burst onto the scene. There is not a specific style to Hapkido as it is not really similar to anything else such as traditional jiu jitsu or kickboxing. The art contains striking at both distance and close range, joint locks, throws, and a basic level of ground fighting.

The idea behind Hapkido is to off-balance your opponent, not too dissimilar from Aikido. And of course, like all martial arts – rely on your technique rather than just trying to launch someone smaller than you into the ground. Knowing that when you are fighting someone of your own size, technique will be the difference between you and them.

Why did Hapkido Lose Popularity?

Rise of MMA

One of the main reasons for Hapkido losing popularity is the rise of mixed martial arts. Young men who want to compete and spar each other will now cross-train in a variety of disciplines. For example, if you were to train in BJJ, Kickboxing, and Judo, you would essentially have a much more effective version of Hapkido which is up to modern-day standards. Whilst Hapkido does this all under one roof, there are already MMA gyms that incorporate these mixtures of martial arts and don’t have limitations of a particular style or form holding them back.

McDojos

Sadly this is quite commonplace with traditional martial arts. There are a lot of unscrupulous instructors who will happily lie, exaggerate or fabricate their lineage and qualifications to make money. If you are a beginner to Hapkido or martial arts in general this will be very difficult to spot since you don’t know what you’re looking for.

There are some tell-tale signs of a McDojo such as charging extra money for belt promotions, never wanting to spar with your own students, fast-track promotions to keep students interested, and various other practices. If you’re skeptical of something and get shut down with no explanation, this is not a good attitude from your instructor.

We have even seen evidence of some instructors showing “invisible energy strikes”. Real life is not an anime cartoon, these things don’t exist and never have done. People shouldn’t pay for this nonsense and I am honestly unsure why this exists, but sadly it does.

Not For Kids Due To Joint Locks

This is something that can’t be helped. Due to the anatomical structure of a child’s body, you do not really want them doing full force joint locks on each other. The ball and socket joints have not formed properly in their bodies yet and damaging the joint can lead to problems such as arthritis in later life.

With this being said, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu also has joint locks and is heavily marketed toward children with safe rules in place such as never fully extending submissions. If this were applied to Hapkido then there really could be a surge in popularity since parents would not have a problem with signing their kids up.

Poor Training Methods Such As Air Kicking

When practicing Hapkido (and other traditional martial arts) you may see drilling punches and kicks into thin air. This is really not a good idea since you cannot develop power and technique when practicing in this way. Furthermore, you will actually damage your own joints by not hitting anything since they are strained more. The air kicking method can help develop your balance and muscle tone, so isn’t always bad. But if you’re going to do this in every class you will develop joint problems sooner or later.

No Sparring

The main problem with modern Hapkido gyms is the real lack of pressure testing and sparring. This is most likely the main reason why it has lost popularity. In the 1900’s Korea, there would have been propper use and development of techniques through fighting one another. Instead in modern-day, people are often forced to repeat drills rather than spar with each other.

If your instructor will not spar and beat you, then how do you know how good their technique is? Due to never seeing your sensei fight, they may not be qualified to teach you and maybe reinforcing bad techniques. This creates a vicious cycle where people are taught poor technique, never test it and then pass it on to the next generation without even realizing it.

Hapkido is too broad and not specialized enough

This is one criticism that is sometimes thrown toward Hapkido. For instance, if you want to learn submissions, you can go to a BJJ gym and learn them with more intricate details. If you want to learn certain throws then the same can be said with Judo and with strikes you could opt for Karate or something similar. The point is that it’s difficult to be a master in all fields that are covered in Hapkido.

Basically, most people don’t always want a broad range of skills and may choose a specialist area instead. As the saying goes, it’s not good to be a ‘jack of all trades and master of none’. This is one issue with Hapkido as it tries to appeal to all instead of focusing on some of the smaller details. Whilst you may get a brief overview of Judo trips, it may not be an excellent overview that could be found in a Judo gym. Because of this, some people chose other martial arts over Hapkido.

Difficult For Beginners

Due to the diverse nature of Hapkido, it is essentially throwing beginners in at the deep end. If you have never trained in any martial arts before, you will be expected to learn throwing, submissions, ground fighting, and striking at both close and far range. This is really a large variety of things as most beginners start out with a single martial art. For example, if you already have good Judo experience, you will not need to learn many of the throws since you’ll already have this covered. If you have none of these skills it is really quite a lot to remember and you may feel too overwhelmed.

In defense of Hapkido

With all of this being said, Hapkido can still be a very valid martial art. Obviously, this article has nitpicked its weaknesses, but it’s not all bad. For instance, UFC Champion Robert Whittaker has a black belt in Hapkido and speaks highly of the art. In short, Hapkido served as Whittaker’s entry point into training MMA which is quite telling.

In other words, for all its faults, if you find a good Hapkido gym then you can still become a very skilled martial artist. The reason for this is that if taught correctly, then you can get a good overview of many different types of martial arts, techniques, and practices. So, don’t write Hapkido off just yet – and there are definitely some good gyms out there. At the same time, finding them can prove difficult.

The Future Of Hapkido

The future of Hapkido is really up to its teachers and practitioners. It must be marketed more than it already is. In comparison with the other martial arts, it is relatively unknown and does not have many famous athletes or competitors.

Secondly, the curriculum must be updated. A lot of the techniques are out of date and simply not sophisticated anymore. At the moment, Hapkido is a jack of all trades but a master of none. There are other martial arts that offer better instruction in specific areas. In the current era, Hapkido is like the stripped-down and untested version of MMA.

Unless these things change there will not be a resurgence. Hapkido can either go back to its roots, become more battle-tested, and evolve as it should. Or it can specialize in a specific area. Perhaps the former would be better than the latter since Hapkido is not meant to be a specialist martial art, but more of a versatile mix of different styles.

Learn more about Hapkido and its techniques in this book.