Hapkido Online

Thank you all. Your input has a difference. Also I would like to send my sincere thanks to Mr. Bob Hubbard who has given me sage advice and allowed me to blather on about my own website here. Of the large martial arts forums MT is my favorite.

Of course Kong knows my favorite small town forum. :)
 
This past weekend, I hosted a Hapkido seminar in my dojang (I brought in Chon Sul Kwan/Tactical Hapkido Alliance founder and chief Grand Master, GM Barry Rodemaker) and got to meet Mr. Jon Ferguson live and in person for the first time. As a student of Hapkido-Online for about a year now, I have only met him via emails, phone calls, and the webcam classes and tests. It was an honor and a privilege to meet in person the man responsible for most of my hapkido training. He is personable and knowledgeable, but very humble. I had met his instructor, Master Tim Feathers about nine months ago at a training session and found him to also be very approachable and well-versed in hapkido.
My point for bringing all this up is to say that after a year of training (and a few months of teaching a few selected moves to my Tae Kwon Do students), Hapkido-Online is working. Grandmaster Rodemaker was complimentary of the level of skill and progress I showed. I mention this not to toot my own horn, as I am only a green belt still, but to point out that my hapkido skills were acquired almost exclusively from my participation in Hapkido-Online. I am not saying I would not rather train directly with Mr. Ferguson, Master Feathers, or GM Rodemaker live and in person, but as all live hours from me, Hapkido-Online is an acceptable alternative. It can and does work, if you put in the time and effort. While I feel that some time is necessary to clean up/tweek problems that may not be apparent on video, this can be done via private lessons, travelling a few times a year for classes or seminars, etc.
 
This past weekend, I hosted a Hapkido seminar in my dojang (I brought in Chon Sul Kwan/Tactical Hapkido Alliance founder and chief Grand Master, GM Barry Rodemaker) and got to meet Mr. Jon Ferguson live and in person for the first time. As a student of Hapkido-Online for about a year now, I have only met him via emails, phone calls, and the webcam classes and tests. It was an honor and a privilege to meet in person the man responsible for most of my hapkido training. He is personable and knowledgeable, but very humble. I had met his instructor, Master Tim Feathers about nine months ago at a training session and found him to also be very approachable and well-versed in hapkido.
My point for bringing all this up is to say that after a year of training (and a few months of teaching a few selected moves to my Tae Kwon Do students), Hapkido-Online is working. Grandmaster Rodemaker was complimentary of the level of skill and progress I showed. I mention this not to toot my own horn, as I am only a green belt still, but to point out that my hapkido skills were acquired almost exclusively from my participation in Hapkido-Online. I am not saying I would not rather train directly with Mr. Ferguson, Master Feathers, or GM Rodemaker live and in person, but as all live hours from me, Hapkido-Online is an acceptable alternative. It can and does work, if you put in the time and effort. While I feel that some time is necessary to clean up/tweek problems that may not be apparent on video, this can be done via private lessons, travelling a few times a year for classes or seminars, etc.

Thanks for hosting such a great seminar Mr. Henry! One of the best I've attended. I can't wait till next year. Also thanks for your kind words about Hapkido Online. You were one of our very first students and you are uniquely qualified to witness what it can do.
 
Wow this an old thread. I'm happy to say that five years later Hapkido Online is still a "going concern". While I've polished it some over the years it still works fundamentally the same way. We've progressed four people all the way to black belt. I still get new students routinely and like the brick and mortar schools some stay and some move on.

My teacher Master Feathers retired a couple of years ago for health reasons, though he still gets a gleam in his eye when we talk about martial arts.

In these years I've gone through a couple of dry spells where because of military obligations I couldn't do as much brick and mortar practice as I would like and Hapkido Online helped me keep in contact with other practitioners and motivated me to hang in there.

When I started the website I was a first dan in Hapkido and now I'm a third dan. In order to keep teaching, I had to keep learning!

While Hapkido Online has never been a profit bearing entity I find that it has every year without fail paid for itself. In fact some of the people who signed on in the beginning are still members which makes me proud.

The profit I find in the program has not been monetary but in the greatly valued and enduring relationships I've formed with the students and teachers who have participated. Here is hoping for another five years!
 
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