TKD and Hapkido Are Two Different Faces to the Same Coin

[Steven Craig]

I would definetely not class someone who knows a few wrist locks as being profficient in hapkido. Im saying that the good quality tkd blackbelts I know actually know quite a lot of hapkido not just a couple of moves. I cant speak on behalf of all clubs obviously but just the black belts I know. My instructor is a 6th dan in tkd and is very profficient in hapkido.

In the club I train at Hapkido is considered very different to TKD. The Master of my club came to Australia in the early 70’s after instructing in the South Korean military. He has trained his students in self defense techniques, but is quite definite on not calling his self defense Hapkido, even though it is obvious the similarities between what he does and Hapkido. From my limited understanding, it is to do with the self-defense we do being only a small part of the whole picture of Hapkido. There are other clubs in Australia where TKD and Hapkido are offered under the same banner, but are specifically different. For example you could be a different belt level in one form from the other.