Why are there no Hapkido schools in NYC?

Kittan Bachika

Purple Belt
Joined
Sep 17, 2009
Messages
312
Reaction score
5
Actually, that's not true, there is one that I know of but when it comes to Korean Martial arts in NYC, there are a lot of TKD schools but maybe one Hapkdio school. But in LA, Hapkido schools are pretty dominant. Anyone care to share why?
 
What arts are where tend to be based on who found success when they brought their art over from the Orient. A person starts up in an area, goes through a life time career of several hundred to thousand students, has twenty people go on to found schools who teach a thousand people each, and all of a sudden, a greater metro area has sixty to seventy schools which all teach the first guy's lineage.

Western PA has a large number of Tang Soo Do schools. A lot of them trace their lineage, in one fashion or another, to Chun Sik Kim - Not all of them are still with him, but he is responsible for the art flourishing here at some level.
 
What arts are where tend to be based on who found success when they brought their art over from the Orient. A person starts up in an area, goes through a life time career of several hundred to thousand students, has twenty people go on to found schools who teach a thousand people each, and all of a sudden, a greater metro area has sixty to seventy schools which all teach the first guy's lineage.

Western PA has a large number of Tang Soo Do schools. A lot of them trace their lineage, in one fashion or another, to Chun Sik Kim - Not all of them are still with him, but he is responsible for the art flourishing here at some level.

That makes sense. Also California is a lot closer to ROK than NYC. My guess is that Hapkido teachers have a better chance of success because of the higher number of Koreans. Not that Koreans are the only ones who take Hapkido, but it doesn't hurt to open a Korean arts school in a state that has a lot of Koreans.
 
I think the real reason in NYC was the enormous rise of commercial TKD schools. When I was a kid, the koreans really blossomed out the TKD schools, blanketing them in every borough. Hapkido in comparison was a harder, longer path. People wanted the TKD quick rank(also they gave black belt rank to little kids which was absurd which moms seemed to like and pay for). The drop out rate in our hapkido class was high because of no mats after green belt and the rigors of throwing, kicking, joints locks, weapons and constant sparring. Many of my friends at the time opted for TKD. The Koreans had a successful formula in NY for tae kwon do and it remained strong and sort of wiped out the rest in terms of commercial school viability (usually meaning a hapkido school had some kind of tkd class or the hapkido was way watered down to resemble TKD which is the format you mostly see these days). TKD also had their tournaments and general safety which appealed to the broader mass.
 
I think the real reason in NYC was the enormous rise of commercial TKD schools. When I was a kid, the koreans really blossomed out the TKD schools, blanketing them in every borough. Hapkido in comparison was a harder, longer path. People wanted the TKD quick rank(also they gave black belt rank to little kids which was absurd which moms seemed to like and pay for). The drop out rate in our hapkido class was high because of no mats after green belt and the rigors of throwing, kicking, joints locks, weapons and constant sparring. Many of my friends at the time opted for TKD. The Koreans had a successful formula in NY for tae kwon do and it remained strong and sort of wiped out the rest in terms of commercial school viability (usually meaning a hapkido school had some kind of tkd class or the hapkido was way watered down to resemble TKD which is the format you mostly see these days). TKD also had their tournaments and general safety which appealed to the broader mass.

Crazy what people will do to get a black belt.

Is your school still around?
 
My school in terms of my own teaching (which is not hapkido)? I dont have a school I just teach people on a private non commercial basis or are you asking about master changs school? Master chang still teaches on a private basis with his classes now as I talked to him several times in the last few weeks.
 
My school in terms of my own teaching (which is not hapkido)? I dont have a school I just teach people on a private non commercial basis or are you asking about master changs school? Master chang still teaches on a private basis with his classes now as I talked to him several times in the last few weeks.

I was asking about the Hapkido school.
 
My school in terms of my own teaching (which is not hapkido)? I dont have a school I just teach people on a private non commercial basis or are you asking about master changs school? Master chang still teaches on a private basis with his classes now as I talked to him several times in the last few weeks.

Does Master Chang have disciples that have his permission to teach
in New York?
 
How is happykicks with david herbet?

I saw them using traditional okinawan weapons in their hapkido... which I found odd. Can anyone shine some light on this?

Also, he says he got his cert in something called the World Pro Hapkido Federation. I cant find any information on that besides an address to some school in cali that has no website.
 
Back
Top