Hapkido, Kuk Sool Won, & Hwa Rang Do

Posted this link over in a thread in Korean arts too. But since it links the three's history so much, I thought I post it here too.

 

Try to ignore the feud going on in the HRD organization resulting from this accounting.

 

Personally, I don't care if mine was first or not. I love KSW and will stick with it as long as I can.

 

http://www.hwarang.org/Personal.html

What feud?

 

I really know very little about Korean styles, so please excuse my ignorance.

A lot of the original upper belts broke away from the "organization" because, they say, of the way it was being run.

 

If you read to the bottom of that link I gave, you'll see some of it. For this particular forum, I wanted to keep to the similarities he describes between these three Korean MAs.

Hey I see some Hapkido. Seriously, it is crazy that they can't (KMA community) get their heads outa their butts. We have such increadable systems in HKD, HRD, KSW and no one can take us seriously if we can't get along amongst ourselves.

 

As for the article and techniques, it sound a good bit like my Dojang as far as techniques. But my teacher is connected to all the old GM and came up with them so its no surprise to see so many simular elements.

They all look the same to me... Every time i open a book or a magazine, they seem to share the very same techniques . Weapons are the little diference i see because Hwarando and Kuk Sul won use more traditional weapons than Hapkido.

 

And the other diference are the uniforms.. but for the rest, i see the same things.

You're not the only one. From what I can tell so far, the biggest difference is that KSW and HRD use hyung, and Hapkido does not.

 

I certainly wouldn't be heart broken if I didn't have to learn any new hyung. However, I'm at the level where I'm mainly learning weapons forms now, anyway.

Amen. I burnt out on forms, and I only know the first three. And those pale in comparison to what I saw Barry Harmon do in Berkley, MI this year.

You're not the only one. From what I can tell so far, the biggest difference is that KSW and HRD use hyung, and Hapkido does not.

 

I certainly wouldn't be heart broken if I didn't have to learn any new hyung. However, I'm at the level where I'm mainly learning weapons forms now, anyway.

What is this "hyung"? Once again my ignorance seems to have gotten the better of me...

Korean forms, similar to kata.

From what I have seen, Kuk Sool Won and Hwa Rang Do are more closely related to each other than either one is to Hapkido. I am sure there are differences between KSW and HRD, but it's difficult for a casual observer to tell what they are.