Heckler83

Hapkido DOES teach good ground fighting techniques, however it is not anywhere near as complete as, say, gracie jiujitsu or the such. It's still more than adequate for anything involving self defense, and ive found that jiujitsu is readily useable in hapkido groundfighting situations. Long story short-yes it does teach ground fighting, and any jiujitsu or werstling knowledge you can get can be thrown in without any modifications. You see a move in jiujitsu you like, like on UFC, you can practice it in the Do Jung. The do jung I go to has an instructor that was a jiujitsu blackbelt though, and a russian sambo judo blackbelt, so it kind of depends on the school's instructors.

The purpose of Hapkido IS combat. Sure, there is a spiritual side, but as far as I know it's the whole "ki" element that many other martial arts have. The teachers I learn from talk about this, but I prefer to think that training and hard work are what make you a great martial artist, not some mystical power. Also, in hapkido (and I might not have the ranks correct) to become a grandmaster or own your own school you need to be a licensed accupuncture and accupressure specialist, as well as a chiropracter. The people who do this licensing are, not coincidentially, in Seoul. Everything that we learn at my school is combat-oriented and combat-usable.

I used a modified attack stance. What I do is that I position my feet with my front foot 2 to 3 feet in front of my back and the back foot one to one and a half feet to the right on a 45 degree angle forward and to the right. My hands are close enough to my head that I can do protective moves like cover counters or parrys, but still far enough away to protect my chest and midsection. This may or may not work for you. It's just something I like.

Could these targets be mounted to a moveable platform, like a rack with wheeles or something? They are a great idea

This is an interesting question. Even though I go to a Hap Ki Do school, I have a certian fondness for Shotokan. Probably becaue of my build. I think it's a fine system and can be very effective in a fight or competition situation. The kata's aren't meant to be pretty, their meant to be a system of movements a student can practice anywhere, once memorized. The point of the Kata is that within that kata are the strikes and movements you need to know for your style. You get knowledge on how to fight FROM the kata's individual parts. Hapkido has weapon kata, and that teaches a parson how to use the sword, or nunchaku, or cane. Think of the kata as a mnemonic.