mobias

I know very little about Kuk Sul Won, my only real exposure to it is having seen it demonstrated. A friend of mine studied it for about a year also. From what I have seen of it, it reminds me *A LOT* of Hwa Rang Do.

The light saber techniques combine elements of kendo and western fencing. It got a heavy dose of martial arts in 1999 with 'The Phantom Menace'. Ray Park, who also played Darth Maul in the film, was the film's fight scene choreographer. Park is also a WuShu expert.

Quick...what's the difference between Tae Kwon Do and Tang Soo Do? About five letters...

Some kyokushinkai trivia: Dolph Lundgren aka Drago from Rocky IV holds a black belt in that system. I know that he's at least Sandan, he may be higher than that now.

Numerous circular techniques, short punches with a vertical rather than horizontal fist, double bone blocking ( radius and ulna ), not a heavy emphasis on kicking ( although there are kicks ), heavy emphasis on kobudo (weapons ).

The LW movie series is quite entertaining if you can look past all the propaganda. A steady onslaught of political correctness in those flicks has from time to time made me cringe. There have been some real good fight scenes. Riggs v. Joshua, Rene Russo v. a whole bunch of people, Jet Li v. Riggs and Murtaugh. I had never seen Jet Li before LW4, and I have only recently gotten to see that on video. The guy is awesome. If they ever make a movie of the Marvel Comics character Shang-Chi, I think Jet Li would be an excellent choice. I hear that Ray Park ( Darth Maul from Ep.1, and a Wu-Shu expert ) has been tapped to play Iron Fist. Should be good.

It's probably the single most debated subject in all martial arts forums on the internet, is TKD effective in a street fight? My humble opinion, it is certainly no less effective than any other classical martial art like Shotokan, Isshin Ryu, Goju Ryu, Shorin Ryu, Tang Soo Do....whatever. Like other posters have stated, it all depends on what your instructors are teaching you. I don't care what style you study, if all you do is punch and kick in the air, practice kata ( hyungs for my Korean style pals), and do non-contact sparring, you can't possibly expect to be effective in a fight. It's just not going to happen. TKD in and of itself does not put you at any inherent disadvantage in a fight. It's your method of training that makes the difference. That goes for any style. My background is Japanese and Okinawan karate and I feel the same about those systems as I do the Korean ones. They are no better, no worse...just different. Classical systems are fine. Kata and non contact sparring DO serve a purpose, but you have to train realistically, too.

Where offensive techniques are concerned, like hand strikes and kicking, both styles employ pretty much the same techniques. Defensively, i think Hapkido has more to offer. Not only does it use the same conventional blocks as TKD but it also has extensive takedowns, joint locks, holds, sweeps and throws. I think Hapkido is quite a bit more versatile than TKD, but that is just my humble opinion.

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.