The Biggest News of My Life as a Martial Artist

[UseoForce]

elbows, I've agreed with just about everything you've ever said on KF, but I'm not sure here.

I love BJJ and kickboxing. As you can see, I cross train in those. I also think they are very combat aplicable.

But Muay Thai, boxing, kickboxing, and BJJ essentially began as ring sport, despite what there deeper lineage may be.

Look at traditional karate, TKD, and post-olympic judo. Can you honestly say "sportifying" these martial arts helped them improve/maintain their fighting effectiveness?

I still believe in all-out, full contact training, but that is a far cry from highly organized competition.

This could really stink.

L

[ovine king]

the operative word in your post being "could".

too many variables to say anything.

if the whole thing can be worked into what the thing is now, there is no reason for it to do anything the main art.

at the most basic level, it is a safe envirnoment in which you can work some of your techniques and methods.

the problem arises when PEOPLE decide that one is better then the other and divisions appear.

No one tells point sparring people to only do point sparring. That is something they they and their school decide to do.

The art hasn't changed and as long as people keep to how things are and just ADD the competion version to it, instead of making competition a separate entity then not much should change.

[h2whoa]

The National Training Conference for Combat Hapkido was last weekend. Famous martial artists (Bill Wallace, Melegrito...) from all over teach seminars and such to International Combat Hapkido Federation members.

Some huge news was unveiled aat this event.

Apparently, ESPN really wants to Combat Hapkido competition regularly televised on their station.

Wow.

Not TKD, not TSD, not Karate, not Judo, but Combat Hapkido. We have something like 250 dojangs world wide. We're small, but apparently in demand.

Thing is, we don't have ANY competitions right now. Combat Hapkido has always been a self-defense martial art ONLY. One of the core principals of my art is we train for the street, not tournaments. Compare to Krav Maga if you will.

So after the ESPN rep finishes speaking, Grandmaster Pellegrini (the FOUNDER of COmbat Hapkido) comes up to the mike.

Wow, he says. He's absolutely shocked. While Combat Hapkido was never meant to be a competitive martial art, he knows what PR and finacial benefits this could have for our art. So he gives no final answer.

Rules are sketchy right now. From what I've heard, punching and kicking would be allowed, as well as any sort of throw or takedown. However, if the opponent is not taken down right into a submission, the fighters are stood back up. You can also win by ataining a control position, such as a standing escort lock. It seems ESPN wants to avoid the brutal and "boring" gorund combat I love so much.

I have mixed feelings about this.

+ Great exposure for Combat Hapkido

+ Possible finacial benefits

-Is it worth changing our art?

-Is our art being misrepresented?

- Will Combat Hapkido training fall the same way as so many martial arts, being diluted and blunted to conform to competition rules?

Wow.

What do y'all think?

I study combat hapkido, with the military. I am having difficulty believing they have tournaments, unless its Mcdojo style.......if we had tournaments the winner would literally be the last man standing because you would either kill,maim or break people.

[UseoForce]

That's the whole point. Combat Hapkido DOES NOT have competition. Yet.

[liquidkudzu]

If all this does happen, I will resend my Combat Hapkido rank. And be done with it forever.

Did you resend your other ranks (in other styles) when they began competing in tournaments?

lk

[elbows_and_knees]

elbows, I've agreed with just about everything you've ever said on KF, but I'm not sure here.

I love BJJ and kickboxing. As you can see, I cross train in those. I also think they are very combat aplicable.

But Muay Thai, boxing, kickboxing, and BJJ essentially began as ring sport, despite what there deeper lineage may be.

Look at traditional karate, TKD, and post-olympic judo. Can you honestly say "sportifying" these martial arts helped them improve/maintain their fighting effectiveness?

I still believe in all-out, full contact training, but that is a far cry from highly organized competition.

This could really stink.

L

In the case of judo, yeah, I do. The reason I believe it will help hapkido is for a similar reason to that of bjj, judo and thai boxing - there will be contact, I would imagine. If it's point style, then no, I don't believe it will help much at all.

[UseoForce]

I surprised how few people have actually posted on this thread. Does no one understand how HUGE this is? Apparently, this is something ESPN thinks will be bigger than the UFC!

[fallen_milkman]

Honestly, I didn't post until now because I think you're making too big a deal out of it. Competition does not ruin art forms, as long as you can seperate the ring from the street. What works in one won't necessarily work in the other. The only problem with competition based MAs is that some practise only one aspect. I am sure some TKD schools out there train in a way that they can both compete well, and fight well in defense. Unfortunaltely, everyone has seen that TKD guy that competes really well, but couldn't fight on the street to save his life. (And he might have to.)

Could Hapkido become like TKD, where a lot of people only treat it as sport? Yes. Does that mean YOU have to treat it that way? No! Keep training how you want, and if some people wanna compete with it, who are you or anyone else to say they shouldn't?

[UseoForce]

Because in an organization, what other members do can affect ME

[UseoForce]

What if the whole curriculum shifts and my instructors no longer teach me the art I love?