Anyone familar with GongKwon Yusul ?

[IcemanSK]

According Wikipedia, it came to Austin, Texas in 2011 from Australia (via Brazil) & Willie Nelson tested for 5th Dan in Art in 2014. It's a combination of Kickboxing, Hapkido (more BJJ than traditional Hapkido) and Judo.

I'm looking to see if anyone has a connection to the Art, or who knows something of it.

[bushido_man96]

That's not one I've heard of. It would be interesting to hear from someone that does practice it.

[guird]

My gym recently started offering it, and I decided to try it out. Only had a few lessons, and as I am the only student with prior experience it was mostly just taking people through some basics. I'll keep you updated and let you know more once I've experienced a bit more of it. I have a rough idea of the competitive ruleset from what the instructor explained. It's bare-knuckle, with striking rules similar to knockdown karate (full contact punches and kicks to body and legs, no punches to head), with the modification that the match is considered over if any contact at all is made with a kick to the head. I'm guessing that is to keep practitioners in the habit of keeping their hands up without placing them at too much risk. The rules regarding grappling I know less about, but I think it's more or less submission grappling. A dobok is worn.

looking around the internet it seems to be often marketed as korean MMA. The training has a lot of traditional elements however, with specific etiquette, kyups etc. Probably also depends on the instructor.

[bushido_man96]

Sounds interesting. Please do keep us posted on what you learn about the style. Sounds like it has a little Kyoukushin flavor to it. Add in the grappling, and it sounds like its pretty well rounded.

[guird]

Hi all,

So I've been doing GKYS for a few months now, and I have a better idea of what it's like.

my first impression was more or less right, but there are a few things I didn't know at first.

So starting wth the competitive ruleset: the striking USED to be full contact, but according to an official looking website they have been light contact only since 2010. The reason for this was that only a small proportion of students were entering competitions, so they resticted the contact level to make tournaments more accessible. I understand this, but feel that light contact competitions should have been in addition to existing full contact ones, rather than replacing them.

One of the things I wanted to get out of GKYS was the opportunity to compete in a full contact hybrid ruleset without running the same risk of brain injury I would in an MMA fight.

There also seem to be more restrictions in the grappling component than I thought. Although double and single leg takedowns are taught as basic material they are currently not allowed in competitions for reasons that don't seem to translate well into english. Maybe a korean speaker can explain them to me? http://www.gongkwon.net/bbs/board.php?bo_table=e_sub0601&wr_id=11

groundfighting has a time limit and the fight is restarted from standing if either of the grounded competitors places the soles of both feet on the ground.

Some additional things about the curriculum:

GKYS has forms. Unlike the forms I've seen in tkd and shotokan the movements more directly resemble those used in sparring and competitions. The hands are kept up, the blocks kept short, the footwork consists of small shifts and pivots rather than steps and lunges. Additionally, the forms come in pairs, one purely of attacks and one of blocks and counters. If two people do corresponding forms in a pair while standing across from one another it turns into a partner drill.

Most of the techniques are familiar to me from kickboxing, MMA, BJJ and TJJ (the judo throws in TJJ specifically). Some techniques are done differently, as a different variation, for example the double-leg in the curriculum is done straight forward to open guard as opposed to diagonally to side mount, a throw similar to a fireman's carry exists, but with the leading knee up (the leg is standing on the foot) and done quickly so that (ideally) no actual 'carrying' takes place.

Although no punches to the head are allowed, they do drill head-level punches and elbows. In particular the hook punches are interesting, as they taught only as very tight, very short, very fast hooks with the fist turned over to the point where the palm faces away from the puncher.

One thing that I like is that in the curriculum there are some of the fastest and smoothest throw to submission transitions I've ever seen. When it goes well, it's possible to shoulder throw someone and have your thighs around their upper arm before they hit the ground. I'm hoping to learn to pull this off consistently in sparring, but first I need to learn to set up that shoulder throw in the first place (any tips? every noob knows how to pull back against someone pulling them off balance, I need some sort of misdirection or a different technique to threaten them with. I'm talking morote seoinage in particular here).

As one last note, GKYS training is the first time I've experienced actual benefits from kyups/kiais. The instructor says the reason they do them in GKYS is that it helps you get focused, helps you stop overthinking things. I didn't buy it at first and just wrote it off to traditionalism, I never had that effect in shotokan or tkd, and indeed I didn't have it in GKYS drills either.... until we did punching combinations with pads. A kyup on the last strike of the combo really did wonders for my focus. I'm still skeptical about shouting the rest of the time, but in this one case it worked.

I hope people get something out of this information!

[bushido_man96]

Thank you for this run-down, guird. Great information! Let us know how you get on with training!