I was teaching at a seminar a couple of weekends ago….After performing a joint lock, someone asked me, do you then break their arm with this? Without thinking I said “no, I would never break their arm. Why would I do that?”…. then a long pause, … “Sure maybe you could.” When we look at [...]
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Transforming an enemy into a friend.
The name ‘Hapkido’ actually combines three Korean words: Hap means the coordination of mind and body, Ki is the inner power needed to create hap, and Do refers to a disciplined life. It is this concept of discipline that can be found throughout the martial arts, but what does that actually mean? To the new [...]
Where is your mind?
“Where your mind goes your ki will follow.” A student can often get dragged out of his own experience when catching sight of his reflection in a mirror. Often students’ kicks improve remarkably as soon as I hold up a target. Having a target in sight naturally enables the student to focus better on where [...]
Attending ki class a few times is not enough.
You have a cloth which you dip in coloured water – but for some reason you only dip partially – then you take out. A little bit has changed colour but not the whole. We can do this a few times, but the original colour is still more – or we can say, still being [...]
How can we re-motivate after a period of absence from training?
There comes a time in everyone’s training when suddenly it’s a little harder to motivate oneself. Even habits that have been developing over years can suddenly be held to ransom by an injury, a need to be perfect after a long break, or a life that has become a little too hectic. Master Chang always [...]