From: the_dojang-owner@hpwsrt.cup.hp.com To: the_dojang-digest@hpwsrt.cup.hp.com Subject: The_Dojang-Digest V7 #146 Reply-To: the_dojang@hpwsrt.cup.hp.com Errors-To: the_dojang-owner@hpwsrt.cup.hp.com Precedence: The_Dojang-Digest Sun, 5 March 2000 Vol 07 : Num 146 In this issue: the_dojang: Dr. Kimm's books the_dojang: GM Jin Pal Kim's demonstration; Rockville, Maryland, March 4, 2000; High Noon the_dojang: brown belt test the_dojang: Kuk Sool the_dojang: Books of Dr. He-Young Kimm the_dojang: KSW the_dojang: JR West's Hapkido Seminar [none] ========================================================================= The_Dojang, serving the Internet since June 1994. 800 members strong! Copyright 1994-2000: Ray Terry, CA Taekwondo, and Martial Arts Resource Replying to this message will NOT unsubscribe you. To unsubscribe, send "unsubscribe the_dojang-digest" (no quotes) in the body (top line, left justified) of a plain text e-mail addressed to majordomo@hpwsrt.cup.hp.com. To send e-mail to this list use the_dojang@hpwsrt.cup.hp.com See the Korean Martial Arts (KMA) FAQ and online search the last four years worth of digest issues at http://www.MartialArtsResource.com Pil Seung! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: "J. R. West" Date: Sat, 4 Mar 2000 17:11:54 -0600 Subject: the_dojang: Dr. Kimm's books The "philosophy of Masters" is an excellent look at the mind-set of many famous philosophers and teachers throughout the history of Korean Martial Arts. If you read the book today, and then read it again in a year, it will have two very different meanings based on your own knowledge and personality. The book also has a series of photographs that are absolutely excellent (many taken by Dr. Kimm). I strongly recommend that any martial artist add this to their collection. In my opinion, the "HapKiDo Bible" or the "HanMuDo" text are also excellent, however, there is a lot of duplication between these two books, and the other offerings are largely duplications of the HanMuDo text. If you are interested in obtaining any of these books, call Dr. Kimm directly at 225-924-2837, and ask him to sign them. During my recent clinic in Jackson, MS, I sold approximately 60 "HapKiDo Bibles" and 8 "Philosophy of Masters", and could have sold more except I ran out! J. R. West www.hapkido.com ------------------------------ From: Ken McDonough Date: Sat, 4 Mar 2000 15:33:18 -0800 (PST) Subject: the_dojang: GM Jin Pal Kim's demonstration; Rockville, Maryland, March 4, 2000; High Noon Several list readers asked for a review of GrandMaster Jin Pal Kim's demonstration at his Jin Pal Kim Hapkido Dojang. I respectfully provide my brief review of the demonstration at his Dojang located in Rockville, Maryland. A. Preface: Thanks to Mr. Brian Beach for his directions. Thanks to GM Kim for his warmth and hospitality to me and all attendees. GM Kim has a commanding presence. He is cordial, not distant or aloof, and mingles with all visitors. One reader asked me to mention to GM Kim, Master Wong Inn Sik. I did ask and GM Kim was surprised. He advised me that Master Sik and him are close friends. I understand that GM Kim and his son, Eric Kim teach the classes. The Dojang was completely matted and with a wall of mirrors,a few hanging bags, dressing room, and workout room. Medium sized Dojang (note: I did not check out all areas). B. Background of GM Kim. I was advised that GM Kim studied under GM Ji (hope I spelled that correctly). GM Kim was the personal bodyguard for Korean President Park Chung Hee, personal security officer for the ROK Ambassador to Vietnam, and bodyguard to President Lyndon B. Johnson during his visit to Korea. GM Kim instructed U.S. Army Green Beret detachments in Vietnam and instructed bodyguards for Vietnam Prime Minister Nguyen Cao Ky. He was a leading movie star in eight major Martial Arts Movies in Hong Kong and taught Jackie Chan. Instructed Irvine, California SWAT and El Toro Marines, instructor to U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency and Marshals, Instructor to the White House Athletic Center. 10th degree Black Belt received in 1990. C. Demonstration. (1). Abdominal breathing exercises. Note: for you Kuk Sool Won students who believe Hapkido is not a true Korean Martial Art, please read Volume 1, page 12, section on Meditation and Breathing Techniques. Also page 45- Ki Breathing Exercises. (2). Conditioning and Warmup exercises: Rolling--rear, front, and so forth. Note: For you Kuk Sool Won students check page 56, Vol 1. Also check pages 89 for "Nak Bub-Falling Techniques." (3). Forms. Kuk Sool Won students check Volumes I and II under Hyung Bub, and the various level belt forms. (4). Self-Defense Techniques. Clothing grabs, two handed grabs, knife attacks, wrist techniques, grabs from behind, joint locks. Kuk Sool students see your vols. 1 and 2, respectively. (5). Board Breaking. For Kuk Sool Won students who believe Hapkido is not a Korean Martial Art, please check the "World Kuk Sool Association Official Lesson Plan and Testing Requirements" under Breaking section requirements for various belt levels. (6). Women's Self-Defense. D. GM Jin Pal Kim's demonstration. GM Kim discussed the need for control and demonstrated various cane techniques from knife attacks, punches, and attempts to grab. I loved the hooking kick technique where he hooked the Uke's punching hand, and brought the Uke down to the ground only using his leg. You can tell when in your the presence of a Master= total control, and ease of movement. E. Attendees were invited to stay after the demonstration and have a few techniques personally demonstrated with them. F. Beverages and Refreshments were provided. GM Kim then walked around and talked with attendees. I reviewed the movie posters of GM Kim. I wish I looked that good. Thanks GM Kim and your students for a fine demonstration. Sincerely, Ken R. McDonough, Major, USAF __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Talk to your friends online with Yahoo! Messenger. http://im.yahoo.com ------------------------------ From: foxdragon@cuttingedge.net Date: Sat, 04 Mar 2000 19:11:03 -0800 Subject: the_dojang: brown belt test Hello!! I just got home from testing. It was long hr and a half for our group alone to test. We did our required kicks and punches and blocks. Our forms. One, two, three step and American one step sparring. Also falls, escapes and two judo throws was required for mine. Our terminolgy. For breaking, my instructor had to be a smartalec with me instead of separate boards he packed all three together and had me break em with a kick. I gave him a sadistic look since he was holding the board holders steady and a evil smirk too. I broke em. No problem. Of course, it was dry wood instead of the usual wet we break. I passed with flying colors. Gets harder with each rank eh? Well, I have my work cut out ahead of me again. :) Donna - -- Me and my shadow ------------------------------ From: MichaelChoi@aol.com Date: Sat, 4 Mar 2000 23:35:23 EST Subject: the_dojang: Kuk Sool I agree with Ken. First, those who are honest do not deny the fact that the Hapkido founder, Yong Sool Choi studied under Sokaku Takeda of the Daito-Ryu Yawara school. Choi's students, Grandmasters Ji Han Jae, Suh Bok Sub, Kim Moo-woong, Chang Chin-il, et al. will readily admit that he trained in Japane under Takeda. Even Choi, when he was alive, admitted to that many, many times. (I consider Choi's students as 1st generation students of Choi.) 2nd generation students make the stories that Choi was a Taek Kyon master, who either went to Japan and learned Yawara or went to the mountains and practiced martial arts and came out as the master. It's folklore (to put it kindly). Although I don't justify it, these 2nd generation masters are doing it for patriotic reasons. Japan raped and humiliated Korea. As part of the East Asian world and culture, they knew that we Koreans valued nationhood and sovereignty very highly. They stripped us of our country. We felt abandoned and destroyed. The whole world did not recognize our country. They thought we were a primitive people that needed to enlightened by the Japanese to modern progress. That is why after World War II anything having to do with Japan was despised in Korea. That is why Suh Bok Sup changed the name from Yu Sool to Yu Kwon Sool. That is why Ji Han Jae changed the name temporarily from Hapkido to Kido. That is why In Hyuk Suh calls his style Kuk Sool. (Sorry Ray that this is long, but I hope everyone learns a little bit about how Korea as a nation feels after the thousands of years of struggle that we've had.) Japan took everything. Our art, our people. Their main colonial administration building was built in front of Kyong Bok Royal Palace for the explicit purpose of destroying our sense of nationhood and history. The Royal Palace was built between mountains so that when viewed from the main gate, it led to heaven. This design was to show that the Royal Court had the Mandate of Heaven to rule over the people. Why do you think there are very little evidence of Korean martial arts? Because the Japanese and other foreign invaders destroyed our historical records. Why do you think pure Korean martial arts went underground? Towards the end of Japanese rule, they forced Koreans to take on Japanese names, to speak Japanese only. They tried to erase our nation. Nevertheless, I liked hapkido and its link with Daito-ryu Yawara (a good system). I practice hapkido from instructors whose lineage goes back to Ji Han Jae, and I'm proud of it. Why? Because he, Kim Moo Woong, and friends worked to make Hapkido into a Korean martial arts. Choi lit the match, but Ji spread the fire. How do I see that? Choi's Yu Sool was the foundation, but Ji & Company was the evolution. They introduced Korean kicking techniques, weapons, and introduced totally new innovations (such as the cane). Their experience in protecting Pres. Park Chung Hee added to the evolution. So although the influence of Yawara is readily seen, it is not the same. I personally do not care that Kuk Sool promotes themselves as the Korean martial art. For one thing, if they were truly the Royal Court's martial art style, how come they failed to protect the monarchy by being destroyed by the Japanese? But that's just a rhetorical question. What really concerns me is that in no history book whatsoever does it mention Kuk Sool as Korea's martial art. Well, Kuk Sool is a blend of Koong Joong (Korean for Royal Court) Moo Sool, Bul Kyo (Korean for Buddhist) Moo Sool, and Sado (Korean for tribal) Moo Sool. Whatever. All the Kuk Sool articles that I've read, in Black Belt, Taekwondo Times, MA Training, Karate Kung Fu Illustrated, etc, it all looked like hapkido to me. The only unique thing that I saw was palm techniques. In Dr. Kimm's Hapkido Bible, he writes that In Hyuk Suh substituted for Kim Moo-woong where he introduced his palm techniques and developed a following. In my book, I view him as a hapkido man. In conclusion, Korean masters are trying to throw off any association with Japan in order for their own national pride and to promote more Koreans to take their martial art styles. Speaking for myself only, they don't need to. For today's Korean martial arts, particularly hapkido & taekwondo, they truly are Korean martial arts developed by Koreans with Korean flavor. As a Korean American, I'm proud to say that I practice hapkido, a Korean martial art. Sincerely, Michael Choi ------------------------------ From: "Jere R. Hilland" Date: Sun, 5 Mar 2000 09:49:34 -0500 Subject: the_dojang: Books of Dr. He-Young Kimm Alain, get the book "Philosophy of Masters". I have seen a lot of similar books written by a Japanese stylist but not a Koeran one. Dr. Kimm's book is good. It is also written in Korean and English for those trying to learn the language. You will find the left side of the page is in Korean, the right side is in English, and each page has a picture. The sections are, General Background of Korean Phylosophy, Zen Masters, Confucian Masters, and Martial Arts Masters. Most sections have about a dozen chapters except for the first which only has two, The Greatest Zen Masters in Korean history and Brief History of Korean Philosophy for Masters. It is thicker than the hapkido bible and of course, is also in hardback.... Jere ------------------------------ From: YMCATKD@aol.com Date: Sun, 5 Mar 2000 11:23:50 EST Subject: the_dojang: KSW GM Choi was taken from Korea to Japan when he was young and served as a houseboy for GM Takeda. GM Takeda was the instructor for GM Ushieba(founder of Aikido). Depending on who you speak with GM Choi either was not a student at all to he was taught privately by GM Takeda......but we will probably never know exact details. The style which GM Takeda taught was called Aiki-Jujitsu. Later GM Ushieba made his style more of a religious or spiritual pursuit and called it Aikido. If we read about GM Ushieba we will hear about Ushieba's early or pre war way of doing things versus his later or post war way of doing things......early more martial and later more spiritual. My personal feelings are that since GM Choi learned AikiJujitsu from GM Takeda who taught from martial arts point of view.......pure Hapkido is very close to if not totally Japanese. We have to remember that Hapkido as GM Choi taught is not taught anymore. I read a old magazine interview year back with GM Ji who was GM Choi's senior student.......he stated that GM Choi never taught kicks and that these were added by the himself and other students that studied TKD and Taekyon. As for KSW.....GM Suh studied Hapkido under GM Choi for sometime. The big thing here is during the 60's and 70's......present day practioners or their predesors of KSW, KJMS and HKD all hung out together trading techniques and sharing with each other. Futher I have heard from a couple of people that some Japanese Aikido people were in Korea from time to time and they would workout with Korea martial artists exchanging techniques and info. The reason why everyone back then was trading info was supposedly during the Japanese occupation, the Japanese had killed off almost all Korea masters so now everyone was looking to re-create Korean martial arts. Anyone who practices Korea martial arts has to understand and accept that there is a great deal of Japanese influence in our arts. Just look at the uniform most everyone uses.....it is the same Gi used in Japan for karate! KSW and KJMS practioners have heard of Ki Bon or basic .....in Japanese its Ki Hon. My thoughts are that it does not matter at this time that GM Choi techniques came from Japan since we are just practicing martial arts. Its nice to know history but whats inportant is what we know and do. I think that HKD, KSW and KJMS will never be very popular since most all practioners keep making their own styles or associaitions and most will never "hangout" with other practioners and trade info. I think it would be better for all of these related styles to form one organisation with a main program so that we could grow internationally like TKD. Although a big organisation can create problems it could also serve to help us organise and reach certain goals too. Anyway I am rambling.....thanks for listening..... Andy hometown.aol.com/ymcatkd ------------------------------ From: "Mac" Date: Sun, 5 Mar 2000 00:49:38 -0600 Subject: the_dojang: JR West's Hapkido Seminar Howdy Y'all, (that's Texan for hello) In responding to a private e-mail about how JR West's seminar was, I wrote her a lengthily report. My friend though it was good enough to forward to the list. I was going to, but I though Michael Choi did a very good job already, so I'll add a little different information about things I learned. (plus, knowing JR is on this list - he would just think I'm trying to kiss up or something ;-) One of the things I realized that I kept telling/writing others about was not just the training and instruction, but the great people I met. There were 15 minute breaks between sessions, plenty of time for lunch, and during breakfast, dinner, and just around the hotel to mingle. That is also time well spent learning things you could also bring back to your dojang and use. An example: During breakfast, I was talking with Master Hodder from CO. (7th Dan TKD). As I have mostly children in my class, we were talking about thing to do with kids. He gave me some excellent ideas. It had to do with helping them to remember and perform forms under pressure, as in getting ready for tournaments. Later, while talking to Master Mike Reed from LA (4th Dan HKD) during a break, he also gave me some ideas along the same lines, but from an entirely different perspective. Master Reed was talking about helping students to "know" their techniques without having to think about them. I later realized just how similar both of them were and their drills to help students were also very close. So I went back to my dojang and tried them. My students loved it. Master Hodder's approach was to have students doing their forms, while different people asked them questions. If they hesitated or messed up, there would be something like pushups or jumping jacks,etc. Another way was just to scream at them or walk in front of them and get in their face. I've seen little kids cutting across the rings during competition and all the cheers and yelling going on, so I could see this would be good training. Master Reed said they practiced even basic techniques doing some sort or mantra/saying (in Korean). This caused them to be able to perform their techniques with out thinking about them - because you could have only one thought in your mind at a time. To carry this further, if someone was doing their forms, they could recite their "ABC's" for example. My students found this fun and challenging. I had them all sit around in a circle, and had one student in the middle perform his hyung. I went around the circle letting the other students ask any question (of course easy ones). If they hesitated or messed up, they owed me 10 jumping jacks for each offense. I had a new beginner (white belt) who had just learned his form do it. For him, I just had everyone talk to him or about him, maybe even joking about him while he did his form or in general just try to distract him. The next day I had them do the same thing, but recite their ABC's while doing their forms. They didn't do all that badly. The only thing is, I think everyone can do ABCs in their sleep, so I think next time I'll have them count to 10 in Korean, something they have to actually think about. Now we'll see how well they do.... Anyway, I found the time not spent on the mat just as valuable as on the mat. I was using my time to find out about how others do drills, work with kids, run class, etc. It was great, and everyone was very open and ready to share information and help each other. I think Jere.... ugh... Master Hilland and I kind of gave a Korean Martial Arts history class in the hot tub . I know, we were supposed to be relaxin', but you just don't turn off after you leave the dojang. I learned a lot, not only about HKD and martial arts, but how Chris tried to save the donkey and other war stories ..... Y'all should go if you ever get the chance. Start planning on it now, JR West has it every Feb. & Aug. around the end of the month. Even if you can't make it all 3 days, at least come in for Sat. You still get a full day of training and meeting new friends for only $65 (pre-registered). Add in the Friday night sessions and Sunday Sessions and you've got a deal you can't beat or afford to pass up. If you can't make it there, he and the Mrs. travel around to various seminars that may be near you. Check out his web site for a listing and plan on attending at least one. (http://www.hapkido.com) I seriously doubt you'd be disappointed. By attending the seminar at his place in Jackson MS, you get the bonus of meeting others from around the country, and some not from this country, and they're not all just only HKD people. There were TKD, HDK, TSD, Shoto Kan, and Isshinryu (maybe others) to name a few. I hope all this made sense.... it's almost 1:00am here. Yours in the arts, Master Mac, Oh-Dan Moo Duk Kwan Tang Soo Do ------------------------------ From: Ray Terry Date: Sun, 5 Mar 2000 10:34:10 -0800 (PST) Subject: [none] ------------------------------ End of The_Dojang-Digest V7 #146 ******************************** It's a great day for Taekwondo! Support the USTU by joining today. US Taekwondo Union, 1 Olympic Plaza, Ste 405, Colorado Spgs, CO 80909 719-578-4632 FAX 719-578-4642 ustutkd1@aol.com http://www.ustu.com To unsubscribe from the_dojang-digest send the command: unsubscribe the_dojang-digest -or- unsubscribe the_dojang-digest your.old@address in the BODY of an email (top line, left justified) addressed to majordomo@hpwsrt.cup.hp.com. Old digest issues are available via ftp://ftp.martialartsresource.com. Copyright 1994-2000: Ray Terry, CA Taekwondo, and Martial Arts Resource Standard disclaimers apply.