Hapkido: Korean Art of Self-Defense

by Scott Shaw

Hapkido, "The Way of Coordination and Internal Power," is one of the three major Korean martial arts. Founded in 1963 by Master Choi Young-Sul, it is a complete system of self-defense, encompassing, striking, kicking, and grappling techniques. Conceptually, Hapkido techniques more closely parallel those of Aikido than Taekwondo. In fact, as the author describes, these is a parental link between the arts.

In Korean Art of Self-Defense , Scott Shaw presents a precise description of the techniques, concepts, and applications of this Korean martial art of self-defense.

Profusely illustrated with 220 clear photographs, this instructional hapkido book describes and depicts self-defense techniques against a variety of punches, holds, and kicks. Hapkido has been utilized by military and law enforcement agencies worldwide, but until now little has been written on it. This hapkido guide is one of the few in English to present the essential techniques of this fascinating Korean martial art. Chapters

Genres: Martial Arts, Sports, Nonfiction

96 pages, Paperback

First published April 15, 1997

About the author

Born in the filmmaking capital of the world, Hollywood, California, Scott Shaw spent his early youth in South Los Angeles before returning to Hollywood for his adolescence. Shaw began writing poetry and long-form prose at a very young age. As his teenage years dawned he also added songwriting to his creative process.

Shaw was first published by poetry magazine in the 1970s. He continued forward and found an audience for his poetry and biographical literary fiction via journals and small presses from the 1970s into the 1980s.

By the end of the 1980s Scott Shaw had become a mainstay of martial art publications. This was based on his years of training in the Korean martial arts of Hapkido and Taekwondo, which began at the age of six years old. He also found that his writing on Yoga and Zen Buddhism were embraced due to his life-long emersion in mysticism.

Shaw, who has spent many years returning to, living, studying, and teaching in various geographical locations throughout Asia, has maintained his focus on this process and continues to be conduit for bringing Asian understandings to the Western mind. Hand-in-hand with his travels, Shaw emerged as a definitive photographer.

As the 1990s dawned, Shaw expanded his ability of capturing still images onto filmmaking. At this point he developed a new style of filmmaking that he titled, Zen Filmmaking. With Zen Filmmaking as his basis he moved forward and has made numerous films based upon this ideology.

To date, Scott Shaw has witnessed his writings published on a vast array of subjects. He maintains his focus on Eastern mysticism and the martial arts while continuing to break new ground with his works of poetry and literature.

Reviews

[Bernie Gourley · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I picked up this book, all I knew about Hapkidō was that it was a Korean martial art, that it wasn’t a sport like its more famous martial cousin—Tae Kwon Do (TKD), and that it was a more comprehensive art (grappling as well as striking) than TKD. I grabbed it because at least one of these mental reductions proved only partially correct and I wanted to know what else I might be getting wrong. In the first paragraph, I learned that Hapkidō was heavily influenced by / a descendant of Daitō-ryū Akijūjutsu. (If that art sounds vaguely familiar, it’s because it was also a big influence for its most famous student, Morihei Ueshiba—i.e. the founder of the Japanese art Aikidō.)

This book is tiny. It’s an overview of the art in less than 100 pages (and, as is common with martial arts books, at least half the space is devoted to photos.) So the first thing a reader might want to be aware of is that you’ve probably read newspaper articles with higher word counts than this book. I’ll leave it to the reader to determine whether that’s a good or bad thing.

The book consists of five chapters, but the last chapter accounts for the majority of the page count (but not the word count.) The first two chapters are histories. The first offers an overview of Korean martial arts situated in the context of national events of the time. The second chapter is a history of Hapkidō and gives one insight into Daitō-ryū Akijūjutsu and how it came to influence the Korean founder of Hapkidō, Choi Yong-Sul.

Chapters 3 and 4 examine aspects of the art that one might call “pre-basics” for lack of a better term. As ki (i.e. life force / energy, those familiar with Chinese arts might know it as “chi” or “qi”) plays a central role in the art, Chapter 3 discusses ki and describes breathing and meditation practices that are used for building energy. Chapter 4 describes break-falls and the art’s one posture / stance (a natural posture.)

Chapter 5 describes, and presents photos of, basic defensive moves of Hapkidō. There are five sub-sections that explore, respectively, the following types of techniques: disengagements (i.e. breaking away from an opponent who has seized one), joint locks, throws, punch defenses, and kick defenses.

I found this book to be concise and informative. If one is seeking a detailed overview of the art, one might want to look elsewhere. However, if one is just trying to figure out what Hapkidō is all about, it should serve you well. I doubt that an experienced student of the art would get much out of this book as it’s just the bare bones. Not everybody is looking to delve into the minutiae.

[Oz · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very introductory and brief to the concept of Hapkido. If you wanted an in-depth look into the art beyond basic history and a few photos taking up most of the 96 pages, I would look elsewhere.