TaeKwonDo Times Magazine
Letter To The Editor
Since the last two issues of TKD Times contained articles regarding discussions of Hapkido I have been inundated with email asking for my opinion of the articles hypothesis. Because TKD Times is the voice of Korean Martial Arts I have chosen to respond to these inquiries with this letter to the editor.
Having written many articles on the history of Hapkido, I made it clear that Hapkido is a very complicated art. It not only contains proven physical techniques but also detailed psychological components. There are only a few masters who have studied with Hapkido’s founder, Choi Y.S., and are qualified to evaluate the intricateness of this incredible art. My instructor, of 40 + years, Kim Sang Cook is one as is Myung K.S. Both of these men also imminently qualified to interpret Choi’s Hapkido. I have met a few masters in Korea who also have devoted much of their lives to the study and teaching of Hapkido. While they are not known outside of Korea they are incredible instructors. My point is that in order to claim any understanding of Hapkido a student would have to be a student of Hapkido for most of a lifetime. It is unfortunate that individuals who decide not to stay and train with an instructor for any length of time feel qualified to attempt to alter proven Hapkido techniques.
Just because a student has been around for along time does not qualify that student as an expert at any art let alone give them the qualifications to modify any Hapkido technique. It would be as if a student who took a few classes on Freud decided that he knew more about the psychological condition than did Freud and then started an association stating a greater knowledge of psychology than the master.
I have no objection to student and instructor discussions regarding their training. In fact, several individuals whose articles on Hapkido have appeared in TKD Times have directly learned this information from W.O.M.A.F. There will always be students and instructors who want to find the easy way and then claim that is the best way. Not everyone wants old-fashioned, hard training. However, I am concerned when these individuals claim that they are qualified to modify techniques that they have never truly understood, much less mastered. For these individuals to use words like “more modern” or “more scientific” or even “more deadly” is an insult to Hapkido. Individuals who make these claims clarify to those who are knowledgeable that they lack understanding of the qualities of the remarkable martial art called Hapkido.
-James R. Garrison
