The Three Principles of Hapkido

The three principles of Hapkido are the underlying concepts which help us understand how to apply and implement our Martial Art. These principles are called the three principles of Hapkido, however they are very fundamental principles which are applicable to most Martial Arts.
The first principle is Non Resistance to Force. In our Martial Arts practice we use this principle to move around obstacles and maintain our balance. This often causes our partner to loose their balance by their own intention to harm us. When someone punches us, we do not have to block force with force, we can reposition ourselves so that the punch is no longer threatening us. The principle of Non Resistance to Force is a core part of our Art, which is in some ways based on opportunity. Our style is not aggressive, however once an attack is initiated, we control and neutralise an attack very rapidly.

Bruce Lee is quoted as saying ‘in moving flow like water, respond like an echo’. This is a very poetic way of describing Non Resistance to Force. Move like water; water has the excellent property of being able to be everywhere and nowhere at the same time. Echoes – reflecting back what a partner says or does is an excellent skill for conflict resolution. Mirroring a partner’s body language can deflect angry confrontations. Reflecting back someone’s words shows you were paying attention and understood what they were saying. In both of these cases you do not give up your ideas or thoughts, you simply acknowledge your partners. This leads us in to a deeper understanding of how the first principle applies to our lives.

I believe the mental definition of this principle is about keeping calm in the face of confrontation. We often find that in times of stress we response reflexively rather than in a calm and considered manner. The idea of non resistance to force embraces the idea of ‘going with the flow’. This also helps us to understand the principle of seeking first to understand, then to be understood. When we allow the other side or the other person in a situation or a conflict to have their say, and really listen to them, then we can get a good resolution. Much as when a partner in sparring can overbalance themselves by their own attack, so can a verbal antagonist find their own resolution without us jumping in. we go with the flow and try to position ourselves side by side with our partners, rather than set ourselves up as opponents.

The second principle of Hapkido is Circular Motion. This is a way that we move which allows us to build up more energy and unleash greater power. It is an excellent way of adding strength to our attacks and effectiveness to our defensive positions. When you look at our Martial Art, there are circles everywhere. Even when we punch we rotate our first as we deliver the strike. Circular motion allows us to be more powerful in our strikes and more unpredictable. It is harder to predict where a circle will end up, compared to a straight line.

Circles are far friendlier shapes than straight lines or squares. When we think in a linear manner, we continue to think in the same way at the end of a problem or situation as we thought when we started out. When we are able to embrace the idea of circular thinking, or spiral thinking, we encompass a lot of different ideas along the way. We may still end up at the same place, but it has been a far more enlightening journey than if we had thought only in a straight line.

The final principle of Hapkido is the Water Principle. This is divided into 4 sections. The first part is to be calm and reflective. This is an important thing in a physical situation; to first be calm and think about what is happening and analyse what the correct thing to do might be. This is often enough to defuse a situation before it even has time to develop. It is also important to develop a calm attitude in the midst of fighting or other forms of conflict. There is an excellent quote from the Bhagvagad Gita which says

‘Enter into the heat of the battle and keep your heart at the lotus feet of the Lord.’

This is telling us that even when we are surrounded by noise and chaos we can still be calm and reflective. Even when we are under high pressure, stressful situations we can still keep a calm centre in the midst of all the chaos. This is the essence of being calm and reflective. It has to come from inside us or it is not there at all.

The next aspect of the Water Principle is flowing like a river. When we put our techniques together we aim to flow them together seamlessly to make a more effective attack and at the same time increase our defensive capacity. As we flow our techniques together we become a stream of moving energy, changing direction where necessary but always continuing to move. A stream is always moving in one direction though it changes course frequently. Its driving purpose is to find lower ground and it constantly moves towards this goal. Obstacles appear and the stream simply flows around them.

Another aspect of the water principle is infiltration. As water drips on a rock, eventually it either finds or creates a weakness in the rock, enabling the water to pass through, wearing away the rock over time to create cave systems and canyons. So we can continually attack in our sparring, searching for a weakness in our partner’s defence, or creating one by wearing them down. In this way, with time and perseverance we can overcome even the largest obstacles.

The final aspect of the water principle that we will consider is concentration of force. We use this aspect of the water principle as a follow up to the other principles. Once we have discovered a weakness, flowed into a good position, when we attack, we do it with the power of a wave crashing on the beach, swamping everything in our path.

The Enemy is Within

An important part of our training is to prepare ourselves for success in everyday life. In everyday life, the battle is within.

Our challenges on a daily basis are not the people who fight us. The challenges we face every day are our own doubts and fears. Our own feelings of insecurity will do far worse damage than another person attacking us.

The first enemy that you’ve got to destroy before it destroys you is indifference.

This is a tragic disease for sure. “Let it slide. Go with the flow. Whatever. I’ll just drift along.” There are many things that happen on a daily basis where we have a choice about whether we take action, even if it is only speaking up for what we know to be right. We can justify it to ourselves – there is not enough time, it won’t make a difference anyway, but this drifting attitude eats away at our authentic self over time. Here’s one problem with drifting: you can’t drift your way to the top of the mountain.

The second enemy we face is indecision.

Indecision is the thief of opportunity and enterprise. It will steal your chances for a better future. When we face indecision, many times we are facing a conflict between what we want and what is right. We know what the right thing to do is in any given situation. We need to trust ourselves that we know deep down what we ought to do, and then we need the discipline to do what is right in place of what is comfortable or easy. Indecision happens when we quibble about doing the right thing. Take a sword to this enemy.

The third enemy inside is doubt.

There is room in our head for healthy scepticism. You can’t believe everything. But you also can’t let doubt take over. Many people doubt the past, doubt the future, doubt each other, doubt the government, doubt the possibilities and doubt the opportunities. Worse of all, they doubt themselves. Without question, doubt will destroy your life and your chances of success. Doubt will cause you to walk away from opportunities and leave behind chances that maybe, who knows, could have been a pivotal breakthrough point in your life. Doubt is an enemy Go after it. Get rid of it.

The fourth enemy within is worry.

Everyone will worry, often many times in one day, even in one hour! Just don’t let it conquer you. Instead, let it alarm you. Worry can be useful. It helps you keep an edge, keep you focused so you don’t loose track of what needs to be done. But you can’t let worry loose to run rampant over your life and your decisions. To deal with your worries, accept them as potential obstacles and plot a course around them on your daily travels. Whatever is out to get you, believe you have got it covered, that you know how to deal with it.

The fifth interior enemy is over caution.

It is the timid approach to life. Timidity is not a virtue; it’s an illness. If you let it go, it’ll conquer you. Timid people don’t get to achieve their goals because they are too afraid to really try. They don’t advance and grow and become as powerful as their potential says they could be. You’ve got to avoid over caution. Don’t be afraid to take a big step when one is indicated. You cannot cross a chasm in two small steps.

Do battle with the enemy. Do battle with your fears. Build your courage to fight what’s holding you back, what’s keeping you from your goals and dreams. Be courageous in your life and in your pursuit of the things you want and the person you want to become.

In Martial Arts, we are doing battle all the time with these enemies. In classes we test and extend ourselves against these enemies in a physical way. As we succeed in these battles, we create the ability to use the same skills in other areas of our lives. We learn to stand up for what is important to us, and select our battles in a way that makes leaders.

Leaders who inspire others to also rise up and reach their potential. Leaders who do not follow the same path as those who came before, but who take the path less travelled beyond conventional wisdom to a place where they can be brave, experiment and try out new ideas.

Leaders, whether in the family, in business, in government, or in education, must not allow themselves to mistake intentions for accomplishments.

Intending to battle these enemies is one thing, however if we are not careful, we can deceive ourselves into thinking we are battling the real enemy when in fact we are turning the blame for a situation or event over to someone else, who we nominate as the enemy. When we turn the blame over to someone else, we also turn the power over to them. We give them the power to influence how we feel and how we act.

When we see the enemy as external, we get acted on. We feel, think and act as either a victim or as an aggressor. When we see that the enemy is within we regain the power to determine our own future, live our own lives. When we accept responsibility we also accept the power to change for the better, and become a bigger and better person than we are today.

The Meaning of Black Belt

Having a Black Belt is kind of like magic. People react to you differently when they see you wearing it, even if they do not study Martial Arts. It has a lot of meaning to everyone, everyone knows what a Black Belt is, or thinks they do. But any Martial Arts student can tell you, it’s not magic, it’s just lots and lots and lots of practice.

Way back in 1999, on the evening before my first Black Belt Exam, I wrote an entry in an occasional journal I keep, which sometimes makes me cringe, sometimes makes me laugh and always makes me think.

I wrote, …” That is what this arid, barren, harsh land has taught me. How to fight. Physically with my hands and feet, and mentally in throwing myself into things quite alone ad having to stand up for myself.” I went on to say that Black belt was a way to …” prove to the world I can be true to who I am… I can do things on my own, control my own life.”

You see, Black belt is something you have to do on your own. That is in no way devaluing the help and guidance you may receive from your Instructors, fellow students and friends. But if you haven’t got the spirit to stand up when there are a million reasons to sit down, all the help you have been given along the way counts for nothing. You stand or you sit. Your choice.

It’s funny, learning to fight. I have never been a fighter physically, but I have fought many intellectual battles in the past, for sometimes quite surprisingly stupid causes. I think that the discipline of Martial Arts shows you which battles are worth fighting. And the strange thing about knowing how to fight is that you come to understand that you don’t really need to fight at all. You just have to change your understanding of a situation. Then you see all the shades of okay in between right and wrong, and then the focus shifts to trying to understand, rather than trying to judge.

The hardest thing I have learnt, and, truth to tell, am still learning since becoming a Black Belt is about accountability. There are so many reasons and excuses about why not, the struggle is finding reasons why. Why you have not done something is usually about other people – “The dog ate my homework” why you do something is about what motivates you.

What usually motivates us is what is easiest to do – the path of least resistance. Follow the path your parents laid out, do what all your friends are doing, act as convention dictates you ought to.

Since I have become a Black Belt, some of these motivators have failed me. I have seen them for what they really are and have decided they are not for me. That has meant drawing up new plans about how to act, new motivators, and that has been a bit scary. Think about it – take all the values you have been taught to hold dear, and throw them away. What is left? Only you. And you have to look at you and analyse what you have there. Have you got enough value in you to live your own life by your own rules, not your parent’s, not your friend’s, but yours? I think the meaning of Black Belt is to look at that question, and whatever answers you get to it, be prepared to make the changes your answer requires.

For many people today. Mufasa’s words from the movie, “The Lion King” ring true – “you are more than what you have become.” That is a great tragedy, and the meaning of Black Belt is to make sure that statement can never be applied to you. There is another quote – “the most important thing is this, to sacrifice what we are for what we may become.” Black Belt means living that sacrifice.

All in all, Black Belt means to take control of your life. You decide your character traits, or values after a lot of honest looking at yourself, and you live those values in your life.

For me that has meant not allowing other people, especially their emotions, to affect my personal decisions. It has meant only allowing people whose feedback I value have impact on me. It has meant consulting with myself for approval first, not trying to get the approval of the rest of the world.

Even Black Belts still aspire to achieve a Black Belt. That is because Black Belt is not just the coloured belt you wear when you put on your uniform. It is living up to everything Black Belt represents, and that is something you can always strive for, no matter how long you have been a Black Belt.

Our Martial Arts Family Tree

It is an interesting thing to trace our Martial Arts family tree, and to see some of the people who have shaped our Art and been influential in the development of the Art we practice today. I started training in 1996 while I was at university. I trained under an Instructor named Mark Walker, who in turn was taught by Matthew Sung Su Kim, one of the early pioneers of Martial Arts in Australia, and with Ji Han Jae, the founder of Hapkdio.

Ji Han Jae and Bruce Lee

Incidentally, Ji Han Jae has been involved in teaching a great many Martial Artists over the years, including the legendary Bruce Lee. Grandmaster Ji Han Jae credits three Instructors as being significant in his Martial Arts training. One is a Buddhist nun known to him as ‘Grandma’ who taught him breathing techniques. Another was a man called Taoist Lee who taught him Bo techniques and more breathing techniques. His final Instructor was Yung Sul Choi, who taught him the base physical skills of the Martial Arts which we now know as Hapkido. Ji Han Jae studies with Choi in Korea for a period of about 3 years before Ji Han Jae formed his own organisation. Yung Sul Choi was a Korean who was sold into slavery at an early age. It is unclear whether he was an orphan or whether is parents sold him, however he went to Japan as the slave of a Japanese family. He was not happy there and soon ran away and ended up begging on the streets in Japan. He was taken in by a Buddhist temple, however he didn’t really get on there either as he was always fighting with the other boys. The abbot of the temple spoke to his friend, Sokkaku Takeda who agreed to take the boy in.

Sokkaku Takeda

Sokkaku Takeda was the leader of a famous samurai family. He was a prolific teacher and many of his students went on to found Martial Arts styles in their own right. Some of his students included Moreihi Uesheba, the founder of Aikido and Jigaro Kano, the founder of Judo. Takeda took Yung Sul Choi in and he became a part of the Takeda household. There is a lot of debate about the role Choi played in the Takeda household. Choi himself claims to have been the adopted son and inheritor of all the Takeda family teachings. This seems very unlikely given the prevailing attitude of the Japanese to the Koreans. The Japanese consider themselves as a superior race, and it seems unlikely that a famous Samurai family would adopt an orphaned Korean boy and pass on all their teachings to him. Contemporaries and students of Choi state that Choi was only ever a house boy and a demonstration dummy, he was never actually taught by Takeda. We will probably never know his exact position in the Takeda family, however when you look at the techniques which are in Choi’s Martial Arts and those techniques which appear in the Martial Arts of other of Takeda’s students, it is clear that Choi learnt from Takeda. After the end of the Second World War, Master Takeda died and Choi returned to a newly liberated Korea. He had some initial difficulties in finding his feet  and engaged in a range of activities, working up to pig farming, eventually, To feed his pigs, Choi would queue for the free chaff that was given away at the brewery. As he would wait in line, fights would break out amongst the pig farmers for places in the line. With the teachings of Sokkaku Takeda, Choi was easily able to defend himself and keep the best place in line.

Bok Sub Suh

His abilities were noticed one day by the owner of the brewery, Bok Sub Suh, who was interested in the martial arts. Bok Sub Su asked Choi to teach him what he knew of the martial arts, and Choi agreed. So it was that the first Hapkido Dojo was started in a brewery. At this time the art was known as Daito Ryu Aiki Ju Jitusu, which was the name given to the art by Sokkaku Takeda, and can be loosely translated as the self defence techniques of the House of Takeda. However this name was unpopular in Korea as it was too Japanese, and after the end of the Second World War anti Japanese sentiment was high in Korea. The name was therefor changed to Dai Dong Ryu Yu Sul, which means the same thing but in Korean. This name too was eventually discarded as it was too long and the art became known as Yu Sul. In time it was decided that a name incorporating the ending ‘Do’ would be desirable. This means ‘The Way’ and many arts starting at this time were using this ending, such as Taekwondo, another Korean martial art. The name Hapkido was chosen, and can be translated to mean ‘The Way of Coordinated Power’. This name gives us direction in developing our martial arts skills as we work to coordinate our mind and body to increase our power and effectiveness.

What Is Martial Arts?

What do you think Martial Arts is for? Some people might say it is for Self Defence. Some people might think it is for fitness and health. There are a large variety of reasons that a person might give. I always feel sad when people say Martial Arts is about fighting. Because that really is the last thing that Martial Arts is about. It is just the most obvious thing that you see when you look at someone practicing Martial Arts. I think everyone knows though that there is more to Martial Arts than just punching and kicking.

Martial Arts is different to fighting. Fighting has been around for a long time. Fighting systems began ever since there were two people who both wanted the same thing. Then one of them used force to get what they wanted. This does not make it Martial Arts, however.

Fighting developed simultaneously all over the world. There was no one who invented it, it just happened that there were some things that were more effective than others. This is where the development of Martial Arts is different. Martial Arts was developed by one man, Tamo Boddhidharma, a Buddhist monk from India. There is some debate about when he started teaching and developed Martial Arts, however many people put the time at around the 6^th century AD.

Boddhidharma was a member of the nobility, perhaps even royalty in India and he threw that aside to become a monastic. He lived in a monastery, living a life of simplicity and devotion. He also followed the Buddhist monastic practice of travelling. Many monks would travel from monastery to monastery and spread the teachings of Buddhism with them to the new temples they visited. Many of them also hoped to achieve enlightenment along the way. When he travelled from monastery to monastery, he did not take with him any food or anything else, just his begging bowl. You see, for a monk to beg for food, he is practicing humility and he is also giving the people an opportunity to be generous.

Boddidharma was a prolific traveller. There are stories which say he was the first person to cross the Himalayas, the highest mountains in the world. There are some very fanciful stories that he levitated himself across the mountains. While that is unlikely, it is accepted that he was among the first to travel through the Himalayan Mountains. Along the way he would have travelled for extended times in very wild areas where he would have had to learn how to defend himself against wild animals and sometimes even wilder men. He had these skills from learning a form of Indian wrestling as a young man and through his experiences on the road.

He travelled very widely through Asia and ended up in China, in the Hunan province in the north. There is a very famous temple there, the Shaolin Temple, which many of you will have heard about. However it was not famous back then, and when Boddhidharma arrived, he found a temple full of overweight, unfit monks who were unable to hold themselves still in meditation for very long. They were lazy in their care of the temple and slow in performing their tasks. They had none of the Martial Arts skills and attention to their practice and their temple which they are famous for today. Boddhidharma left the temple in disgust.

He left the temple and went to cave in the hills above the mountain. The cave is still there and you can go and visit it. He spent a certain amount of time there, some say it was nine years and others say differently. However, he was, after a certain period of time, invited back to the temple to teach the monks there.

Boddhidharma agreed to return to the temple and to teach, but he refused to teach them meditative or study based techniques. Instead, he had the monks rise early in the day and perform a range of physical exercises in the courtyards of the temple. He taught them the combat techniques he had learnt and practiced on the road. He taught them physical skills to strengthen their bodies. They practiced in silence and they worked on breathing techniques at the same time as their physical techniques.

As they learnt the physical skills and their bodies became tougher, an interesting thing started to happen. They started to be able to hold themselves still for longer in their meditation. They started to be able to focus for longer at their studies. They started to become more careful and mindful in their duties around the temple.

This is where Martial Arts really started. Right there in the Shaolin temple. It happened not when Boddhidharma brought new fighting skills to the monks. They were old techniques which had been around for a long time. It was not when the temple was attacked and monks rose up to defend their temple. It was when the physical skills of personal defence were combined with mindfulness, with a determination to increase mental growth through physical health that Martial Arts really started.

It was the bringing together of physical skills and mental skills that created Martial Arts. This is what makes it special. This is why people practice it for way longer than any other activity. It is a journey of discovery not only of physical skills, which decrease as we get older. It is a journey of discovery of our mental skills, which only increase with age and application.

This is why we say in Martial Arts that it is not the number of people that you can knock down that is important. It is the number of people that you can lift up that counts. We lift people up by our example, by our attitudes and by living by the tenets of the Martial Arts – Humility, Self Discipline, Courage and Loyalty. We lift people up when we refuse to allow bullying or taunting. We lift people up when we do the right thing, even though it is hard and it might get us in trouble. We lift people up by becoming a part of a brighter and stronger future.

As we practice our Martial Art, it is worth remembering that it is not through fighting people and learning to win competitions that we become stronger and better people. The battle is within. It is when we win the internal battles to focus on our higher purpose, to concentrate on worthwhile projects and to spend our time in improving activities that we become mighty people.

Rising from the ashes…

The Phoenix is a mythologic creature that appears in different forms in many different cultures from Europe, Egypt, Japan and China as well as many older civilisations. The phoenix bird is said to be a large bird that is like an eagle with the feature of a pheasant, and with the coloration of fire. The phoenix was present at the dawn of time and will be present at the end of time. It does not die, does not lay eggs or have young, however it will periodically make a nest of wood and expose itself to the full rays of the sun, burning itself out, then rising again, young and beautiful from the ashes to continue it’s existence in a new form. It is a symbol of the sun and of rebirth.

When I started training in the Martial Arts in November 1996 I never dreamed that I would one day start my own Martial Arts school. I started training as a university student – Biotechnology if anyone is interested – and I started because I was new to this country and wanted to connect with people in this new land, I needed to get fitter and loose some weight, and my little sisters were doing it.

Quite soon after starting training, when I was a Blue Belt in fact, my instructor became sick with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, a form of cancer affecting the lymphatic system, and he was receiving chemotherapy and someone needed to keep the classes running – and that someone was me. I had more time than most being a uni student, and I would go to the hospital and get lesson plans then go to the school and teach. Crazy times, but it refined my skills and my teaching experience very rapidly.

Fast forward to 2009 and I had been running a martial arts school full time for my instructor for 12 years. He was free of cancer, but something had changed, and it was increasingly hard for me to agree with the direction he was taking the business.

So it was a crazy hard decision, but I quit my job, my career, my passion and took up work as an administrative assistant. I really need to apologise to that company, because I was probably the worst administrative assistant in the world. If you have heard the phrase ‘bull in a china shop’ you can imagine someone who is a professional martial artist sitting quietly at a desk doing typing and filing – the little details when I am much more an overview type of person. I knew I needed to move on from that job, but I genuinely felt my martial arts days were over.

Enter Eric Jensen, a charismatic viking of a Martial Arts school owner from Western Australia. He got in contact with my partner, Nik and asked her if she would convince me to come over to WA and teach in his school. Now clearly that was not going to happen, but Nik put forward the idea that if Eric were to open a school here in Wollongong, I would probably teach in it and run it for him. The idea was born. Much back and forthing and planning and preparing later, Eric and I decided that we would go our own separate ways, and Nik and I were on our own to open a school if we wanted to. By then we were convinced we could make it happen, and a few phone calls to our fathers later, we had the financial backing to make it happen too.

We opened the school in January 2010, and we chose the name Fire Phoenix for our school. The Phoenix symbology struck a chord, as we really were reborn from the ashes of what had passed before. All the skills I had developed not only in my martial arts training and instructing, but also in other areas of my life could be brought into practice in running a school in a way that was congruent with what I believed to be the best practice for martial arts, and the best principles for who I am and we are. As well as this we had the chance to incorporate Nik’s vision for the school and how it would run, as well as her background in education to make an amazing programme of martial arts lessons, taught in a business model we could be proud of.

As we planned out our school, and spoke to many family members and friends, we had lots of advice and caution offered to us on how to make money, how to make it work, and many of our ideas were dismissed as impractical. For us, however, it is impractical to run a business by making decisions that make us feel uncomfortable. While we do need to generate income to keep the school running and our family sustained, we do not need to make every decision based on commercial outcomes. While we need to preserve the standards of the martial arts, we do not need to forget that we are teaching people first and immediately, we are teaching martial arts for the long haul.

The power of the phoenix myth is in the power to redefine our form without losing the fundamental spirit or essence that is us. As we grow in our knowledge and understanding, we come to new levels of learning. At Fire Phoenix we want both our instructors and students have the freedom to grow and change as they learn, and become the very best versions of themselves that they can be.

Hello world!

This is the first post in what I am hoping will be a long martial arts blogging career. I am Anneke Wright, and I am the Head Instructor at Fire Phoenix Martial Arts, where I am known by my teaching title, Sah Bu Nim.

Many years ago, when martial arts was taught and passed down from parents to children, with perhaps one or two friends permitted to train with the family, many important teaching stories of the martial arts were told over a meal at the end of a training session. While in our busy lives we do not have the ability to all remain after classes simply to talk, many students in my classes will attest to the fact that I can certainly talk and share stories!

I plan for this blog to be a place for students and martial arts can come and find information about their style and the history of the martial arts. I also plan to share training tips here, to post interesting information about our techniques and the theory behind them, and also the theory of martial arts as a practice.

This is intended for the students of Fire Phoenix Martial Arts, however anyone who is interested in the martial arts is welcome to read my thoughts and ideas on the subject by following this blog.

Thanks for reading, and feel free to share.