The way of coordination and internal power
- Mr. Wilkerson has been teaching Hapkido since 1999. His 29 years of experience also includes Tae Kwon Do, Arnis, and Shorin Karate.
Wednesday 6:30 to 8:30 Kelly Rec. Center 404 Imperial Blvd, Lakeland (863) 834-3284 $6.00 per class
Questions: JDW.Wilkerson@gmail.com
Hapkido is a dynamic and eclectic Korean martial art. It is a form of self-defense that employs joint locks, punches, kicks, throws, and weapons.
Learn traditional skills along with present day application. All classes are professionally taught and open to men and women 14 and older.
Students learn how to strengthen mind and body and fusing these with practical skills and techniques. A trait of long time students is a since of peace and wellbeing.
Hapkido is considered a soft and hard style Martial Art. Its method of using an opponent’s force and energy against themselves allows a smaller and weaker student to face larger and stronger opponents. This allows the student to develop skills that best match their aging body and physical size. Women and smaller sized students are capable of developing skills that allow them to defend against multiple opponents much large than themselves.
Kicking is taught as a support to the hands and high kicks are not necessary to be effective. Individuals are taught techniques on physics and body dynamics and not how to overpower an opponent simply with muscle and weight.
Hapkido is a complete martial art and also provides physical conditioning which improves balance, posture, flexibility, timing, quickness, muscle tone, joint strength and most importantly, confidence through physical and mental discipline.
A common credence of the art is – One should always try to avoid violence, but if someone grabs you, attempts to strike you, or physically assaults you in any way, it has escalated beyond words, and you are left with the only option which is to defend.
Hapkido has long been popular with various special military units and police organizations throughout the world because it allows the student to control the amount of force needed for a situation. Students are taught to measure the needed force and act in a moral and decisive way.
Typical Class Schedule – two hours
- 15 minutes warm up and stretching
- 15 minutes falls and rolls review and warm up
- 30 minutes review of basic grabs and break-frees
- 10 minutes core muscle building
- 30 minutes reaction based street skills and one step counters
- 20 minutes kicking, sparring, open skill usage
Skill Areas:
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Concepts:
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Sparring – Yes we do spar, it is approached from the perspective of skill training. Also the need to develop a creative reaction environment must be presented. Sparring is not point based and used only for skill training not competition.
Children –I am not supportive of teaching young children all the joint locks that Hapkido is built upon. Children also lack the physical strength and coordination to perform many skills as well as the mental maturity for this type of art. The minimum age is between 12 and 16 depending upon maturity.
I teach concepts and not standardized techniques. We start with a standard technique to learn how it works and then the student is expected to be able to apply the concept to many different encounters.
Wrist locks are a prime example. We as larger men think nothing of doing wrist locks but for women or smaller men the need for support structure from the second hand or other parts of the body might be required.
This approach allows each student to learn what the techniques do but also how to blend them to meet their physical capabilities. In reality they all learn the same thing. As we get older our bodies change and the lessons you teach smaller men and women are the same lessons old men need. We just need different things at different times in our lives