Customer Reviews

Hapkido Essentials

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Hapkido Essentials is remarkable. [...] It's top rate. Essentials... means basics, YET it's barely anything than teaching the basics of the Phenomenal Art of Hapkido. It gets very serious very quickly, taught by the Best Hapkido GrandMaster in the WORLD, and I especially enjoyed the passing of knowledge regarding Neural and Vital point strike targets.

The ENTIRE series is the BEST I've ever seen, and I've seen it ALL. Buy it and you'll be quite pleased.

Let me preface this by stating that I'm a TKD and HKD instructor. I was interested in this DVD because it features Korean HKD masters and grandmasters, and I hoped to learn some new tips or teaching steps for basic HKD techniques.

Unfortunately, this DVD contains very little explanation of the techniques shown. While the people showing the techniques are generally good, they do not break down the techniques step by step. Instead, you see them do the technique at full speed a few times, then they replay the footage in slow motion, all the while there is a voice-over giving a description of what's going on.

First, while the techniques look good, I've already got plenty of footage of technique from my own home videos, and my DVD player has slow-motion playback. So this DVD is hardly worth the price just for the footage.

Second, while the explanations are correct, they are not nearly detailed enough to learn the techniques correctly. If you already know HKD, sure, you can follow along, but if you already know HKD you really don't need this DVD. My goal was to see other ways to teach basic HKD techniques, but this really doesn't contain any teaching.

Third, the nakbup section is dangerously under-explained. It shows black belt students lining up and running through moves like front-fall, back-fall, high jump-rolling, and long jump-rolling with almost zero explanation of the techniques. When I and other instructors teach these techniques, we start with drills that show proper body position and go through the motions from a much lower height and slower speed, then gradually build up. This DVD skips all that and just shows black belts doing the techniques full-speed and at full-height. It's not even a very helpful demo as you can clearly see variation in the students' technique and the voice-over doesn't mention even some of the obvious points of execution.

Also, there's no mention of the fact that these drills are done a well-padded floor (like a wrestling mat). If a novice tried the nakbup drills on a regular floor or even puzzle-mat, they could easily injure themselves.

The only reason this DVD merits even 2 stars is that at least the footage shows good execution and it covers a pretty wide array of basic HKD techniques.

Excellent DVD! There is no better video/DVD available. This is a must for all Hapkidoian!

Hapkido Essentials and the two Hapkido Self Defense volumes are great for technique review. These products are good for those individuals that are now training or having had some previous experience in Hapkido or other similar Korean martial arts. It is difficult to see the hand positions for many of the techniques. Other than that you will see super rolling, throwing, blocking, locking, rotation, and flexion.

I have practiced hapkido for almost 10 years now. This is a great dvd to buy if you want to review techniques you've already learned, get a different take on techniques you already are familiar with, or simply want to know more about hapkido. It is not, however, possible or a good idea to learn something new from this dvd. Mr. Miyagi put it best when he said you cannot learn karate from a book.

I like this DVD. It covers a ton of skills! The only think I wish it would improve on is to show more details. For new students, I would also recommend another DVD called Skills of Hapkido by 9thDan.com It doesn't have as many skills, but boy, it is extremely detailed! I think they also sell it here in Amazon too: Skills of Hapkido

I found it a interesting and useful DVD for gaining more knowledge and technques to complement my training in Hapkido.

This man is not part of the World Hapkido Federation. Possibly something out of Korea, and not the true World Hapkido Federation.