Martial Arts

Martial arts are a way to relax, to exercise, to clear the mind, and to protect one's self and one's loved ones. Nothing makes a bad day better like a couple of hours at the dojang, and the day after I swear you will feel like a different person. There are a lot of martial arts clubs around Georgia Tech, and the one I most recently took part in was GT Hapkido, an affiliate of Black Knight Dojang.

Hapkido is a soft martial art from Korea which includes a wide variety of techniques including kicks, strikes, joint locks, and throws. The Georgia Tech class adds ground work and weapons to the mix. Thus it's a quite broad class.

GT Hapkido focuses strongly on feel over explicit knowledge. We train to recognize situations and to know down to our muscles what actions are likely to work well. Thus we do not practice forms. Instead, most classes involve a combination of simple fixed drills to practice a basic idea followed by making the drill more and more free formed.

There is no single form of sparring competition that the class teaches, and when we do spar, it is with the understanding that the rules are for safety. If you win a match using techniques that only work under the constrained rules, you can expect a bit of chiding.

Finally, this class puts a high emphasis on practicality. There are fewer techniques that are merely pretty, and there are a lot of techniques that are fast and simple. That's why ground work is emphasized so strongly: most hand-to-hand fights do end up on the ground. In stand-up fighting, we have a high emphasis on the lowly knee-to-the-stomach.

Such a focus may seem to take the fun out of the class, but on the other hand who really wants to practice techniques that are silly? All martial arts are somewhere on a spectrum between direct training for combat and unrestricted dance; GT Hapkido is closer to combat training than most martial arts.

That's my impressions of the class after a few years in it. If this class sounds like something you might enjoy, come check us out some time! New students are welcome at any class period.