All Blog Posts (200)

Dear Honoree Congratulations!

Master D. Gustavo Alvarez Prieto



You have been nominated for the 4th International Hall of Fame 2012 Awards by the MAH&FA Executive nominations committee in the category of:…

Hi All!  I haven't been blogging here in a while. Very busy with my art and martial arts! My school has announced the dates for our Black Belt test. May 13th , Mother's day. I will put my application in although I missed the pre-test. Either they will accept it or not. I have been training like crazy, dropped five pounds and feeling lean and mean. I also returned to my previous school to train with my best friend who is going through some life problems. I enjoy mixing it up once a week and…

Hello all,

After a search that seemed to take forever, I finally found the place that I plan to call home as my dojang for many years...the new space, starting with about 3000 Sq. Ft and expanding mid-year 2012 to a full 5800 Sq Ft.  I am planning to use this to springboard Jungki Kwan Midwest into a real force in the US, and we are expanding very quickly.  With Dojang in Illinois, Davenport Iowa, New Orleans Louisiana, Philadelphia Pennsylvania, RIga Latvia, London England,…

Big week coming up for me. I have a Shorin-Ryu Kenpo seminar from January 31st to February 2nd; then a Kokodo Jujitsu seminar from the 3rd to the 5th, culminating in my black belt test in Jujitsu. We'll have three sessions each day, morning afternoon and evening.

It was not planned for the two seminars to be back-to-back this way, it just worked out that way.

In Hapkido I've been reviewing basics. For a while there I was delving deeply into defenses against…

People ask me what plans have I made in preparation for the coming apocalypse (not really).

Have I stored ammo, weapons, food or water? Do I have a base of operations or shelter to go to? 

I tell them, I am a combat martial artist, soldier and warrior. I have been preparing my entire life. Anything I pick up is a weapon. Guns and ammo will be there for the taking if needed. And during the first few weeks, survival will be based upon ones ability to fight and adapt. That…

Managed to have a pretty decent first class of the year yesterday. We worked on three knife defense techniques which were pretty much new to everyone. They're based on empty-hand techniques that I know, but the weapon makes it a little different.



After an incident earlier where one guy nearly took out his own eye with a wooden knife, we're using the floppy rubber ones now. I'm fine with the wood, but would rather not have people end up looking like rejects from Pirates of the…

does anyone else have the problem with freezing up when its time to test for your next rank. i know my form i know my self defense im not to bad when it comes to sparring. everything flows great in class but when i test and its time to show what i know i seem to draw a blank my form gets real sloppy. i just kinda seem to crash.

Here's a short video about the first female Kuk Sool Won master, Choon Ok Harmon:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16420925

Her story is touching. She overcame a childhood of extreme poverty and prejudice against…

A fight happened tonight at one of the clubs I work at. At the end when we were kicking out everyone involved a drunk black guy looked at me and asked why I was being racist (even though I kick EVERYONE involved out!) My response, that I have been waiting quite a while to use:

Why are you racist! You are a racist!

Sir, I don't follow Nascar!

Sometimes getting hit and getting a shiner is a good thing.

It reminds us that no matter how good we may actually be, we are not invincible.

It reminds us that even those of us with all the experience and training in the world can always use more. 

It reminds our egos to stay in check. For all ego is, is our minds saying that we still have something to prove. 

Plus they make for a heck of an interesting story!

Was light sparring with a wing chun friend. He hasn't trained in about 2 years, so hospital control is off. It was a center line sparring and no guarding. Striking was supposed to be with open hands. Oops! Now Dan has a nice shiner and my bud feels like poop!

I kept trying to tell him not to sweat it. Everyone gets hit, especially if you are not guarding and the other guy is a few years outa practice. He thinks he defaced me. I tell him hell no. It is how things are for a…

O.K. so the supposed "End Times" are coming upon us again! Be it an end to everything, Mad Max like stuff or just a change in our over all spirituality, what as a martial artist/Hapkidoist do you see as your role in the upcoming new era!

Here's a new dilemma for me! A few years ago during Warrior Weekend , our school's annual training retreat. I took a Sai seminar and bought a set of sais. I didn't do very well and they have been sitting in my closet ever since. now you know, I am fascinated with weapons forms, although I'm not very good. Maybe the bo, because it is the first weapon I learned. 

     Our school was offering a Sai seminar with one of our senior instructors, there is a charge for these courses. So I…

Hi Everyone,   Oh no! I have a new gripe for you... So last night I attended a Friday evening Kyosanim class, each evening is a different format, Monday nights , lots of ab work  , strength training, sparring and techniques, Wednesdays :mat work, rolling, falling etc. , forms and techniques, Friday is intense bag training, all upper body , punching drills etc. Suddenly she called for 4 Warriors, no one volunteered quickly and I knew that could mean push ups so I yelled out warrior one! not…

Sgt. Rory Miller says that in the real world attackers come at you faster than you expect, hit harder than you expect, get closer than you expect, and act with surprise. He calls these the four truths of real-world combat: faster, harder, closer, surprising.

My experience tends to confirm this.

If this is so, then any martial technique is only useful if it allows us to counterattack faster, hit harder, fight at close range, and surprise the…

After watching shows like "The Ultimate Fighter" and dealing with many of the so called "MMA fighters" that come by the club, it just reinforces to me that MMA fosters an attitude that is contradictory to what we try and foster in the traditional arts. 

I see so much ego and arrogance projected through aggression and violence. (Always ready to fight and be violent, to use language as a tool to foster such) At least when the same is shown in the TMA it is shown through elitism.…

I've been looking for a sword fighting school (kendo, gumdo, iaido) in Fresno for a while, for a few reasons:

1. I was just curious.

2. Many Jujitsu and Hapkido techniques are based on sword cuts.

3. Many Jujijtsu and Hapkido techniques originated as defenses against someone grabbing your sword hand, so I thought it might be interesting to train the other side of the picture.

4. Sword fighting is cool.

5. Sword fighting could still come in handy in…

I have wondered lately, how many non Koreans have honestly trained long enough to legitimately attain an 8th or 9th Dan in Hapkido.

For me with all the B.S. out there in ranking and training I find it hard to take most non Korean Hapkidoists with high rank very seriously.

I am trying to learn one of our higher ranking forms from a tape my Sabumnim gave me. It's above my belt level and he wants me to be able to teach it. He is showing me a few steps at a time. I can't seem to follow the tape , I can't seem to work in the reverse. It's fine if I already know the steps but learning a new sequence seems hard. What is your opinion regarding learning forms from tapes? SteelyJan