Hapkido Principle Stacking Strategy by Grandmaster Ronald Stone

Hapkido Principle Stacking Strategy by Grandmaster Ronald Stone

                                       Principle Stacking in Hapkido

When the founder of Hapkido, Choi Young Sool began teaching in Korea his teaching method consisted of principle based education rather than technique based instruction.  There are 600 base Hapkido techniques and six tools to utilize each technique, making a total of about 3600 variations of technique.  It wasn’t until much later that others began using technique based teaching in their dojang. 

There are two reasons this happened.

The first reason was that many of the later instructors had never actually studied with Choi or his immediate disciples and never learned his thirty six principles so all they could do was mimic techniques.

This sadly applies even to famous instructors who have their own Federations (not recognized as legitimate in Korea).

One of the legends of the martial arts who recently has passed away only studied with Choi as a child for a couple of years and never learned the adult class principles of true Hapkido.  Today worldwide federations have grandmasters who never even heard of the thirty six principles, and aren’t familiar with the six tools used for these principles.

Such Federations are often recognized by the promotion of students to 10 dan, a rank not recognized by any of the 70 Hapkio Federations in Korea.  Since in Korea nine is a sacred number, a 10 dan is only given posthumously as an honor for a distinguished lifelong career.

The second reason why a dojang might not use principle based teaching is more sinister.  With 3600 technique variations if you teach your students one technique per class they will pay you practically forever to learn, as opposed to learning 600 techniques and the six tools to use them.

          Principle stacking refers to the use of two or more of Choi’s principles to enhance effectiveness.

As an example, one of the principles is called gravity enhancement.  In other words if while applying a technique, say for example a joint lock, were you to drop your weight down by bending your knees the result is far more

powerful.  Stacking two techniques like this would be to combine off balancing with gravity enhance body weight in motion.

          Another example of principle stacking would be to counter a punch with internal and/or external rotation and then to utilize another priciple like gravity enhanced body weight in motion.  Many Hapkido practitioners are familiar with the first three principles such as the Circle Principle, the Principle of Non resistance and the flow principle (be like water), yet are oblivious to the other priciples.  Such principles are taught at instructor courses, and by this I do not refer to weekend demos that do not teach a master or grandmaster exactly how to organize a curriculum or to teach the art, but merely have several practitioners demo a few moves over a weekend.

          If you have never heard of the principle of the circle beating the line or the line beating the circle you can practice technique after technique and still not fully grasp the true art of Hapkido.  Imagine practicing baseball for

years by merely throwing a ball, swinging a bat, and running endless bases, without knowing what a curveball  or a dropper does in motion,  or when to sacrifice with a bunt versus what field to hit the ball to and when.  It is the same idea.

About the author: R.W. Stone is currently a practicing veterinarian in Central Florida.  He is an avid horseman, a master ranked martial artist, a best-selling western author, and a firearms enthusiast. After joining a martial arts school in 1970 Stone started studying Yudo with a Korean grandmaster.  He eventually became a member of the Judo team of the University of Illinois.  It was at the University that a Korean classmate and friend introduced him to Tae Kwon do.  After graduating veterinary college, he found the martial arts becoming too sports oriented and eventually after moving from Miami to Central Florida he sought out a Hapkido grandmaster. Currently Stone is ranked 8th Dan in Haemukwan Hapkido, a 4th Dan in Daehan Yudo and a second Dan in Kukki Taekwondo.  He is the Hapkido instructor at the American Dragon Martial Arts Academies.

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