Develop Your personal defensive methods of combat using the Five Elements.

Chon-tu Kwan Hapkido (Combat Hapkido) can use the Five Elements of Earth, Water, Fire, Wind, and Void to help you delve into your own capability. Each Element gives you the opportunity to develop techniques, principles, strategy, and a mindset.

Earth
The Earth element is where you start, developing a sense of stability, boundary-setting, and the foundation movements of Chon-tu Kwan Hapkido. You will learn punches, kicks, and special strikes. You’ll learn how to roll safely when you fall, how to keep your balance so you don’t have to fall, and how to deliver power through your skeletal structure, no matter your strength. You’ll also learn how to defend against the 12 most common attacks in America today, including punches, kicks, slaps, tackles, grabs, and restraints.

Water
In the Water element you learn to change position and perspective to get a better angle on the problem. You’ll learn how to apply your strikes in motion, along with advanced rolling skills, joint locks, arm-bars, and ground survival techniques. You’ll also develop the power of the fluid shock wave, where timing and shifting weight provides a surprising surge of power at just the right angle. You’ll develop your skill against 12 more attacks that are likely from an experienced attacker, including multiple punches, ground take-downs, headlocks, hammerlock restraints, “bear hug” grabs, and attack combinations.

Fire
The Fire element builds on these skills by developing your sense of connection and timing. You’ll learn how to recognize the perfect moment to move, along with developing hurdling skills, throws, and fighting from challenging positions. You’ll learn 12 more defenses against experienced attackers, including how to counter a speed jab punch, an overwhelming shove, being kicked while on the ground, and being pulled off your feet.

Wind
In the Wind element you will explore freedom of movement and how to let the attacker’s energy become their own problem. You’ll learn to evade the attacker in such a way as to unbalance them and direct them to the ground effortlessly. Along the way, you’ll learn advanced joint lock techniques, throws, break-falls and striking techniques, plus how to read an opponent’s precontact cues so well that you can move with their attack even as they launch it.

Void
The Void element is the last of the five before Black Belt. You’ll learn to perceive the dynamics of the fight with enough simplicity that you can efficiently position yourself inside the action, take control in the best way, and end the fight on your terms. You also learn further techniques in advanced rolling, joint control, choking, and balance control.

Black Belt Degrees
Black Belt training goes on from there, uplifting the Five Foundation Elements into techniques of the mind and spirit as you advanced through degrees of Black Belt toward mastery.

What a journey! Are you ready to begin?

School is starting and that means once again our children will be seeing people who are bullied.
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A bystander is a witness, in this case, a witness to bullying, someone who sees another person getting physically, socially or verbally intimidated. A bystander is commonly seen as a fly on the wall, an observer helpless to step in. A bystander has just as big a role as the Bully and the Victim.

They can do one of three things:

1. Stand up for the Victim
2. Help the Bully
3. Do nothing

When teaching courses in classrooms I follow this statement up with one question, “Which one are you?” Most of us do nothing when our friend or a classmate is being bullied, they stand idle and watch. Doing nothing as a bystander helps the bully. The bully wants to draw attention to the situation and have people watch, by standing in the audience, we are helping. This statement is unsettling.

The eager students will shout out, “You need to help them!” The majority of bullying is uprooted when a bystander steps in. All it takes is one person to stand next to the victim, and the bully will turn away. It’s our jobs as parents and older siblings to teach the young to stand up for one another. We can all stand up against Bullying.

There are a few strategies bystanders can use to help out the Victim, but not put themselves under the bully’s foot:

1. One of the best ways to help is inviting someone to be in your group. If you see someone who is sitting by themselves at lunch ask them to join you and your friends. If your teacher asks the group to pair up and there’s an odd person out, have them join your group.
2. Another great way to help out the target is making a distraction. If you see someone getting bullied you can pretend you don’t even know what’s going on and run up to the target and make an excuse to get them out of there:

                        “Hey Karen, Mrs. Smith is looking for you, she’s in her office.”
                        “Paul, where have you been, I need that book I lent you. Let’s go to your locker.”

I see Hapkido as anti-bully training. It teaches you confidence and the ability to assert yourself and stands strong for what you believe in. Remember, Parents, teachers and Sensei’s are excellent people to talk to. They are your support system and can give you advice. It is your job to stand strong.