Questions about Hapkido?

Question

Is there a belt system in hapkido? What is the instructor called? What kind of training is done in hapkido i.e. pushups, sit-ups and so on?

Answer 1

Hapkido is a Korean art, so the termanology is the same as Tae Kwon Do.

Student = Kub
Black Belt = Dan
Instructor = Sa Bahm Nim

As for the training, it would totally depend on the instructor. Not all teachers require push-up's and sit-up's as part of the curriculum, but some might. Here is a short list of techniques that would be common to all Hapkido schools

Pupil Degrees:

9. Kub
Defense against parallel, front wrist grabbing with one hand:
Dan Jun breathing, hand exemption, punch and chop, joint locking, throws

8. Kub
Defense against diagonal, front wrist grabbing with one hand:
hand exemption, punch and chop, joint locking, throws, 25 basic kicks

7. Kub
Defense against front clothes grabbing with one hand in following areas: All parts of the arm, shoulder, collar, lapel, belt

6. Kub
Defense against back rear grab in following areas:
shoulder, arm, embrace, nelson, wrist

5. Kub
Defense against punches:
dodge, punch and chop, joint locking, throws, kicks

4. Kub
Defense against kicks:
dodge, punch and chop, joint locking, throws, kicks

3. Kub
Defense against knife attacks from front, above, inside, rear:
dodge, punch and chop, joint locking, throws, kicks

2. Kub
Defense against attempted choking: dodge, punch and chop, joint locking, throws. special kicks, punch and chop techniques (from this Kub the white pants will be swap to black ones)

1. Kub
Defense against choking
punch and chop, joint locking, throws, combination kicks, jumping kicks, punch and chop techniques

Master Degrees:

1. Dan
Attacking techniques:
punch and chop, joint locking, throws, combination kicks, jumping kicks, punch and chop techniques

2. Dan
One- and two- hand techniques, defense against punch, defense against kicks, defense in sitting and lying position, short stick techniques, kick techniques, punch techniques

3. Dan
Short stick, long stick, cane, special breaking test, special foot and hand techniques and some more stuff

4. Dan
Short stick, long stick, chair techniques,rope techniques, special foot and hand techniques and some more stuff

Answer 2

Yes there is a belt system in Hapkido as there is in most Martial Arts disciplines. But that mostly depends on the organization the school is affiliated with in regards to how the rank level works so you'll have to ask the instructor about that.

If it's a head instructor (usually a 1st Dan Blackbelt or above) you would call him or her a Kyo Sah Nim, but if they have a Master BlackBelt (usually a 4th Dan or Higher rank) then it would be Sah Bom Nim.

in our class we do a lot of pushups, situps, v-situps, jumping jacks and such. Some other schools may also do this as well so again, you'll want to ask the instructor about it.

but we also use basic rolls: forward rolls, backward rolls, shoulder rolls, and front break falls as well as back break falls to familiarize ourselves with how we need to land to protect ourselves from injury.

Answer 3

There is a belt system; the Korean word for teacher is "sa bahm nim," although a teacher may have another title if of high rank. The training done varies by the tastes of the instructor.