Hapkido
합기도A Korean art of locks, throws, kicks and strikes rooted in Daito-ryu aiki-jujutsu. It competes in demonstrations of techniques and forms, with several organisations and grading systems.
Quick Facts
South KoreaCharacter & Origin
Training
Who It Suits
Organisation & Competition
What the style is built from
Editorial rating on a 0–3 scale, based on how much room each area gets in ordinary training.
Comparisons
Catalogs & Databases for Hapkido
About Hapkido
Hapkido is a Korean art that combines joint locks and throws with kicks and strikes. Choi Yong-sool (1904–1986) is regarded as its founder. By his own account, he lived in Japan from childhood and studied Daito-ryu aiki-jujutsu under Sokaku Takeda. Takeda’s records confirm only a shorter period of study, and some researchers believe he learned mainly from Kotaro Yoshida. We have not been able to document the year of origin: Choi began teaching in Daegu in 1948, in 1951 he opened the first school with his first student, the judoka Seo Bok-seob, and the name hapkido became established in the late fifties.
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The locks, mainly on the wrist and elbow, come largely from Daito-ryu, and the throws also from judo. The kicks include low sweeping kicks and spinning heel kicks, and the strikes include strikes with the hand and elbow. Advanced syllabi add weapons: the short staff danbong, the staff, the rope and the sword. The syllabus of the Korea Hapkido Association from 1991 places defence against grabs, strikes, kicks and a knife in the exam for 1st dan. The principles given are hwa (harmony), won (circle) and yu (flow). A typical lesson includes practice of techniques in pairs, falls, sparring, meditation and gi exercises. Ground fighting was traditionally practised more in self-defence sets than in free fighting. Competitions take the form of demonstrations of techniques, forms and self-defence, for example at the Iowa Games tournaments or at the World Championships in Changnyeong. We have not found unified sparring rules. Hapkido has no unified international organisation. Ji Han-jae founded the Korea Hapkido Association in 1965, and alongside it arose the Korea Hapkido Federation, the World Hapkido Federation and others. The systems of grades differ by organisation, and many schools adopted from taekwondo ten student grades, gup. Hapkido was brought closer to Western audiences by the films Hapkido (1972) and Billy Jack.
History
Choi Yong-sool (1904–1986, some sources give 1899 as his birth year) is regarded as the founder of hapkido. By his own account, he was taken to Japan as a child in 1912 and studied Daito-ryu aiki-jujutsu under Sokaku Takeda for about 30 years. Takeda's documents, published by Kondo Katsuyuki, confirm only a shorter period of study, some researchers believe he learned mainly from Kotaro Yoshida, and Choi gave two different versions of his story in 1962 and 1982. Choi began teaching in Daegu, in 1946 according to the daily Segye Ilbo, in 1948 according to other sources. His first student was the judoka Seo Bok-seob. In 1951 the two opened the first formal school, Daehan Hapki Yu Kwon Sool Dojang, and in 1958 Choi opened a school under the name Hapkido for the first time. Sources date the shortening of the name to 1959, Ji Han-jae claimed 1957, and in a 1980 interview Seo Bok-seob credited Jung Moo Kwan with the first use of the term.
Technique
Joint locks, mainly on the wrist and elbow, come largely from Daito-ryu and target both small and large joints. Throws come from joint manipulation and from judo, which also influenced the ground techniques (Wa Uul and Jwa Sul). The kicks include low sweeping kicks, spinning heel kicks and, at an advanced level, blade kicks. Kicks to higher targets, spinning and jumping kicks, which Choi’s system did not contain, were added by Ji Han-jae and Kim Moo-hong, who completed the kicking syllabus in 1961. The strikes include strikes with the hand and elbow, blocks and counterattacks are called makko chigi, and pressure points (hyeol) are struck or manipulated. The weapons are the knife (mainly defence against it), the short staff danbong (35 cm), the staff, the long staff, the rope, the sword and nunchaku.
Training
A typical lesson includes practice of techniques in pairs, falls (nakbeop), sparring, meditation and gi exercises. Ground fighting was traditionally practised more in self-defence sets than in sparring. We have not found the form of sparring, the degree of resistance and the contact according to organisations. The syllabus of the Korea Hapkido Association from 1991 arranges the content by dan: 1st dan simple and jumping kicks, throws and defence against grabs of the wrist and clothing, against strikes, kicks and a knife, 2nd dan chokes and defence seated and on the ground, 3rd dan counter-locks, the short and long staff, 4th dan the sword and defence against multiple attackers, 5th dan using the opponent’s force, the rope and resuscitation techniques. Only some schools teach forms (hyeong), and some systems adopted them under the influence of taekwondo.
Ranks and progression
Before the seventies hapkido used five belts: white, yellow, blue, red and black. Many of today’s schools adopted from taekwondo ten student grades, gup (white 10th gup, yellow 9th to 7th, blue 6th to 4th, red 3rd to 1st), followed by 1st dan with a black belt. The systems differ by organisation. The minimum age for 1st dan is 16 or 18 years depending on the organisation, and since the late seventies younger practitioners can obtain a junior black belt (1st to 3rd pum). We have not found the rules of the organisations, who awards the grades and how they are recognised between them. Succession after Choi is also disputed: in 1985 Choi named Chin-il Chang as his successor (doju).
Who it suits
The World Championships in Changnyeong (2026, Byeonkwan Hapkido Association) have five divisions from kindergarten through elementary and middle school and high school to the general division, so children of preschool age compete too. Competition is in demonstrations, not in bouts. We have not found the age limits of the divisions, techniques forbidden to children, protective gear or the minimum starting age. At the Iowa Games there is a mixed pairs discipline. The only injury study found is a survey by Yudistira, Khasanah and Sefriana (SURYA 2021) among 60 hapkido practitioners in the Indonesian province of Lampung (53.3% women): 50.9% of injuries affected the ankle, 44.4% joints and ligaments, and 50.9% occurred during technical training. The sample is small. We have not found a study of fitness benefit or programmes for women and seniors.
Competition
We have not found unified sparring rules or an Olympic or World Games status. The competitions found take the form of judged demonstrations. At the Iowa Games (rules from 2016) a pair demonstrates four techniques, and in a tie a fifth decides. Coloured belts defend against predetermined attacks (a grab of the wrist, shoulder and lapel, a push, a strike), while black belts choose their attacks. A jury judges practicality, effectiveness, timing, execution and presentation. At the 9th World Championships in Changnyeong (July 2026, Byeonkwan Hapkido Association) there is competition in forms with bare hands (kwonbeop) and with a weapon (staff, sword, nunchaku), in self-defence, the long fall, breaking and speed kicks, and teams of three and five perform demonstrations. A jury judges precision, artistry, difficulty and mastery. There is no sparring among the disciplines listed.
Gear
At an advanced level, according to Scott Shaw, a hapkido author, it is taught with the long, medium and short staff, the walking stick, a rope or belt, and the sword. Shaw says Ji Han-jae was first to include the short staff dan bong, the medium staff jung bong and the walking stick in instruction. The related Kuk Sool includes, according to Kyunghyang, techniques with the pole, sword and staff. We have not been able to confirm clothing and protective gear regulations from federation sources. The Korea Hapkido Federation publishes requirements for the 1st to 5th dan examinations, but we could not verify their content.
Philosophy
The principles hwa (harmony), won (circle) and yu (flow), often cited for hapkido, are named by the daily Kyunghyang as the three principles of the related system Kuk Sool Won. We have not found any hapkido organization that formulates them in this way. A typical class includes meditation and exercises for the inner energy gi. Yoon Dae-hyun, founder of the Korea Aikido Federation, who practiced taekwondo and hapkido as a child, described hapkido in a 2025 interview as completely different from aikido, in spirit and philosophy as well.
Styles and schools
Hapkido has neither a single organization nor a single style. Choi Yong-sool, who studied Daito-ryu aiki-jujutsu in Japan, is regarded as its founder. According to a column in the daily Segye Ilbo, Korean hapkido did not develop from aikido but independently from Daito-ryu. Choi's first student Seo Bok-seob hung up the signboard of the first dojang, named Daehan Hapki Yu Kwon Sool, in Daegu in 1951.
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Other branches were founded by Choi's students. According to the Kyunghyang Shinmun, Ji Han-jae (1936–2026) extended the Daito-ryu techniques with traditional kicks and from 1984 spread his system Sin Moo Hapkido in the USA. Oh Se-rim, chairman of the Korea Hapkido Association, sums it up by saying that Japanese aikido concentrates on hand techniques, whereas by adding kicks Ji turned hapkido into a comprehensive martial art. Kim Moo-hong opened the Sinmugwan school in Daegu in 1958. According to Scott Shaw, an author of books on hapkido, Myung Jae-nam entered into cooperation with the Japanese Aikikai in 1965 and included aikido techniques in his version. According to The Korea Times, the Kunwon Hapkido style adapts traditional techniques so that anyone can practice them easily. A related but separate system is Kuk Sool Won. According to the daily Kyunghyang, its founder Suh In-hyuk combined traditional martial arts into the Kuk Sool system in 1958 and opened the first dojang in Pusan. The organization itself gives 1961 as its official founding.
Today
Hapkido has no single international organization. In 1963 Choi Yong-sool became the first chairman of the Korea Kido Association. Ji Han-jae (1936–2026) founded the Korea Hapkido Association in 1965 and led hapkido training for the presidential guard. In 1973 his group merged with the groups of Kim Moo-hong and Myung Jae-nam into the Republic of Korea Hapkido Association. The Korea Hapkido Federation, the World Hapkido Federation (1973) and Hapkidowon (1981) followed. After moving to the USA, Ji Han-jae founded Sin Moo Hapkido in 1984, and Myung Jae-nam is associated with hankido. Han Bong-soo opened a school in Los Angeles in 1968 and choreographed the fight scenes of the film Billy Jack. The film Hapkido (Hong Kong 1972) stars Angela Mao, Sammo Hung and Ji Han-jae.
In culture
Hapkido reached film through the Hong Kong picture Hapkido from 1972, released in the USA as Lady Kung Fu. It is set in the 1930s in Japanese-occupied Korea, Ji Han-jae plays the teacher of Angela Mao in it, and the action scenes were directed by Sammo Hung, who also plays one of the students. According to Film Comment magazine, the film made Angela Mao the first female star of kung fu films. Ji Han-jae later also appeared in Bruce Lee's film Game of Death as a hapkido fighter whom Lee faces.
Did you know
The word hapkido consists of the Korean words hap (joining), ki (breath, energy) and do (way). The Merriam-Webster dictionary records it in English since 1963. According to Scott Shaw, hapkido in Korea was first called Dae Dong Ryu Yu Sool, and later also Yu Kwon Sul, Yu Sool or Ho Shin Mu Do. The origin of the name hapkido is disputed: Ji Han-jae claimed to have created it himself, while Choi's students attribute it to Choi. According to the newspaper Segye Ilbo, Choi Yong-sool settled in Daegu on his return from Japan after he lost his luggage and ran out of money for the onward journey. In the 60s Ji Han-jae taught hapkido to the presidential palace guard, and in 1969 he demonstrated it at the White House in the United States. He died on 28 January 2026 at the age of 89 in Tucson, Arizona. The first nationwide hapkido demonstration competition took place on 10 April 1974 at the Asia cinema in Daegu.
Styles & Branches
A Korean system that, according to The Advocate, He-Young Kimm founded in 1989 in Baton Rouge. It combines elements of taekwondo, hapkido and judo.
According to English Wikipedia, a hapkido style developed in the eighties by Myung Jae-nam. It rests on the principles won, yu and hwa and on the power of softness.
According to Wikipedia, a hapkido branch of Ji Han-jae (1936 to 2026), who spread it in the USA from 1984. Wikipedia says it stresses meditation and ki more than traditional hapkido.
Frequently asked questions
What is hapkido?
According to Britannica, hapkido is a Korean form of unarmed self-defense that combines kicks and strikes with circular throws and a principle of yielding similar to aikido. It derives from Japanese daito-ryu aiki-jujutsu.
Who founded hapkido?
Choi Yong-sool is considered the founder. He learned daito-ryu aiki-jujutsu in Japan and taught in Daegu after returning. His student Ji Han-jae added kicks and developed hapkido into a comprehensive system, so the founder's role is disputed.
What is the difference between hapkido and aikido?
Both arts derive from daito-ryu aiki-jujutsu and use joint locks, throws and a principle of yielding. Hapkido, however, adds kicks and strikes, as stated by Oh Se-rim, chairman of the Korea Hapkido Association, and it also holds competitions in technique demonstrations.
What does hapkido mean?
Hapkido is made up of the Korean words hap (joining), ki (breath, energy) and do (way, art). In English it has been recorded in the Merriam-Webster dictionary since 1963.
What are the ranks in hapkido?
Many schools adopted from taekwondo ten student grades called gup with white, yellow, blue and red belts, followed by master ranks called dan with a black belt. Systems differ by organization, and the Korea Hapkido Federation, for example, publishes exam requirements for 1st to 5th dan.
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.