Open Circle Way: Kiwon Hapkido

By Jason Mix and Susan Mix

Open Circle Way/ Kiwon Hapkido is the first book in the Martial Arts and Healing series. It provides an overview of the heritage, philosophy, and foundations of Hapkido. It is said that the secrets of martial arts are in the basics. This book provides the keys to finding these secrets. The techniques and curriculum of a martial art are like an alphabet. As you learn the letters, you are able to read and write. It is our goal to help people to express themselves and communicate. As we become more comfortable with reading, we no longer think about the individual letters, and we can create poetry. Rules and systems can be used to separate people or to bring people together. We hope that this book will give people from different places and traditions a language to communicate and come together, to recognize our similarities as well as our differences.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Dec 21, 2020
• ISBN: 9781098324759

Book preview

Disclaimers for Open Circle Way

All the information in this book – Open Circle Way - is published in good faith and for general information purpose only. Open Circle Way does not make any warranties about the completeness, reliability and accuracy of this information. Any action you take upon the information you find in this book (Open Circle Way), is strictly at your own risk. Open Circle Way will not be liable for any injury, losses and/or damages in connection with the use of our book.

©2020 All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

Print ISBN: 978-1-09832-474-2

eBook ISBN: 978-1-09832-475-9

Contents

Acknowledgements

Introduction

1. Heritage of Hapkido

2. Three Sources

3. Five Elements

4. Wheels of Eight

5. Twelve Branches

Conclusion

About the Authors

Acknowledgements

This project was possible because of many dedicated people. We would like to thank all the artists who helped illustrate our ideas and techniques: Thien Ho, Kristen Ho, David Anderson, Lance Delano, Bill Mix, and Sharon Amaral. We would also like to thank the amazing martial artists who worked with us as we developed our ideas and curriculum as well as demonstrating them for this book: Master Bill Mix, Master Lucas Mix, Master Beth Lovitt, Master Chuck Daniel, Master Galina Lemke, Master Tim Lemke, Master Rich Benack, David Anderson, Matthew Amaral, Allison Amaral, Rachel Lovitt, Aria Mix, Jasper Mix and Dominik Cahill. A martial art is made by those who practice it. We hope this project helps those who practice Hapkido to communicate and practice together. We would like to thank all those who practice, promote and help to develop this art.

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Dedications

I would like to thank all the wonderful people who have helped me learn Hapkido. Many teachers have had a profound impact on me, especially Grandmaster Kwang Sik Myung who shared his joy. My students continue to teach me every day. My family inspires and encourages me with their skill, dedication and enthusiasm. Jasper, Aria, Allison and Matthew bring creativity and optimism to our art. Sharon’s commitment to healing adds another layer to our practice. My husband Bill is my steady companion in life, learning and teaching. My son Lucas brings his intelligence and joyful intensity to all our endeavors. Finally, I would like to thank my son Jason for the passion and integrity he shares in this project and our mutual love of Hapkido.

-Susan Mix March, 2020

In 1985 I started teaching martial arts with my mother Susan. I am so grateful to her for her support and encouragement. My father and brother helped us immeasurably and within a few years we were each teaching at four different locations. Being part of a martial arts family has been an inspiration. I have had the honor to continue this with my wife Sharon who shares my love of martial arts, medicine, and meditation. I have been lucky to practice and teach the many aspects of martial arts with our children. They all inspire and put up with me in these aspects. I feel lucky that they keep me questioning; teaching and business with Matthew, performance and health with Aria, physics and psychology with Jasper, and mystery and mythology with Allison. Martial arts have been a door into an incredible community of family, friends, teachers and students. This book is dedicated to all of them.

-Jason Mix March, 2020

Introduction

The Language of Hapkido

After an intense day of training, Grand Master Kwang Sik Myung pulled us aside and said Please teach my beautiful art. We were intrigued by the depth and power of Hapkido and found Grand Master Myung a resource beyond our hopes. His knowledge and skill as well as his generosity in teaching were truly inspiring. While studying with him, our family and students trained our minds and bodies. We talked about history, theory and the intricacies of Hapkido, sometimes late into the night. The goal of this book is to explore and preserve this beautiful art.

Hapkido means Harmony Energy Way. Historically Yusool (Jujutsu) has been used as a collective word for martial arts. It can translate as gentle or yielding technique. In practice these are techniques that include joint locks, throws, and strikes. Hapki (Aiki) is the energy that is produced when forces interact. In Hapkido, we study the individual techniques (Yusool) in order to explore this Hapki energy.

One inspiring aspect is that Hapkido doesn’t rely on just one principle, level, or mechanism to make a technique work. When we talked about how things worked, it was first using the Hapkido symbols and East Asian Medicine.

In the language of the three principles of Hapkido; Sky ki is yang and expressed through the circular motion principle and mind. Neither pushing nor pulling while maintaining a constant connection produces a circle. Ground ki is yin and expressed through the water principle and form. Water proceeds where possible and recedes when necessary. We call the ki of plants, animals and people Life ki. It is yin and yang working in balance and expressed through the harmony principle and energy.

Each of these principles is represented by its own circular symbol. Circular motion is represented by an open circle. The water principle is represented by a circle with the spiral of a cresting wave. In the harmony symbol, outside the circle represents Sky ki, inside the circle represents Ground ki and the triangles (open hands) represent Life ki balancing the sky and the earth.

These three circular symbols are called Energy Circles. The joy of Hapkido is that we can move from one principle to another or combine all three. Ki Won means energy circle, it is both open and complete. Ki Won Hapkido focuses on the shared philosophy and training methods of Korean, Japanese and Chinese martial arts with an emphasis on what they have in common.

We shared an interest with Grand Master Myung in the pervasive use of the five elements found in east Asian medicine, philosophy, and traditional sword work:

Metal, Fire, Water, Earth, and Wood. The five elements are further explored in the eight trigrams of the I Ching: Sky, Lake, Sun, Thunder, Ground, Mountain, Moon, and Wind. Having layers to ensure a technique is effective can make it difficult to know what is working and why it works. In this book we will explore the three principles, the five elements, the eight divisions, and the twelve branches.

Yin Yang Elements and Trigrams

Once we have used these foundation sets to understand and experience these layers, then we will present a White to Black belt curriculum that gives us a language to explore martial arts.

1. Heritage of Hapkido

The history of Hapkido has been told many times from different perspectives. It is our goal to look for direction from the arts and people that Hapkido’s founder and early pioneers honored. This is the heritage of Hapkido. One source has been our teacher Grand Master Kwang Sik Myung. Grand Master Myung chose the name Yon Mu Kwan as the name of his School. He told us he liked two meanings of Yon. One meaning was research or study. The other meaning was practice or meditation. We feel lucky to have been able to both study and practice Hapkido. We continue to discover more about this art and ourselves. We have had the opportunity to verify and elaborate on the heritage of Hapkido that we studied with Grand Master Myung. Some of the people we have been able to study and practice with include Grand Master Ji Han Jae, Grand Master Bong Soo Han, Grand Master In Hyuk Su, Grand Master Joo Bang Lee, Lama Padma Yontan Gyatso, and Yin Hong Yang (Holly Yang).

We studied with martial arts historian James R. Garrison. His knowledge of Hapkido and other arts including Judo, Sosuishi Ryu Jujitsu, and Aikido helped us to see the connections and inspired us to understand the environment that formed Hapkido. The primary Arts that have come together in Hapkido are Daito Ryu Aikijujitsu and Chung Moo Sool. Both of these arts provided a foundation that allowed Hapkido to become a diverse and relevant art.

Daito Ryu Aikjujutsu was popularized by Sokaku Takeda. From Daito Ryu we see the focus on subtle application of principles. We also find the idea that techniques can have many levels. We can see the term Aiki (Hapki in Korean) in the early text found in Japan with the title Aiki In Yo Ho, translated as the harmonious interaction of Yin and Yang. These are the same ideas that are the foundation of Eastern medicine. In this kind of art we find a large number of techniques pointing toward central themes such as Aiki Age (harmonize up) and Aiki Sage (harmonize down). We have been fortunate to explore concepts of Aiki with Fumio Toyoda Shihan, Nick Lowry Sensei, Howard Popkin Sensei, Eric Pearson Sensei, and Roy Goldberg Sensei.

Chung Moo Sool are the Court Martial Arts found in Korea before the Japanese occupation. They are a combination of village martial arts (largely games and dance), monastery and hermit martial arts (largely meditation and medicine), and military arts. According to Grand Master Myung, his teacher, Yong Sool Choi (the founder of Hapkido), had a colleague, named Myung Mu Dosa, who influenced his art.