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In my school we teach, at around the 5th kup level, a series of "advanced basics" that involve taking the seven sets and doing them in a push-pull motion while moving. An example might be doing a downward hammerfist block while raising an open hand (fingers spread wide) to cover the head and stepping. Evidently they used to be taught at a lower belt, but it was thought to be best to delay until the students had a firm grasp on the basics first.

My teacher (and his) say that these are fundamental to hapkido, and they certainly are fundamental to the way we practice it: A lot of our later techniques are based on these techniques. I have also seen these techniques appear in videos of hapkido online, but not as a set, usually just as part of some other technique.

Despite a fair bit of searching, I can't find a source outside of my school that talks about these techniques. Part of the challenge in that is figuring out what to call them: "Advanced Basics" is too generic as a lot of martial arts have an "advanced basics" set. Does anyone know of a (preferably Korean) term or a reference that describes these techniques more precisely?

For identification purposes, neither of these are my specific style (we don't have forms), but they are performing the same or very similar techniques:

I recognize that it may be that other styles do not practice them as a set, but even references to a broad category or specific Korean names for the above two techniques would be useful.

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  • What form of hapkido do you study? I know from my own research and training that hapkido schools vary wildly not only in how they teach the art, but also in what they will stress and what it will be called.
    – mtatham
    Feb 1, 2012 at 16:17
  • USA Hapkido Association (no online presence to speak of), from one of Lee Ki-Duk's students. Feb 1, 2012 at 16:27
  • I don't know precisely how useful this is, but there are two books here (Hapkido Bible and Hapkido II) that are often referenced as "must haves" of the Hapkido world, and would likely be able to answer your questions: hanmudo.com/merchandise
    – stslavik
    Feb 13, 2012 at 19:23
  • @DavidH.Clements if you get the books recommended by stslavik, please consider adding an answer and marking it as accepted :)
    – Anon
    Feb 14, 2012 at 3:59
  • I will be happy to if I can get my hands on it, which I've been hoping to do. It isn't in Tedeschi's Hapkido or in my other books, unfortunately, and I can't confirm it is in that one without actually seeing it. Feb 14, 2012 at 4:11

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I don't believe your "advanced basics" are a set of techniques, but rather an application of a hapkido principle called Hwa (화), which is a principle of non-resistance, to your fundamentals (kibon sool). This can be thought of as similar to applying the "joining" principle in aikido or aikijujutsu, in that when the opponent pushes, you move in the direction of the push, or "pull". This makes sense given the similar roots (Daito-ryu Aikijujutsu) of both aikido and hapkido.

In (Tokimune branch) Daito-ryu, the Hiden Mokuroku which comprises the fundamental 118 techniques of the art begins first by teaching the basic techniques as jujutsu until they're learned and can be applied, then teaches them again using aiki. This may be a similar approach being taken in teaching hwa in your hapkido training.

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