Backspinning Heel Kick, Hapkido Origins

Question

A lot of techniques in Hapkido have clear derivations from other arts. A lot of our kicks come from either TKD or from a parent art of TKD, while a lot of the hand-techniques seem to be derived from Daito-ryu. The implementation tends to vary a bit from the parent arts and even between schools, but the fundamentals of the techniques look quite similar.

I am, however, curious about the backspinning heel kick. Note the differences between that technique and what we call a backspinning hook kick, which a lot of taekwondo schools refer to as a heel kick (in the heel kick the leg doesn't bend while striking).

Some TKD schools do practice a heel kick like it shows up in HKD, but according to my instructor they borrowed these techniques from HKD rather than the other way around. I do not know if this is true, but I haven't seen it much outside of HKD and since I've been working on the details of this kick recently I figured I'd ask here.

So my question is two part:

1. What other arts practice a backspinning heel kick, as distinct from a hook kick?
2. Does anyone know the origin–likely or just potential–of this kick in HKD?

Answer 1

1. I'm aware of Tang Soo Do and at least some forms of Karate having a spinning heel kick, but beyond the Korean martial arts and Karate, I'm not aware of any (though it seems likely that there is at least a related move in Capoeira and some styles of Kung Fu).
2. In Alex Gillis' A Killing Art (a heavily sourced origin of modern Taekwondo), Gillis relates an incident where Jong-Soo Park demonstrates a kick that could only be identified as a spinning heel kick to Choi (sometime around 1964). Choi is so taken with the kick that he adds it to his manual under the name Bandae Dollyo Chagi (reverse turning kick), a heading that covers spin side kicks, spin heel kicks and spin hook kicks. That said, Gillis actually attributes the origin of the kick (in TKD at least) to Woo Jong-Lim (sometime in the 1950's), though Jong-Lim never applied the kick to sparring or competition (that I'm aware of). Neither Park or Jong-Lim had exposure to Hapkido at this point according to what I've been able to see. It's actually very likely that the technique evolved within the various Korean martial arts in roughly the same time frame thanks to a very healthy tournament circuit.

Answer 2

Moon Hwan Lee set up a taekwondo school in Australia in the '70s, and it's grown independently since (under his direction) - notably not incorporating many changes which happened in Korea during the late '70s and '80s.

We have a kick which we call spinning-hook kick or spinning-heel kick which is identical to the backspinning hook kick described. The heel kick, however, is something we actively avoid - any spinning kick striking with the heel uses the hook technique. We usually describe it as a 'hallway' kick - you should be able to perform it in a narrow hallway without touching the walls.

This tends to suggest that taekwondo may not have incorporated the heel kick you're describing when Moon Lee left for Australia, in the early '70s, but that it's been incorporated since.