Poong Yoo Do

Poong Yoo Do was introduced to the Australian Hapkido Association by Professor Il Wong Huh in 1995. Professor Huh is an 8th Degree Hapkido Master from Myung Ji University in Yong-In, South Korea. Poong Yoo Do is a soft and flowing set of movements that Professor Huh felt would help improve the fluidity of techniques.

Always start training with meditation for several minutes. Palms crossed left inside the right with centre of palm into Danjun.

Breathing control exercise sitting crossed legged gently raising and lowering your hands. Raise your hands on inspiration and lower on expiration.

With all standing positions, place tongue on roof of your mouth, gently pull up or contract pelvic floor and try and lift arches of feet off floor so contact is mainly through balls of feet and heels.

Defence against punches - make it real

We try to use a practical, realistic situation for practising defence against punches. The more traditional situation was for the attacker to step forwards and punch. This does not reflect typical situations against a punch where the attacker will normally punch when they are in range, that is, from much closer.

This traditional situation was used to give students the chance of building up timing and distance skill – giving the defender plenty of time to react to the attack. However, this gives students a false impression of being able to handle punch attacks. It establishes in the student’s mind and body a set of reactions unrelated to real life situations.

For these reasons, when practicing defence against punches, the attacker should start at punching distance.

The best option for the person defending is to close the opponents attack and step to the outside. Opening the attacker or going to the inside creates danger and more opportunities for further attacks.

The range used in this situation is much closer than range used in the traditional situation and gives students more skills in dealing with a punch at a distance that is much more real. This also allows the student to lead into self-defence more easily from a punch.

Sparring Syllabus

Developed by Master Mitchell Wetherell and Master Sam Morgan of the Sutherland Hapkido Club - introduced in the teaching syllabus 2026.

Introduction

Since the earliest days of the Australian Hapkido Association, sparring has been a part of our culture and training. Our founder, Master Matthew Kim had exposure to a variety of other fighting skills, including Boxing and was truly gifted in Sparring. It is his skill at integrating effective techniques into a Sparring environment that has inspired many of us over the years to continue to maintain a focus on Sparring within our training.

The art of Sparring is integral to having a well-rounded understanding of Hapkido and staying relevant in a society that offers many varied options in the Martial Arts. Sparring is integral in developing the connection of technique, distance, timing, reactions, awareness, centering – in a safe but spontaneous and unpredictable setting.

In 2014, we (Mitch Wetherell and Sam Morgan) began holding seminars focussing specifically on Sparring for AHA Senior Belts to address the gap in knowledge and skill development that was becoming more apparent. For the past 10 years they have been analysing the skills required and working on integrating specific drills and training into our club, while honouring the style of Sparring that Hapkido represents. The Sparring seminars have been well received and attended by many members of our association. The broad and valuable experience provided by those who have attended, and feedback we have received continues to inform the development of techniques in this area.

Master Mitchell Wetherell and Sam Morgan have prepared a syllabus to formalise the teaching of sparring for each belt level. A key ingredient to make this work is that our instructors know and understand sparring before they teach it.

Objectives of the Sparring elements of our Syllabus

The sparring elements in the syllabus aim to provide a structured approach to the development of competency in Sparring that aligns with the concepts, principles and skill development embedded within the AHA’s existing syllabus.

The sparring elements are a series of drills applicable at each belt grade that teach practical technique, delivered with proper progression of skill. Focus is on repetition of techniques and building combinations over time.

Sparring in Hapkido

Sparring gives students the opportunity to learn and practice a range of techniques in spontaneous, free-form fighting within a range of established rules to minimise the risk of injury. Sparring in Hapkido draws from a wide variety of skills encompassing kicking, striking, takedowns, throws, ground work and locking techniques.

Sparring in the AHA is semi or touch contact, so the emphasis is always to respect and look after your training partner, challenging each other but having fun at the same time. We are not looking to create full contact fighters, however we do want students to have a sound understanding of Sparring and fighting to ensure they are able to defend themselves.

Protective gear recommendations for Sparring:

• Shin pads - so you can check leg kicks and make light contact but not hurt your partner

• Groin guard (where relevant)

• 16 Oz Boxing Gloves - so you can make light contact but not hurt your partner

• Mouth Guard - so you can keep avoid loss of teeth and get used to breathing though your nose.

General Principles of Sparring

The following principles underpin the development of skills and techniques that we will be utilising to build a sound foundation in Sparring.

• Frame – Maintaining an understanding and awareness your basic frame or stance before during and after movement or executing a technique. An ideal frame for Sparring involves chin down, hands/guard up, weight centred, body angled.

• Balance – keep balance by lowering and maintaining your centre so that you can move quickly in attack, or defence.

• Connection - whole body connection, or feet-hip-torso-shoulder, driving and connecting to (or beyond) the end of the movement.

• Distance - understand being “inside” the distance or “outside” the distance, that is, where you need to be to apply effective techniques and conversely, at what distance you become vulnerable to your opponent’s attack.

• Timing - be able to catch the moments when you can successfully apply techniques and with minimal risk to yourself.

• Control - being able to use a range of techniques safely and with respect for your partner to minimise risk of injury. This extends to not intimidating your partner through aggression but rather working together to build each-others confidence in sparring.

• Combinations – as Hapkidoists, we have a large and varied pool of techniques to draw from for our sparring. As students develop, they should build combinations into their sparring taking from the various techniques they trained and acquired.

Core Techniques

These techniques form the core of our techniques (that is, most other variations should originate from one of these). The order relates to the order in which they are taught. Fundamental to the order is the assumption that the student has the skill to do the technique and receive the technique (i.e. fall safely).

White belt focuses on learning power, releases, punches, elbows, knees and low kicks. Choking self-defence is important for white belt. Students learn to release from all sorts of attacks (clothes, rear, double hands, etc) - that way they can participate in multiple grabbing. The actual joint locks only start at Yellow Belt. See table on following page.

More complex techniques are taught after Blue Belt once the core techniques have been learnt properly – leg defence, knife defence, groundwork, etc. So, all core techniques are taught by Blue Belt.

Techniques are taught at a point where the attacker knows the fall. For example, doing the turning side fall for whip throw at Blue Belt, the side fall for the Leg Reap at Blue Tip.

Unintended consequence of Self Defence Drills on Multiple Grabbing

During multiple grabbing, many students are relying heavily on the techniques from the Self-Defence Drills and do not seem to be using all the other applications of core techniques.

When presented with a problem to solve in multiple grabbing - students are mainly using the solutions from the drills.

Instructors need to ensure they teach all variations of each core technique so the student knows how to use each core technique in various ways and from different situations.

While it is good that the techniques from the drill are coming out automatically - sometimes a better solution to the problem is overlooked in favour of the technique they know from the drill.

Students should learn their drill for their belt AFTER they have been taught all the variations for their core techniques. Using the self defence drills to teach the core techniques is NOT EFFECTIVE and can result in students only practicing one application for each core technique - very limiting and a serious watering down of the power and depth of Hapkido that students should be learning.

Grading Requirements for Coloured Belts