Upper Hutt Martial Arts Academy

Last Thursday night Tracy passed another tab test in Hapkido Ground Combatives. She was tested on a number of submissions and also had to create a flow drill for each of them.

While the core Hapkido syllabus has some self-defence from the ground, it does not include many of the likely situations that people may find themselves in.

This is where Hapkido Ground Combatives comes in. It compliments our core Hapkido syllabus by helping students develop greater confidence in a ground situation as well as competence in other, common ground situations.

I know that there is a lot of interest in Hapkido Ground Combatives but it is difficult to cross train in this while people are still developing their core Hapkido skills.

We are working on ways to make it easier for Hapkiido students to also do a bit of cross training in Hapkido Ground Combatives.

Hapkido Ground Combatives is a martial art in its own right that you can earn a Black Belt in. So if people are interested only in training in Hapkido Ground Combatives then that is fine too.

So we will be finalising some options for either option soon!

What happens if you end up on the ground in a self-defence situation?

That is the problem our Hapkido Ground Combatives class is designed to address.

Hapkido Ground Combatives is a specialist martial art developed by Grandmaster Fari Salievski, 9th Dan Hapkido and 3rd Dan Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ).

While we train many of the same areas you would associate with ground grappling, our focus is not on sport or competition. The objective is self-defence: learning how to deal with a bad position, escape, regain control and get back onto your feet.

When we started this class, we kept the entry requirements fairly strict. We were beginners ourselves and wanted to develop our skills and establish the right class culture before we looked at growing it.

We are now ready to expand.

We have four spots available for new students. Once those students are established, we will open another four and grow the class gradually from there.

The class is suitable for:

-- Anyone aged 13 or older who wants to learn how to defend themselves if they find themselves in a bad situation on the ground.

-- Martial artists from striking-based styles who want to broaden their skill set by developing practical ground self-defence skills.

-- People who would like to focus on a specialist martial art and work towards earning a Black Belt in the system. That is my own goal as well.

Many of us are a little older, so while we certainly roll, we are not interested in trying to wreck each other! We train for fitness and conditioning, but also to test our techniques against controlled resistance.

If you are interested, send us a message and we can arrange some trial classes.

Here Tristan, our Class Lead Instructor, demonstrates Hapkido Ground Combatives with Daryl Conchie.

I asked them to slow things down a little so you can see the flow and transitions between some of the core techniques.

Our students in the 9 am Beginner Sword class at the Upper Hutt Martial Arts Academy are doing really well.

So we decided to let them spar with steel swords as opposed to the wooden ones that they have been using up until now.

Their first few fights were against instructors who spar with them at slightly above their level.

Sky (who is also a senior student in the Hapkido Tigers class) surprised Rian with a move straight out of Fiore and moved straight into close play.

The class hasn't seen any Fiore as they have been training in English Longsword which fights mostly at distance.

Sky showed great innovation by applying his Hapkido skills in a different context.

This independent adaptability is something that I don't expect to see from a student of his age. So this was a very satisfying moment for me.

For the last couple of months I've been covering Fiore's 'Zogho Sretto' in the 10 am Saturday Sword class.

These are the close plays of the Longsword. In the video Daryl executes a counter to Craig's high sword disarm.

Counters, counter-counters and independent adaptability reflects what we teach at 2nd and 3rd Dan in Hapkido. We use our Sword classes to teach the common principles that underpin all martial arts across time and across cultures.

For the Hapkido students in this class it helps them develop a greater appreciation of this.