Korean martial art
Another Diverse Week In Review At TheMartialArtsReporter.com
How’s it goin’?
Hope you had a great week, because I sure did, as you can tell from last week’s line-up of posts.
Enjoy all of them in their entirety along with the attached video clips.
Talk to you next week.
The Highest Ranking Female Judoka In The World
Finland: Sauna, Wodka And A Very Eclectic Korean Martial Art
Find Out Who Makes Matt Damon Look Tough In “Green Zone”
Breaking News: Budweiser-Mamas & Mardi Gras Madness
Mardi Gras And Why TheMartialArtsReporter Is Going Nuts
Happy Chinese New Year! It’s The Year Of The Tiger!
Finland: Sauna, Wodka And A Very Eclectic Korean Martial Art
Most of us would make the connection between Finland and Finnish sauna and even some of the most famous Wodka brands money can buy, right?
But Finland and a very eclectic Korean martial art?
Let me tell you how this post came together.
Last Sunday while getting ready for a tennis mixed doubles match I was talking with one of my team members and his wife about martial arts.
They told me that that they had studied some Korean martial art several years ago in Mississippi, which they referred to as Han Moo Do.
I actually had no in-depth knowledge of this style and they were kind enough to tell me a little bit more such as:
Han Moo Do is a fairly young style which consists of elements of Tae Kwon and Hapkido. They probably told me more, but that’s what stuck with me.
That sounded pretty intriguing to me, so I started to dig a bit deeper and here is what I found online:
Han Moo Do was created by 8th dan Young Suk (Yoon Soon Hwang) about 20 years ago, when the first club was established in Finland!
Lately it has been spreading to other Nordic countries, such as Sweden, Norway and Denmark.
The first club outside of the nordic region was recently set up in Limerick, Ireland. But also even in Mississippi in the U.S. Southeast as I mentioned above.
Hanmoodo is descended from other Korean styles, such as Hoi Jeon Moo Sool and Taekwondo, so Hanmoodo resembles these styles as well as Hapkido in many areas.
Hanmoodo’s techniques include kicks, punches, throws, takedowns, grappling , joint-locking techniques and chokes.
Kicks are mostly aimed at ribs or head.
Punches can be targeted to the body only.
Throws and takedowns resemble Judo and wrestling techniques but are done even more elegantly.
Joint locks mainly target the wrist and elbow but there are also leg locks.
Chokes are performed mostly with forearm and wrist.
The art contains three weapon styles: nunchaku, long staff e.g. Japanese bo; and sword e.g. Japanese katana.
Hanmoodo practitioners are also encouraged to engage in exhibitions where a practiced choreography is presented to an audience. These choreographies feature several practitioners performing self-defence techniques on each other.
In competition, Hanmoodo rules permit kicks above the waistline and punches between the waistline and the head.
All strikes must hit the front of the body and other kinds of strikes are prohibited.
Competitors may also grapple by throwing or taking down their opponent and controlling him/her on the mat but striking is prohibited when either competitor has a hold on the other or is considered to be on the ground.
I have found Han Moo Do or hanmoodo to be a rather interesting mixed martial art that covers the four combat ranges of long, medium and close as well as ground fighting. Oh, yeah, weapons, too.
Personally, I can do without the high-flying kicks, which in no way criticizes the style itself. High kicks might have their justification.
Summa summarum, I am impressed with Han Moo Do and to give you some visuals of it all, here is a clip I found. Hope you enjoy it.
P.S.: My wife and I won our tennis match 6-0, 6-3.!
TKD Gold Medalist Dana Hee And Change “I Can’t” To “I Can”
I am pretty sure that most of you will agree that the Korean martial art of Taekwondo is one of the most popoular and well-known styles.
Interesting to me is the fact that it was not really developed and introduced until after WWII ended in 1945. That’s not that long ago.
While Japan was occupying their country for decades, Koreans were not allowed to practice martial arts. Except only when in service for the Japanese military.
After the war, that all changed for countless individuals striving to improve themselves through Korean martial arts and Taekwondo in specific.
Grandmaster Jhoon Rhee as well as many other Korean instructors and former U.S. military service members returning from the Far East paved the way for Taekwondo to widespread acceptance, especially in the United States.
Another boost for Taekwondo in the U.S. certainly took place in the realm of the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, South Korea.
And our featured martial artist today, Dana Hee, played a pivotal role.
Some of you reading this post might not be old enough or you simply did not follow the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul to the degree to remember her name.
Let me share some very intriguing insights about Dana Hee and what an inspiration she was then and still is today.
Dana was born in 1961 in Louisiana and based on what I found out about Dana, she had to endure a rather crappy childhood, to say the least.
Growing up with divorced and alcoholic parents, Dana had to go through what no child should experience, namely despair, abuse and being abandoned.
Over years, Dana was passed between orphanage, suicidal family members, halfway houses, and finally a foster home.
As you can probably imagine that took its toll on her self-esteem and led to a major fear of failure.
At the age of 25 and way too many years of having been programmed with the “I Can’t” mindset and running from her fears, Dana was finally able to make a decision to commit to change her life forever.
Through her agonizing, against-all-odds process of this struggle, Dana Hee transformed from the young woman with low or no self-esteem in a such profound way that changed “I Can’t” to “I Can”.
Dana trained vigorously and competed for several years, pushing past her self-doubts and fear of failure to finally win the Olympic Gold Medal on the U.S Olympic Taekwondo Team that consisted of 8 men and 8 women. Team USA Taekwondo won another 3 gold medals in Seoul.
I will add that Takewondo was a demonstration sport in Seoul and became an official Olympic discipline in 2000 in Sydney.
After her Olympic success, Dana has moved on to become a leading Hollywood stuntwoman and double for leading actresses including Nicole Kidman, Uma Thurman, Gwynneth Paltrow, Renee Russo, and Jennifer Garner in big budget movies such as Independence Day, Terminator III, Charlie’s Angels, Batman Forever, Batman & Robin, Demolition Man, Lethal Weapon 4, Swordfish, The Long Kiss Goodnight, plus an ongoing list of television shows like Star Trek Voyager, The Pretender, VIP, and the X-Files.
With her life experience and unwavering persistence to succeed Dana Hee is high in demand as a motivational speaker for dozens of clients including Hewlett Packard, IBM, United Way, and United Airlines.
I would like to leave you with a quote by Henry Ford:
“If you think you can do a thing or think you can’t do a thing, you’re right. ”
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