Hi, Gi,
I'm interested in Hapkido. What's the breakdown ? i.e % of kicks to throws etc.
That will depend on the emphasis of individual schools. The style I've trained in for years does much less kicking than most styles, and almost all of our kicks are to targets below the waist. Other styles kick almost as much as TKD.
Our style is much closer to traditional Japanese jujutsu than it is to many other styles of Hapkido.
Hapkido splintered into many different organizations even before the founder, Choi Yong Sul, died. That's why there's so much variation (and so little standardization) among the kwans.
How much ground work do you do?
In most schools, not much at all.
We have techniques that are designed to counter situations where you find yourself on the ground, but we would never go to the ground intentionally, as they do in BJJ. Hapkido's philosophy in that respect is to get back to your feet as soon as you can, because the ground is a bad place to be in a real fight.
Do you free fight and how is that set up?
In most schools, not much. There was no free-fighting in Choi's original art.
If you're familiar with the way traditional jujutsu is trained, we follow a similar approach, using what the Japanese call
kata in jujutsu. This is paired exercises, one partner attacking with a specific attack while the other practices a specific defense and counter to the attack.
Traditional jujutsu and hapkido just don't lend themselves to free-fighting or competitive sparring (that could be a topic for a separate thread).
Sorry if I'm a bit vague, I don't at present know much about this art but all that I have heard I have found very interesting.
No problem... hope this has some helpful info for you.
