Two martial arts questions in one? Please Help!?

Question

First question - This may sound funny to you, but I don't have any clue about this, so I'm asking you guys. I'm 15. Is this considered in any way too old to begin martial arts? I don't want to feel awkward by being the only 15 year old in a MA class. If you teach MA, do you get a lot of kids my age?

Second question - I was thinking of taking up Hapkido. I noted that Hapkido is mainly using your opponents momentum to your advantage. I was wondering, does Hapkido also teach any attack kind of moves like Tae Kwon Do or Jiu-Jitsu, or will I mainly be learing about taking advantage of momentum?

Please help me! Thanks!

Answer 1

I know where you can learn white eyebrow, shaolin, and chen style taiji from some of the best masters in china. Chen style teaches you to turn a opponents momentum, plus alot of elbows.

Answer 2

(I was lazy and cut and [asted my answer to another similar question]

First question - I'm 15. Is this considered in any way too old to begin martial arts?

If you're already 15, hurry up and start training! It's not too late to start, but you're quickly running out of both the energy and the free time that youth allows.

When you're 30 and you're working full-time and making house payments, it's not too late to start, but it's more difficult to get back into shape, and it's more difficult to make the time commitment. There are simply more constraints on your time.

I don't want to feel awkward by being the only 15 year old in a MA class. If you teach MA, do you get a lot of kids my age?

Training is more fun if you have friends in the class you can relate to.  Some schools may have kids your age, some don’t.  Try the school that looks most interesting to you, but if the people in the class are not enjoyable to work with, try another school.

The sooner you start learning, the farther you will move along that path. Younger learners aeren't just increasing their skill level, they increase their ability to learn that skill.  Older learners like me are lucky to maintain their skill level...

Second question –

I was thinking of taking up Hapkido. I noted that Hapkido is mainly using your opponents momentum to your advantage.  I was wondering, does Hapkido also teach any attack kind of moves like Tae Kwon Do.

or Jiu-Jitsu, or will I mainly be learning about taking advantage of momentum?

To get a basic description of these styles that you mentioned (hapkido, tae kwan do, ju-jitsu), look each one up on wikipedia.  That’s the quickest way to answer all your questions about different styles.

I was about your age when I started a life-long passion for martial arts.  So I will say to you the things that I wish someone had said to me at that time:

1. If at all possible, participate in your school wrestling team.  If you’re twenty and training martial arts, you’ll be sorry that you missed out on that experience, and it’s free.  You don’t have to win, you just have to play for the experience. Learn to enjoy the training.

2. After high school is finished(or between wrestling seasons, or as soon as possible in case the school wrestling team is not an option), look for a place to train Brazilian Ju-jitsu or a similar ground-fighting style.

3. Try to find a good boxing or kickboxing gym.  Train both standing up and on the ground.  If only one of those styles is available or affordable at this time, then just do that one for now.

4. Enter martial arts tournaments as ealry as you feel ready.  Don't be afraid to lose - learning to lose is an important part of learning to win.

If there is no kickboxing or grappling school available, go with Hapkido or Taekwando or whatever is available.  Make a mental note to explore other options when you’re older.

Even if you switch to Hapkido or karate or kung fu at a later time, the fighting experience that you get from boxing and or grappling will help you evaluate which style or teacher you want to go with in the future.

Also, you’re young enough, you’ve got time to develop cardio conditioning and speed.  Nothing will get you in shape as fast as boxing.  

The younger you start, the more you’ve got.

Hope that helps.

Answer 3

Your age of 15 actually is a good age to start.  You are still very young, yet have some of the power of an adult. You will have the time now to study the art, which in the future you may not.  And lastly you are beginning to have your own mind and want this for yourself, not your parents pushing you.

George Leonard (a student and writer of Aikido) and others started at age 45.

Hapkido is a Korean adaptation to Japanese aikijitsu/aikido/jiu-jitsu.  Many Tae Kwon Do schools will not let you study it until you get some Tae Kwon do "under your belt'

You should go watch the art and meet the students and the teachers.

Simplistically .. Tae Kwon do is more of a linear form of waiting for an opening and striking .. or reacting to a strike with a block.  Where as Hapkido is tricker and takes better timing .. it sucks in an attack, blends with it, sometimes counter attacks and counters the attack with a throw or an arm lock.

I would also read-up on all three and find an art and a teacher that you can respect.  

from wikipedia

The spelling of hapkido (합기도) in Chinese characters is exactly the same as the pre-1946 rendering of aikido, 合氣道, the Korean pronunciation of 合 being hap (while in Japanese kun'yomi it is au). 合 hap means "harmony", "coordinated", or "joining"; 氣 ki describes internal energy, spirit, strength, or power; and 道 do means "way" or "art", yielding a literal translation of "joining-energy-way", but it is most often rendered as "the way of coordinating energy", "the way of coordinated power" or "the way of harmony".

Answer 4

Question 1 - you are not too old.

Question 2 - yes, it teaches attacking moves.

Answer 5

1) No you are not to old I once knew an 86yr old who studied TaeKwon-Do. Now days most people who study martial arts start at the ages from 8 to 15 for what I see. When I was teaching TKD most of my students were about your age.

NOW

2) If you want to study hapkido GO FOR IT hapkido does teach moves found in other MAs, such as kicking and punching and blocking. Even though I have a Black belt in TKD and in Ninjutsu one of my friends is a Master of hapkido in NYC thats how I know that hapkido does have the moves you ask about.

I hope this answers and helps.

Answer 6

--NO. you can do Martial arts AT ANY AGE. YOUR NEVER TOO OLD.

-- Depends on the style.  I did Hopkido (Combat Hopkido), and it was nothing like Tae Kwon Do. It supposedly had a ground game like Jiu-Jitsu (i cant speak on the style's ground game because i did not get to experience it), striking at a close range, used pressure points, worked on joints, and had some throws. In contrast, I saw an episode of Fight Quest that had an episode on Hopkido. It was like Tae Kwon Do and with little bit of grappling; no ground game. like said it depends on the style of Hopkido your doing.

-- i suggest you ask the instructor to let you try it out and ask them about his/her style.

Answer 7

15 years old is not considered too old in any martial art. It's a great age to start it and there are a lot of kids your age doing martial arts of all sorts. The Kung Fu Academy in Henderson where I started with my current group, the Kung Fu class after ours had tons of kids your age. I've seen Hapkido classes filled with kids in their teens in Chinatown, as well.

Hapkido has strikes and forms as well as locks and momentum control. I don't know about ground-fighting, but Hapkido is a fantastic overall martial art.

Enjoy and good luck in your pursuits.