Natasha Tu
The 1st International Hapkido Leaders Seminar 2019 was organized by the Korea Hapkido General Association (KHGA) and held between 9th – 11th august at Cheongyang-gun Gymnasium 371, Songbang-ri, Cheongyang-eup, Cheongyang-gun, and Chungcheongnam-do Korea.
Established in 1998, Korea Hapkido General Association is a fully registered member of the Korean Sport and Olympic Committee since October 2018. They received approval by the Korean Ministry of Culture, Sports and tourism as a not for profit organization on 22nd October 2018.
The Seminar welcomed more than three hundred Hapkido black belts and was aimed at promoting Korea as the birthplace of Hapkido, and spreading the unified and structured training systems and techniques as well as establish structured management of games and systemize the certification system.
Other objectives of the seminar were training professional Hapkido certifiers and to train leaders to help them establish overseas arms for the Korea Hapkido General Association.
The event brought together Hapkido leaders from all over the world and allowed to develop networks and improve the professional skills of black belt holders as experts of Hapkido. Organized by Jung Dal Soon, the President of Korea Hapkido General Association, the seminar covered a wide range of topics including:
- the origin and history of Hapkido
- leadership theories
- administration and certification of Hapkido
There were also practice sessions that involved hand techniques, kicking, falling and about 38 techniques of self-defense. Others included: manners, breathing, warm-up, and stretching.
Up to now, there are approximately 180 arms which are registered under the organization in all the states and cities throughout South Korea.
The KHGA has been successfully organizing and hosting national Hapkido games seven times annually. Just recently the organization successfully completed the Hapkido leaders’ seminar for high dan holders (5th Dan above ). As pointed out by the organizers, the recent seminar was planning to establish overseas arms in order to make it global.
The organization has developed three levels of leaders programs where Level One is the highest, given the complexity of skills.
The 1st International Leaders’ Seminar was designed for Level Three, for Hapkido Masters who were suited to the following qualification requirements:
- Black belters holding 4 dan above
- Black belters whose age is over 20 and hold 3rd dan, and 2 years have passed since 3rd dan certification as of 9th August 2019, and who are endorsed by a Hapkido leader holding 4th dan above and running a dojang(gym) or dojangs(gyms)
- Black belters who have sufficient grounds for Korea Hapkido General Association to acknowledge
At the end of the Seminar, each participant has got the following certificates of Korea Hapkido General Association:
- Certificate of Seminar
- Level 3 Certificate of Hapkido Leader
- Certificate of Master
- Level 3 Certificate of Referee
- Certificate of Dojang(Gym) Registration
Those in attendance hailed it as a great experience, a well-organized event. The 8th Dan Hapkido Master from Sweden Bo Mikael Lindstrom says that he was greatly impressed, and got an experience to remember having attended the Seminar with his 16-year-old son. For him the whole event was full of memories, he reminisced of his first time he went to South Korea for training and just like his son, he was sixteen years old.
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