Hapkido Defense System

100% Self Defense

Vic Cushing, Chief Master

Hello, Thank you visiting with us

To play streaming videos, click on the play button.

This site is our way of giving to all those who need to learn to defend themselves a methodology, specific techniques, and a set of tactial approaches so their risks in a threatening situation go down.

This site includes some 700 plus pages of illustrated self defense books as well as streaming video, animations, and text.  Use it well. 

Streaming Video inserts and animations take a long time to load, and they are on many of the pages.  Be sure to wait for them to load or you will miss a significant part of this material.

Note: please read the materials on the Response Must = Threat Page before you go any further.

You may just dig into the Self Defense Table of contents below or if you choose to look at the foundation of our approach go  to Concepts and Principles

Self Defense Table of Contents: 

     Basic Defensive Techniques, A Quick Overview:

Strikes

Kicks

Simple Throws

Simple Chokes

Physics of Self Defense

     Subjects and Sutuations:

* While all of the techniques shown on this web site can be used by both men and women there are added factors that come into play for women.  Included in these factors is the nature of the attacks and the social conditioning that has been directed at females which often gets in the way of both recognizing an impending assault and then how to deal with it.   For these reasons there is a separate section devoted to helping women better deal with sexual attacks.

There is within that section a set of defenses to deal with Specific Self Defense Situations   It shows women demonstrating various defenses that also apply to men.

* Ground Fighting covers a large area of subject matter this links to a Table of Contents for Ground Fighting where the subject is broken down into more categories,

Explanations with photos of these responses and a wealth of detailed written material about self defense is provided. in the accompanying 8 Volume set of Core Books on this site.      

Does our approach to self defense work...shouldn't I just study a martial art?Here's an answer from one of our students to that very question.

An Animation contained within the Self DefenseTable of Contents

We have based the materials here on both some of the requirements of the International Modern Hapkido Federation and combat effective techniques.  This system as such is not a martial art. It has no purpose other than survival and escape when in a confrontation or an ambush.

There are a lot of great people who were critical to this project who should be acknowledged.

The IMHF has spent years training people in two groups (1) Group 1 made up of Professionals: Police Officers, Correctional Officers, Military, and (2) Group 2 Women or Others of generally smaller stature (some of whom are in Group 1).

There is a significant stress on Women's Self Defense in this site because we are sure there are more people in group 2 than Group 1 viewing this material.  We want to be sure you understand that regardless of who demonstrates a technique or whether that defense shows up in the general sections or the women's section all materials are useful to all sizes and both genders.

The materials on this site include animated clips, live video clips and a set of books on self defense. Take a quick peek here before you dig in.

This web site is designed to provide both animated samples of self defense in action and a conceptual framework to place those physical actions within.  

It has been assembled to give you slowed motion animations so you can see how a techniques is performed using far less file space than video and allowing you to view it in slow motion which is what you do anyway when learning something new.

The site contains 8 volumes of text and pictures. Those volumes have pictures that are large enough so you can see details unlike

1. Books which have larger pictures in order to stay within a publishing budget will be far shorter than what the IMHF is presenting.

2. The more inclusive books to stay within a publishing budget will have very small pictures to cover many variations of techniques.

Other places you can begin to explore:

Self Defense Model. The Model gives a graphic overview of Self Defense. It is framework you can use to understand both the mental and physical responses to threats.

Go to CORE Books

This web site contains 8 volumes of text and pictures that are a companion to the web site. Those volumes allow you to see in detail with text what each element of a technique is as well as read about the thought process that you should adopt to be in the mental state that will let you operate under attack.