Our Mission

Are you looking to enrich your life or the lives of your loved ones?

Are you looking for an energetic and exciting way to get into the best shape of your life?

Are you looking for a practical way to defend yourself or protect the people you care about?

Maybe you’ve tried martial arts before, but never found a style that fit. Maybe you’ve tried working out at the gym but are still struggling to get in shape. Maybe you’re looking for a way to become a stronger person and live with more confidence and power.

If this sounds like you, we’re glad you found us!

Seattle Heuk Choo Kwan helps students unlock their true human potential through martial training and cultivation of the mind, body, and warrior spirit.

We teach:

• Discipline and the power of focus meditation and Ki breathing
• Ways of healthy living and energy development
• Commitment to overcoming the many challenges of life.
• Devastating and easy-to-learn self-defense techniques used by the South Korean CIA  and Special Police Force in South Korea.

You will learn the above through a well-organized set of curriculum including:

• Awareness development
• Body conditioning , flexibility, core strengthening
• Posture and evasive, offensive and defensive footwork
• Safe-falling methods, dive-rolling, evasive acrobatics , basic to advanced tumbling
• Basic and advanced kicking and striking combinations.
• Joint-lock manipulation and pressure point application
• Throwing and projection take downs
• Ground work, grappling, submission escape and submission techniques
• Modern and traditional weapons training (disarming, weapon to weapon, evasive training)

More than self-defense and physical fitness, we teach the Martial Way: a way of being that dramatically impacts all aspects of life. The committed student will experience a total transformation!!!

We are excited that you are here. Explore our site and learn more about Huek Choo Kwan and find out about our instructors and class schedules.

About Hapkido

Hap: Coordinate

Ki: Power

Do: Way, the Path

The Way of Coordinated Power

Hapkido is a Korean martial art practiced the world over. Characterized by joint locks, throws, and dynamic kicking techniques, it is unique among Korean martial arts (Taekwondo, Tang Soo Do) in its emphasis on deflecting an opponent’s attacks instead of forceful blocking.

Hapkido is the “anti-martial art”. It was designed as a way to defend against and overcome an attacker with skill in many forms of martial combat. With roots in Aiki-jujitsu, Hapkido adds striking and punching to joint-locks, throws, and grappling, making it one of the original mixed martial arts. However, unlike modern MMA training, Hapkido gives the student a solid base in different forms of defense, and roots the strategy of that defense in the principles of water, circle, and harmony. This gives the student a solid framework on which to develop their skill so that they are not caught off-guard when in real defense situations.

It is designed to allow a martial artist to rapidly subdue an opponent and render any attacker completely incapable of causing harm. Since Hapkido affords total control over a physical confrontation and emphasizes precision over brute strength, the hapkidoist can localize any damage dealt to an opponent and avoid creating unintended injury.

For this reason, it is very popular among private security and law enforcement agents throughout the world.

But, make no mistake. Hapkido also enables the practicioner to leverage extremely powerful and even deadly force if absolutely necessary, such as in a life-or-death confrontation. The art’s primary emphasis is on practical self-defense.

Frequently Asked Questions

Are there belts in Hapkido? Yes, and the belt colors can vary from school to school. From lowest to highest, our belts are white, yellow, green, blue, brown, red, and black belt.

How long does it take to earn a black belt in Hapkido? Usually around three years of training at least three times per week, but the actual amount of time it takes can vary and is dependent on the skill and dedication of the individual student. Be mindful that, while a black belt is certainly a big milestone, it is not an end result!

Are there forms in Hapkido? Technically, no. All physical confrontations are unique, and the Hapkidoist must move and react uniquely to each one. It is widely held that forms perpetuate the incorrect belief that one specific movement follows another. Some teachers, however, have added forms to their specific curriculum over the years.

What happens in a given Hapkido class? Class typically begins with Ki (“energy”) development exercises and deep breathing, warmup and stretching, and meditation. Then students practice kicks and strikes before pairing off to study self-defense techniques. Class ends with meditation, often accompanied by Ki breathing.

What’s the difference between Hapkido and Aikido? The founders of both Hapkido and Aikido studied Daito-Ryo Aikijiujutsu from the same master in Japan, and therefore the martial styles have very much in common. There is one major difference, however. Traditionally, Aikido is almost purely a defensive art, whereas Hapkido teaches offensive techniques as well.

About Heuk Choo Kwan

Heuk: Black

Choo: Eagle

Kwan: Style

Black Eagle Style

Heuk Choo Kwan is one of several dozen schools of Hapkido throughout the world — over 60 in Korea (22 in Taejon alone) and two in America. It was founded in Korea in 1960 by Supreme Grandmasters Jin Jong Moon and Jin Bok Moon and brought to the United States in 1983 by Grandmaster Ronald Suggs.

Later, in 1993, American Heuk Choo Kwan Hapkido departed from mainstream certification agencies and established independence from its Korean parents, the better to flourish on American soil.

In March of 2007, however, American Heuk Choo Kwan reunited with its Korean family. The American Hapkido Heuk Choo Kwan Association draws its rich traditional techniques from the Korean Hap Ki Do Heuk Choo Kwan while maintaining the cultural identity of North America.

The Heuk Choo Kwan headquarters in America is located in Des Moines, Iowa, and headed by Grandmaster Son Young-gul.  Grandmaster Son, with the help of Master Kim Min Soo, Master Eddie Arnold III, and Master Angel Kimball, is dedicated to the growth , exposure  and movement of Heuk Choo Kwan in America.

Our Association has a direct link to Korea providing us with current techniques, student, teacher and master training, certified official testing, and dojang materials for schools in America to keep all members current and up to date.

Heuk Choo Kwan Lineage

There is alot of confusion in the world of Hapkido about lineage and who comes from what kwan and or what school of thought in regards to the techniques taught from style to style. There is no way to really know about the rest of the hapkido world and where they fall as far as lineage is concerned, however the lineage of Heuk Choo Kwan can be easily traced without adding to the already cloudy water of hapkido history.

Yawara, which is the original form of hapkido or self defense taught by the Founder Choi Young Sool was taught to other Korean Masters besides Supreme Grandmaster Ji Han Je. Certain Masters then added other things to the Yawara that they were taught and formed thier own version of hapkido. Supreme Grandmaster Jin Jong Moon studied in the same kwan  as the founders of Kuk Sool Won and Hwarang Do, or in other words learned the same version of Yawara.

That is why Heuk Choo Kwan techniques are similar to Kuk Sool and Hwarang Do. However, SGM Jin Jong Moon stayed with the name hapkido giving credit to Founder Choi Young Sool and dedicated his life to the refinement of skills through his way ofYawara while still keeping the integrity of the art passed down from Choi Young Sool.

Heuk Choo Kwan has grown into a major association of Korean and American masters teaching the art of hapkido. SGM Jin Jong Moon did not study under SGM Ji Han Je or SGM In Seo Suh, but rather took the same knowledge as the latter mentioned and formed Heuk Choo Kwan. Certain masters have taken their Yawara knowledge and changed the name of their style from Hapkido to something else in attempts to market their version as something else , something that is mystical or from some elite Korean class of warriors from the past. This is patently false. It is all Hapkido and it all came from Founder Choi Young Sool but has been changed, twisted, manipulated and interpreted by many.

If you have any questions or information please feel free to email me directly at mastereddie@heukchoo.com

-Master Eddie Arnold III

The Story of the Black Eagle

We get this question alot. Why the black eagle? And how does it relate to our style? The founder of Heuk Choo Kwan, Supreme Grandmaster Jin Jong Moon was training on a mountain one day in South Korea, when he witnessed a black eagle swoop down close to him, capture and carry away prey. He noticed the swift and silent flight, not to mention the size of the raptor and was suddenly inspired by the power of the huge bird and thus named his style of hapkido after it.

Our movements are quite different than other styles of Hapkido, utilizing timing and space as a means to an end during an altercation. Ironically, most people don’t know about the species of the black eagle, but as I always teach my students, “Just because you don’t know about it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.”

Here is a link to information about this raptor http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Eagle

-Master Eddie Arnold III