King of Hapkido

theese guyes are nuts ;D

you can start any martial art at any age...its just going to be harder for you to learn because your older but with dedication youll be good in no time.

im 14 years old and ive been practicing martial arts for 10 years almost 11

good luck!

There is a lot of traditional practices under fire from people who think EG: fighting like a crane is impractical. But these indirect practices are a part of training yourself to fully understand your body and how it can be applied. Similar to Samurai studying painting and poetry to complement their martial training, there is more to understanding to be gained from indirect training then which comes from solely practicing the simple/effective movements that one applies in actual combat.

wow.
very well said!

You can man! ^^
Let's go Fight!!!!

if you want to learn to really defend yourself look at Krav Maga. These types of martial arts are good but not very practical.

krav maga is a very effective self defense. it was developed for israelian military.
hap ki do also is used in korean military for self defence.
The big difference is: hapkido has an completly different philosophy - there is so much more than fighting.
you can use hapkido to defend yourself in lots of situations because you can vary how you defend: locking, just hurting, breaking, knocking out...
krav maga is a lot harder - its about survive and doint what ever is possible to hurt the other.

I do Krav Maga 3 times per week. I think it's best to hope for the best, but plan for the worst. I would always choose a martial art that is realistic and which I feel could save my life. Because lets be honest, if you have to use violence then your immediate saftey is in jeopardy. I can't see hapkido being any good on the street though. In a real fight - the lat place you want to be is on the floor. These guys go down too easy. They could get a stomp on the head in real life...?

yes you are right, this sparing is unrealistic. but it's just a small piece of the whole system. see: with gloves on, there are 100s of techniques impossible. This sparing is kind of teakwondo with throwing (lot of ppl do both)
one 6th dan hkd master said to me hapkido was the first mixed martial art: theres groundfight, throws, locks, a lot of hand and foot techniques etc.
sure, it's easier to kick somone in the balls to defend yourself.
doing hapkido means to study an art.
just my opinion.

the description says sparring...but I see mostly people doing forms