By contrast, Sin Moo Hapkido’s teaching methodology is often as circular as its techniques. The student builds a repertoire of skills slowly, sometimes painfully, integrating techniques more holistically.  This learning trajectory reflects the nature of the art, which is as much conceptual as it is technical.  There are no forms, there are no structured drills of basic actions, and there is no prescribed sequence of introducing techniques, but there is a device that serves as a pedagogical anchor for Hapkido students.  This device, called the Basic Eight, is a kind of Rosetta Stone for decoding the art’s underlying logic and a tool for conceptually and practically organizing the foundational material.

Before describing the Basic Eight and discussing how they function, it’s worth examining their number.  Why eight basic techniques?  Although eight may sound odd to Western ears, which may be more used to organizing around the numbers three, ten, and twelve, the number eight holds major significance in Asian culture.  Before the institution of native writing systems – Hangeul in Korea and Hiragana in Japan – the Chinese writing system was used, and it was classical Chinese culture that formed the basis of all formal learning.   Eight individual brushstrokes are used to form all the characters in Chinese calligraphy and each is used once to form the character for “eternity.”  Because the Chinese writing system was used to record, preserve, and transmit religion, education, medicine, art, and literature, as well as natural and political philosophy, the phrase “eternity in eight strokes” takes on additional levels of meaning.

In practical terms, eight is especially relevant to martial artists because there are eight angles from which we can attack or defend.  There are the cardinal directions (North, South, East, West) and then there are the lines that bisect those angles (North-East, South-East, South-West, North-West).  These angles are clearly manifest in both Tang Soo Do empty hand and weapons forms.  In swordsmanship it is said that if one can cut in eight directions, one can cut in an infinite number of directions.  In Western tradition, infinity is represented by the lemniscus, a “sideways” number eight.

The number eight holds significance beyond martial technique.  The danjun breathing method taught by Sin Moo Hapkido founder and Dojunim, Ji Han Jae, is a respiration and meditation exercise conducted in a series of eight eight-second sequences.  Grandmaster Ji explains that in this case, eight represents an esoteric tradition of conceptualizing the body as having eight organs (two lungs, two kidneys, the stomach, the liver, and the two auricle-ventricle chamber systems of the heart).

The Basic Eight of Sin Moo Hapkido are comprised of four categories of technique, each category represented by two examples.  From these basic forms most of the remaining curriculum elements can be extrapolated or built upon.  Each represents a response to a same side (mirror image) wrist grab attack.  This attack is the most fundamental, representing all attacks in that the attacker must close distance on the defender and use his hand to accomplish the attack.  The wrist grab is thus emblematic of all attacks and yet is the safest and least intimidating one to work from while learning sometimes complex motor skills.

There are hundreds of techniques in Sin Moo Hapkido, with multiple variations and applications of each, but they rest on a finite set of principles.  In essence, Hapkido technique can be divided into throws, immobilizations, chokes, and strikes.  Throws involve one part of the body acting as a fulcrum upon which leverage is applied to displace, disrupt, or otherwise take someone’s balance to make an opponent fall to the ground.  Fulcra can be the neck, the shoulder, the elbow, the wrist, or the hip.  Immobilizations involve locking joints or other portions of the human skeleton to mechanically prevent an opponent from continuing his attack.  Chokes are compression attacks directed against the structures of the neck and throat to cut off respiration or blood circulation to the brain.  Strikes are ballistic actions of the hand, foot, or other body part resulting in impact damage to the body.  The basic eight consists of throws involving the three major fulcra (shoulder, hip, and wrist), as well as Hapkido’s signature immobilization (arm bar), and strikes to two major target groups (soft tissue and bone).  Chokes are not included in the Basic Eight, although there is a ballistic attack to the carotid artery.

There are three basic categories of Hapkido locks and throws, two which “motivate” the opponent to fall or comply, and one that makes the opponent fall or comply.  The “motivational” throws and locks work because they either create unendurable pain for the opponent and he complies (moves in the direction you desire) to escape discomfort, or they place the opponent in a position where resistance will cause him massive injury and he complies to prevent this.  The third category is mechanical; because we have disrupted his posture and balance, falling is an outcome of physics and not volition.

The Basic Eight are comprised of two arm bars - one applied directly and one applied after moving beneath the opponent’s arm; two body throws – one over the shoulder and one over the hip; two carpal (hand-wrist) throws; and two strikes involving two actions – one bone break (radius) to soft tissue (carotid) strike, and one soft tissue strike (bicep) to bone break (ribs).

The sequence is:

1. Arm Bar-seizing hand and flexing wrist while anchoring to body
2. Shoulder Throw
3. Four Direction Throw
4. Step Through Arm Bar – seizing wrist
5. Reverse Outside Lead
6. Hip Throw
7. Radius-Carotid Artery Strike
8. Bicep-Rib Strike

The sequence can be remembered mnemonically as ABC-ACB-Strike-Strike, with A standing for arm bar, B standing for body throw, and C standing for Carpal Throw.  Each of these technique embodies specific foundational movements such as the triangle step, which allows the practitioner to efficiently use his hips in breaking the opponent’s balance; movable center and unified body in order to maximize leverage; hyperextension of elbow in order to move a person’s mass; proper use of hips in delivering maiming or killing strikes with the hand; and proper application of powerful immobilizing arm bars.

In the earliest phase of learning, the student experiences the speed, efficiency, and raw power of Hapkido through the Basic Eight, but continued practice and study creates a deeper appreciation and understanding of body mechanics and movement subtleties such as disrupting balance and displacing mass.  This affords the Hapkido practitioner a wider range of options for dealing with aggression.  An emotionally or behaviorally dysregulated neighbor may be subdued without inflicting injury, while a dangerous, armed criminal may require the use of deadly force.  This flexibility of application is another distinctive feature of Hapkido that makes it such a complete martial art, and this flexibility begins with a thorough understanding of the Basic Eight.