Hello Hapkidoin,

Has it really been two years since I posted anything new here?  Sorry about that folks. Hapkido Online is still taking new students, still helping existing students, and always ready to welcome back old friends. Since my last post I've moved home to Knoxville, Tennessee and married my childhood sweetheart. If any of you are in the East Tennessee area and would like to do Hapkido in person let me know!

Another update, Grand Master Rodemaker at the Tactical Hapkido Alliance has taken over production of the Hapkido Dummies and has made a program specifically for learning with them. I think the dummy is useful but I still prefer to work with people as much as possible.

I hope this note finds all of you well and prospering.
God Bless,
Master Jon Ferguson

I've practiced intermittent fasting for the past couple of years, mostly for longevity reasons. I want to live a while to enjoy my military retirement. By intermittent fasting I mean I eat one meal a day (OMAD), sometimes two meals a day (2MAD). In other words most days I don't eat any food or drink calories for at least 16 hours a day.

Once or twice a year I do a prolonged fast which I would define as not eating food or drinking calories for a period greater than 24 hours.

Last fall I was building a shed and fell off a 6 foot ladder. On the way to the ground my shoulder struck a work table. At the time I thought it had just knocked the wind out of me. But a few days later my left shoulder experienced extreme pain. It hurt when I moved it, and it even hurt when I didn't move anything. I went to my GP who prescribed some pretty serious pain killers which didn't help all that much. I got a referral to an orthopedic doctor who gave me steroid injections to my shoulder.

An interesting thing happened, my left shoulder improved but then my right shoulder started hurting even worse than the left one was. To me that was very strange. The orthopedic doctor said I had been over compensating with my right side because the left was out of use and I strained it too. She put me in physical therapy.

Three months of physical therapy and I still had pain though much of the range of motion and function had returned, I still felt weak.

Bear in mind, I am a Hapkido teacher and I didn't neglect my students. I couldn't mix it up with them but I still came to every practice and guided them verbally as much as I could and only went hands on when I had to. Pain was just constant, always there. The painkillers would reduce it some but after a few hours it would be back.

Saturday night I ate with my family and decided maybe it is time to fast again for a few days. All I permitted myself was water, herbal tea, and black coffee. No food so no pain killers. After 24 hours of fasting I noticed the pain was greatly reduced, I suspect this represents a reduction in inflammation primarily. I pulled up a graph by Dr. Mindy Pelz, a YouTuber I follow. Her fasting graph is based on three massive studies which are cited at the bottom of the graph.

You can see her chart here: Fasting Benefits Chart

By hour 46 of my fast the pain was completely gone! A fast of that duration would have numerous health benefits but the one I think I am experiencing is an increase in musculoskeletal stem cells which begins around hour 20 and really starts to amp up around hour 45. No pain, no pain meds, I feel like a new man.

I at hour 50 I went and taught Hapkido, I was able to get in there and physically mix it up with my students which felt great! I went home after and still no pain. Today is the day after and I feel fine. As I write this I am at hour 61. According to Dr. Pelz's chart musculoskeletal stem cell production will peak at hour 72-75 and then it just kind of hangs there at max stem cell production.

I'm planning to break my fast at hour 67 and have dinner with my family. I'll be curious to see if the pain returns after eating. I'll let you guys know.

After a winter of pain I feel like a miracle happened.

Are you at 2nd Dan and trying to learn shotgun defense?  Are rubber training shotguns too expensive, plastic toy shotguns too small and fragile, and real shotguns too dangerous?  I bring you the Do it Yourself Long Gun Training Aid. Plans and Instructions available in the Store https://www.hapkido-online.com/store1.html. This can be built in an afternoon for less than the price of dinner out.

I decided to merge the advanced black belt site with Hapkido Online and spent the day doing that.  It was more work than you might think.

My reasoning is the advanced site never got much traction either with the students or me. But Hapkido Online has been doing great.  It seemed to me that black belt lessons need not be in a separate place from gup lessons. So I merged them.  In the main menu you will now see 'Gup Learn' (instead of learning) and 'Dan Learn'.  Dan Learn is 1st Dan content.

I also did away with $10 a month for black belt content only.  Now you can get the whole shebang for the same great price as normal Hapkido Online.  Very few customers purchased that package anyway.  If you are a $10 a month student and this seems unfair to you, email me and we will work something out.

Due to ongoing COVID backlash I'm still searching for a local place to not only practice and teach Hapkido but also to film new content.  If any of you live in the Harpers Ferry WV region and would like to lend us some space it would be greatly appreciated.

God Bless,
Master Jon

Well the last year has been one of the strangest I can recall.  It's been a year of trial and tribulation. Like many out there I contracted Covid, fortunately the disease ran it's course and didn't hit me all that hard.  For those of you who have lost somebody I offer my prayers and sympathies.

Due to the pandemic and lock down I shut down the Covenant Hapkido School.  Given the circumstances it seemed the most responsible choice.  We have now been without our local school for a year and I miss my local students and the time we spent together.  I recently took the first of the two part Covid vaccine.  I realize this is may be controversial to some of you.  Please remember that I served in the military for 20 years and I'm accustomed to getting vaccinated for just about everything so for me it didn't really take much consideration.

My main reason for getting vaccinated is I want to get back to teaching Hapkido locally.  For my students, for my son, and for myself.  I think the future will have some bright moments but I also continue to prepare for the worst and keeping fit and strong and ready to defend yourself is the best medicine for the unknown.

As for Hapkido Online, the pandemic only increased it's popularity.  It's as busy now as it ever was.  The Hapkido Dummies have been improving as well thanks to the ingenuity of one student in particular.

Moving forward I wish you all my prayers for the very best.

For the first time in over 8 years Hapkido Online has increased it's prices.  As the site has gained in popularity it has driven costs up.  I resisted doing this as long as I could but the time has come.  We are still considerably less expensive than any for profit brick and mortar school and more affordable than most other distance learning programs.

Since the pandemic I've received more and more requests for one on one video instruction.  In the past I've done sessions like this for free but I've had to reconsider.  If I did this for everyone who has asked I would be in front of the camera doing Hapkido for 60 hours a week.  Since I hold an ordinary job and have a family I simply can't do it at least, not freely.

I've arranged a compensation for training scenario which I think is reasonable.  You may now pay for individual instruction.  This option can be found here:

I will continue to hold regular group practice on Mondays at 5PM EST I have no plans to charge for group practice.

Three years ago Julie and I bought our first lovely home.  Moving is always a nightmare but we managed it.  We did pretty well but one thing that didn't make it was my swivl and camera.

What is a swivl?  A swivl is a small robot that holds a camera and points that camera at a small remote.  The remote is also a microphone.  The swivl is essentially a robot cameraman and sound engineer.  My original was instrumental in building Hapkido Online and I felt it's loss.

The one pictured above is the Generation 1 Swivl.  Which is what I had.  This is obsolete nowadays but still works perfectly for making Hapkido tutorials.  Even a used swivl is still usually a couple of hundred dollars. 

I realize it's not a vast sum of money, however, I've always run Hapkido Online on a shoestring budget.  I keep my costs low and that way I can keep my fees low for you, my students.  In fact i haven't raised fees once in the eight years since I began Hapkido Online.

I've been watching Ebay and Amazon off and on hoping to find a used swivl that wouldn't break the bank.  Well I found one for $60 on Ebay this evening!  I ordered it and it should be here by mid January.

All of you, yes you, pray hard that this thing works.  We need it to bring new content to the site.  I have some camera options that I believe will work reasonably well. I'll keep you posted.

For now, very excited at the prospect of making new Hapkido videos.

Today I cleaned and updated every page under the Home tab, FAQ, JOIN, and Store.  My new Linux web editing software comes with spell check and it's a revelation.  I fixed a number of spelling errors, some have been there nearly eight years.  One thing I've been doing is refining the language so it's easier and faster to read.  I still need to replace camera gear and I need a swivl device to act as camera person.

One of the major updates added to the site is I've added language and links for Hapkido Dummies.  For many who have trouble keeping an uke available these dummies will be a game changer. 

I'll be tackling the Learning pages in the days ahead.  My major focus is to reduce the amounts of words not only on the page but spoken in the videos.  You would think that more words = better learning but actually the opposite is true.  It's always better to show than tell.

I hope you all have a great year and grow as Hapkidoin.  Tell your friends about Hapkido Online!

God Bless,
Jon F.