Mr. Thobias has begun the very first Hapkido Online Club in
Brazil! http://tacticalhapkidoclubbrasil.blogspot.com.br/ We all wish you the very best with your new club Thobias!
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I was thinking about eventually putting a little ornamental garden around my barn dojang just to give the place the right tone. One of the things that are common to a Japanese or Korean gardens is an ornamental pagoda.
I was concerned about the symbolism of the pagoda. Most of them are places of worship for Buddhists. As it turns out though my fears are unjustified. Pagoda's are places of worship but they are not unique to a particular religion. For example Taoism and Shinto also have Pagoda's Here is a Christian Pagoda: http://www.wmf.org/project/da-qin-christian-pagoda-and-monastery Christianity found its way into China during the 7th century. I've always thought Pagoda's were beautiful structures and now I have no fear of that feeling contradicting my faith. Green belt Interceptions added. These are a very pleasant exercise to practice. Enjoy yourself but have care, for it only takes a fraction of a seconds inattention to make for a bloody nose. Safety First.
Added tic tac toe approach to learning stance to yellow belt. Added Master Tim's thoughts on high yellow belt joint locks. It's a late night and as you can see both Master Feathers and myself have been burning the candle at both ends but I am pleased with the material. Bear in mind that everything you are seeing in the training section is Beta edition. As Hapkido Online progresses we will occasionally revisit older video's and improve them. I hope to get material from some of you out there. It's best to try to keep making progress. The wait is over! We filmed, edited, and uploaded a LOT of Green Belt video this evening. I have more footage in the can that needs editing. Master Feathers and Braxton filmed Green Belt Interceptions today. I look forward to seeing that material.
Our new video camera works well enough. You will notice the latest video's seem a bit darker than video's past. This isn't the camera's fault. It's the dead of winter and the sun was fading fast during filming this afternoon. I've decided to pick up the pace a little bit. I will be dedicating one practice a month to filming only. I always strive to find a balance between the needs of my local students and my remote students and I hope this will be it. I've come across the most extraordinary device today. The 'swivl': http://www.swivl.com/ Essentially the swivl supports any lightweight camera or cameraphone on a tripod. You clip a remote to your clothing. The swivl automatically aims the camera at the remote. The remote also acts as a microphone and remote control for starting recording and stopping it. This is AMAZING! It's like having a tiny robotic cameraman at your beck and call. Whats really great is they have priced this well within reach of us mere mortals. Imagine how this device could assist us with Hapkido Online! We could attach webcams to it for the Digital Dojang, we could attach digital video cameras to it for filming techniques. We can even make quick little video's with our cell phones. I am geeking out about it! I called swivl today and essentially gushed about their invention for 30 minutes. They were so enthused about my enthusiasm they are going to call me back and talk about possibly link trading or perhaps even sponsorship. We certainly live in an exciting time! Very Respectfully, Jon Friends,
I have decided to make today's practice a dedicated Hapkido Online filming practice. I am behind schedule on this important work for our remote students. Mathew and I will be filming green belt techniques. You are welcome to attend and we can always use a camera person but it won't be Hapkido practice in the traditional sense. Today's practice is optional for most of you. If you do attend you will be expected to be very quiet and out of frame. For what it's worth Matthew and I usually learn things from this filming because we are forced to really explore the techniques in depth. Thanks for your patience and for allowing me to help our folks who can't be here with us. Very Respectfully, Jon Hello Hapkido Friends,
We've had a couple of small setbacks and it has slowed progress. #1, I accidentally broke our video camera. Never fear, a new camera is on the way and it is really needed for the Green Belt videos! #2, I still do not have reliable high speed internet at our new home. I was making headway on my savings goal to have Cox Cable trench in a new line for the house when the camera broke. I decided to spend part of our Hapkido Funds on the camera. I know that you have entrusted me with your membership money and belt fees and I am committed to using those resources to forward Hapkido Online and make it better than ever. In light of this I've found a lightly used camera that is suitable. No point paying retail for something that's going to travel about in my gym bag. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Master Tim Feathers for helping out with the Digital Dojang while I get my I.T. ducks in a row. I would like to cheer Mr. Thobias on his efforts to build the very first Hapkido Online Club in Brazil. Those of you stateside with clubs understand just how much of a commitment that is. We are all behind you Thobias and Good Luck! Of course, Mr. David Henry and John Straka have my sincere thanks as well for their efforts to grow and develop their own Hapkido Club in West Virginia. Your participation and hard work have filled me with pride. Grand Master Rodemaker personally expressed his approval for our Hapkido Online Clubs to me on the phone this week. He thinks it’s a novel concept and should be a great stepping stone for new THA Charter schools. I would like to express my gratitude to my own family who have decided to give me two hundred square feet of our barn to build my new Hapkido Online Dojang in. Thematically I plan to make it strongly resemble the website with warm redwood tones and parchment colors. Finishes will be simple and affordable and in keeping with the Korean ways of doing more with less. I look forward to practicing and filming Hapkido in a room that has the look and feel of a traditional Dojang. Aahhh Dreams.... But first I'll focus on the necessities of getting internet and adding content. Never fear. Though they may not be big changes I continue to build the website and make refinements. Some of you may notice the little things that I have done to make it that much better. I am steadfast in my goal of making Hapkido Online great and giving you the very best Hapkido instruction I can. Everybody have a blessed and safe Thanksgiving Holiday! V/r, Jon Hello Hapkido Friends,
Just a quick update. I finally managed to upload Master Tim's two final High Yellow Throw video's. That level is now complete. I may tweak it a little over time but it is technically finished. If you look at the homepage we now have paid sponsors. This revenue will help us build, upgrade, and maintain Hapkido Online. If you visit a sponsors site or buy something from them, please make sure you let them know that you found them through Hapkido Online. I added some very nice graphics depicting Mushin today, check them out: http://www.hapkido-online.com/who-is-a-black-belt.html The PayPal side of the Join page is successful I am pleased to report. Many thanks Mr. Thobias and family of Brazil for joining and beta testing our international links. I would like to wish Mr. Straka the best on his upcoming belt test and express my gratitude to Master Feathers for conducting it. I am just over halfway to my savings goal to bring high speed internet to our new rural home. Hopefully I will be back in the testing game soon. I do have high speed available during weekdays, but evenings and weekends will be difficult till our high speed gets installed. V/r, Jon Today I added a brief lesson about the Brachial
Plexus: http://www.hapkido-online.com/yellow-belt-punches.html And a very entertaining lesson on Horse Stance: http://www.hapkido-online.com/green-belt-stances.html Enjoy! Jon Hello Hapkido Friends,
The past week has been a very exciting time for Hapkido Online. First I just want to express how happy I am with all of you, working with you is a real honor and it brings such joy to my life. First I would like to welcome and announce our very first international student, Mr. Thobias of Brazil. He is currently a green belt with an existing Hapkido system and has decided to join us. Working with a student in another country has posed some interesting new challenges but I am sure with God's grace and the support of you all we will make it work! Last week Grand Master Rodemaker (founder of the Tactical Hapkido Alliance) held his 3rd annual Hapkido conference in Erie, PA. I would like to express my continued gratitude for his support and the support of THA. For those of you that didn't make it, I encourage you to attend next years. http://www.tacticalhapkido.com/ Mr. David Henry of Pro-form TKD started his very own Hapkido Online based Hapkido Club. This is the first such club we have been a part of. David reports his club membership is growing. Way to go David! http://www.proformtkd.com/classes/adult-tkd/ You may have noticed some new pages on Hapkido Online. I've been steadily adding content. Much of the work is what you might call tweaking existing pages to make them more easily navigated. My latest addition, Christian Martial Arts: http://www.hapkido-online.com/christian-martial-arts-terms-ideas-and-misconceptions.html Another thing I have been working on is making the site more user friendly for people outside the U.S. As always I am completely open to suggestions. Last week we had a banner page view count and set a record hit count for one day. People sure are using Hapkido Online! Well that's it for now, happy Hapkido practice! Very Respectfully Jon Ferguson Hello Hapkido Friends,
Master Feathers and family have kindly resumed filming for us. Yesterday I uploaded a score of new video to the high-yellow throws. I've got a couple more that require editing before I can upload them but I hope to get them posted by the end of the week. Once I've uploaded the remaining Side to Side video, High Yellow will be more or less complete. I may add some small things over time to fine tune but the core content is in place. I would just like to express my gratitude to Master Feathers and his family for taking the time to contribute to Hapkido Online. Master Tim says "on to Green Belt!" I find his lesson on the 'snake' technique to be particularly interesting. It's a complicated move and his lesson really helps clarify it. My original goal was to complete all the basic training content for First-Dan by Hapkido Online's one year anniversary on February the 7th. Needless to say I am behind schedule. As I promised last February I will keep the content coming just as fast as I can. Since February we have had fan email from people all over the world. Like a brick and mortar Dojang Hapkido Online students come and go. I am proudest of those of you who train with us regularly. Hapkido Online continues to gradually increase in internet traffic. Our best single day had 395 page views and nearly half of those were from new people (unique visitors). We average roughly 1,500 page views a month. Our student base remains small which is good. I would rather have a solid core group with quality training. I recently added better page navigation for those of you accessing us from your smart phones and other portable devices. If you simply click the training page http://www.hapkido-online.com/training.html. You can now jump to any training page from that one index. We have found the site worked pretty well on computers but the smart phones struggled with the dropdown menus so this index page ought to make it all easier. Thank you Mr. Mudry for the suggestion. If anybody has input or ideas that will improve Hapkido Online I love to get feedback. In August I added a Hapkido Online Credo: http://www.hapkido-online.com/hapkido-online-credo.html This is seven personal goals we should all hold dear. Well that is all I have for now. I wish you all the very best. Thank you for being patient whilst we moved into our new home. Now that things are settling down I look forward to working with all of you again. For those of you I haven't heard from in a while I would like to call roll. I look forward to hearing from you all. Very Respectfully and God Bless, Jon Ferguson www.hapkido-online.com |
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