Heal Our Land

If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. (2 Chronicles 7:14)
We are living in a time where political correctness is trying to stop the preaching of the Gospel. They call it “hate speech” God does not Hate people he loves them, He died for them on the cross. God does hate Sin! Remember all sins are equal to God, Sin is Sin…We need to preach the word in a loving but truthful way, because peoples eternal destiny’s are at stake. The foot at the cross is level…. All are in need of Jesus.

We who are called by his name and love him with our whole heart must pray and seek his face so he will heal our land before we wake-up in a PC nightmare.

WAKE -UP Children of God to your knees in prayer we must go! Pray for our leaders, pray for our pastors, pray for our family’s and pray for God’s mercy to be upon us.

“Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints” (Eph 6:13-18)

God Bless,

GM Rodemaker

Definition of Tactical Hapkido, an Instructor’s Perspective

I like to tell my students that Tactical Hapkido is a conceptually driven, systematic approach to the way of coordinating energy in a tactical training environment. 

There is a lot in this statement, sometimes ending with a blank look from a new student, so let me explain in depth my perspective, as I would for my students.

Conceptually or concept, sometimes defined as a "unit of knowledge," built from other units which act as a concept's characteristic.  I teach my students that this system is like a pyramid, where the base of the system is in the breakaways. As a white belt, there are only a few techniques.  Sure a student can mimic these movements and be promoted to the next level quickly. But do they really understand what these techniques are teaching? The best way that I find this out is to move the student from the static phase, where there is no pushing/pulling, to a more dynamic phase where I try to get the student off balance or to get them to resist.  If the technique worked well for them, I would have them explain to me why it worked, if not, I would try to have them understand why and reiterate the concept. 

Only after they have this sound understanding of the breakaways then the student can utilize the muscle memory and expand into the joint locking concepts. During the next level of training I try to make sure that the student understands the main concepts being taught, wrists and ankles move side to side, up and down and any combination of these movements. Move the joint to the extreme and it becomes a joint lock or break.  Elbows, fingers and knees all bend in one direction move it in the other direction and it becomes a lock. Combine these concepts and one can get a variety of techniques using the concepts found in yellow belt, of course this is the simplified explanation, for I like to say there are many ways to “Tweak” the technique by improving your understanding of the concepts learned previously.

Once my students have a firm grasp of the basic concepts, I like to say the rest of the system is the “how to” phase.  Where the student is provided only a few examples on “how to” use the concepts previously learned, but in a variety of new situations where they have to make slight modifications.   It is more than just performing the technique listed, but to demonstrate to me how they can modify the concepts found in yellow to their advantage.

Systematic, this term can also be applied to the structure of the training regiment as mentioned in the definition of conceptually driven.  So both terms describing this aspect can be interchanged. In the Tactical Hapkido system, one can view systematic in the way the techniques are named.  We don’t call the techniques by number, for example, breakaway number one or orange belt technique number three, but in a way that describes the technique’s general movements.  This helps the student retain the information and apply the concepts through out the system in a variety of situations.  No longer does a student have to remember the name of twenty techniques that are based on one concept, they learn a name of one concept and then apply it to twenty situations.  And with the uniformity in the system, a student can now move to another part of the country, find the nearest Tactical Hapkido charter, and pick up training where they left off.  Of course, each school may have their own little “Tweaks” in the system, as noted before, but there is a solid base of understanding where the student can easily communicate with their new instructor.

Approach can be defined as the manner in which a problem is solved or is the way to get to the solution.  Combined with systematic, it is the methodology on how to solve the situation when defending one’s self. It can be applied through the psychology of the attacker, i.e. understanding how they think or what their reaction will be when performing a distraction, anticipating their motions using an understanding of bio-kinetics, or how to redirect the attacker’s own movement against them.  Hence the old saying, the bigger they are the harder they fall.

Coordinating Energy, this term I like to explain to my students can be applied both to coordination the attacker’s mental energy by disrupting their carefully drawn out plan of attack or physically by re-directing their momentum against them.  They have a planned attack against you; so it is important to distract, or short circuit their mind in order to disrupt this mental projection of their imagined course of events.  In a physics terminology, they push us so we pull them off balance.  They pull us we counter by pushing them.  The best example is having my students visualize the water principal.  Water does not push the boulder in the river, water flows around it and over it.  And so shall the student do this both mentally and physically.

Tactical can be defined as the action taken to calculated and achieve the end result of victory, through our knowledge of the concepts and acquiring the skills developed over time from proper practice and training. 

Tactical is useless if the student has not been properly trained, so one feeds off the other.  For example, I use the story we all read about in the martial arts magazines.  A master in the martial arts practices a technique to disarm a weapon from someone.  The regiment is the same, disarm, give it back to your practice partner, disarm and repeat.   Once the real situation happens, what does the master do?  Exactly what he practiced and then has to do the technique again or gets wounded.  As an instructor I try to engrain this into the student early on, you will do what you practice.  If I see a student hand a weapon back to their partner immediately with out thinking, I stop the class and point out the potentially fatal mistake.  When someone taps out I make sure that the student performing the technique does not let go immediately, but only slightly loosen the lock and then mentally make the decision that “I am letting them go now”.  Since in the street your attacker will most likely be grabbing your wrist, tapping your leg and most definitely be complaining about the pain. Both of these actions require the student to make a momentary mental decision every time to let go of their partner and then move to practice the technique again.

Environment is the surroundings and influences on our daily lives.  Environment can be the “feeling” that is in the martial arts studio.  Are the people here friendly? Do the instructors give it their all every time when teaching, even when they are sick or had a terrible day?  Do I feel welcome to come anytime?  These all can be applied to this environment with in the school.  

Environment from a Tactical Training perspective can be training outside, for example.  When it is a warm summer day I routinely move the class outside, mats and all, to a area where the ground is sloping and uneven.  Changing this environment causes the student to quickly realize the importance of being well balanced. Throughout this practice session they come to understand what distractions work well, as in a low kick to the shins, or if it is more efficient to use their hands.  Plus the dynamics of takedowns and throws also change due to the difference in the natural center of gravity on uneven ground.  

Training to use the environment can be practicing by positioning yourself where the sun is blinds your attacker, moving around to put inanimate objects between you and the attacker (chairs, benches, bushes, ect.), practicing sitting in your car or seated, performing the techniques on the ground, and defending yourself while protecting your loved ones at the same time.   There are many more examples and ways one can come up with, but these are the routine ones that I have my students practice.

So having stated my perspective on the definition of Tactical Hapkido, I do what I welcome my students to do all the time.  Provide me inputs, your comments, suggestions and improvements so that I may have a better understanding thus improving my teaching abilities for my students.

Martial arts team reaches unsaved

POSTED: May 22, 2010

By MICAIAH WISE BILGER Sentinel reporter mwise@lewistownsentinel.com

McVEYTOWN - Don't judge the Tae Kwon Do Yun Moo Kwan Yeonmugwan Association by its name.

The McVeytown association, which is connected to the Tactical Hapkido Alliance, is more than just a

program in the instruction of physical tactics, said instructor Rick Clark. The basis of the alliance is

Christianity, something people often do not associate with martial arts, Clark said.

Although martial arts began under the influence of Buddhism, it never set a conviction on its practicers

to follow the religion, Clark said. Some of its practicers were not religious at all, he said.

The McVeytown group takes the martial arts and uses it as a way to share their love of Christ with

youth and adults who may not otherwise hear God's Word, Clark said.

Grandmaster Barry Rodemaker, founder and president of the Tactical Hapkido Alliance, said he began

the organization eight years ago to reach out to people who are interested in martial arts.

"There are young adults who will never step into a church, but they will take free martial arts

classes," Rodemaker said. "A lot who take martial arts are seeking, and ... we can share the love of

Jesus with them."

Rodemaker, an eighth-degree Hapkido blackbelt and seventh-degree in Tae Kwon Do, said the

alliance has expanded beyond his home in Erie and now includes schools across the U.S. and Asia.

Clark is planning a special martial arts demonstration to promote the alliance during McVeytown's

Country Memories Days on May 29.

Pastor Chuck Edward and an Altoona team from the Tactical Hapkido Alliance will perform their art

from noon to 5 p.m. in the parking lot of the McVeytown Presbyterian Church. Along with breaking

blocks and boards, the martial artists also will give their testimonies.

Clark said his classes now are for adults, but he hopes to begin instructing local youth after catching

their interest at the May 29 demonstration.

Classes focus on Tae Kwon Do and Hapkido, but instructors also include biblical lessons and Scripture

in the meetings, Rodemaker said. Recently, the alliance began posting online video lessons that tie

martial arts concepts into the Bible, he said.

While the relationship between Christianity and martial arts itself is sometimes questioned, some also

raise concerns about the place that physical defense has in the faith, Rodemaker said.

"We are called to defend the weak and defend our families," Rodemaker said, noting that they teach

people how to defend themselves and their families from attack.

The Hebrews were a warrior culture for many years, he said, referring to battles in the Old

Testament.

"The God of King David is the same as the God of our time," Rodemaker said. "He does not change."

Rodemaker said Christians sometimes misinterpret the word "meek" to mean weak.

"Meek is power under control," Rodemaker said. "That's what we preach, and that's what we teach."

For more information about the Tactical Hapkido Alliance or the local school visit

mysite.verizon.net/vze12rz1k/ or tacticalhapkido.com.

"We're just a group of Christians studying martial arts," Clark said.
 
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