Hapkido in New Zealand
Our particular style of Modern Hapkido, New Zealand Hapkido, was originally introduced to New Zealand by Grand Master Jung Nam Lee in 1975. Grand Master Lee developed a very practical and powerful style of Hapkido that has stood the test of time. Our Hapkido training aims to preserve and develop Grand Master Lee's original teachings and philosophy which has Hapkido as a self defence focused martial art as opposed to a sport.
The Upper Hutt Hapkido Academy is the Headquarters for Hapkido New Zealand which is an informal collective of 7 Hapkido Schools across New Zealand as at January 2018.
The Upper Hutt Hapkido Academy is also a member group of the
World Kido Federation/Hanminjok Hapkido Association - one of the largest Korean martial arts associations in the world with over 600 member clubs in South Korea alone and over 350 member clubs worldwide.
Grand Master Jung Nam Lee (9th Dan)
Grand Master Lee is the original founder of both Hapkido and Tae Kwon Do in New Zealand. Grand Master Lee was originally trained in Hapkido by Grand Master Choi Yong Sul. He took up the position of Director of the Bong Hwa Hapkido and Taekwondo Gymnasium in Seoul, South Korea after leaving the South Korean army in 1971 with the rank of captain (Special Forces).
GM Lee arrived in New Zealand in 1975 and began teaching at the YMCA in Wellington with seven people and soon expanded this by running special courses for the police, traffic officers, army, air force, prison officers, and women's groups. He then started to establish new clubs by helping his senior students to become instructors. In 1991 GM Lee moved from Wellington to Auckland to concentrate his efforts in promoting Taekwondo to a larger population base and from then on his focus became more on Taekwondo and less on Hapkido. In July 2006 GM Lee formally passed his leadership of Hapkido to
Callum Forbes who had already been assisting informally in this role since the late 90’s. GM Lee has since moved back to South Korea but returns to New Zealand from time to time.
GM Lee changed the name of his style of Hapkido several times. Originally he called it Lee's Hapkido before changing it to Kukjae Hapkido around 1990. However in 2010 we changed the name to New Zealand Hapkido to more accurately reflect our geograhical influence. The New Zealand Hapkido Federation is the governing body for this style of Hapkido in New Zealand.
Grand Master In Sun Seo (10th Dan)
Grand Master In Sun Seo is also a student of Hapkido's founder, Grand Master Choi Yung Sol. Grand Master Seo (pronounced 'Suh') received his 1st Dan black belt from GM Choi in 1957 and since that time he has dedicated his life solely to training and developing Hapkido.
Further information about Grand Master Seo can be found
here.
World Kido Federation/Hanminjok Hapkido Association
Our membership of the
World Kido Federation/Hanminjok Hapkido Association allows us to maintain our independence while allowing our members to travel overseas for additional Hapkido training and take part in international events which exposes us to many different variations of Hapkido. This allows us to benchmark our style of Hapkido against other styles of Hapkido to ensure that our training remains up-to-date, relevant and of a high quality. It also allows our black belts to be formally registered in Korea with the the Korean Ministry of Culture and Sports if they demonstrate an appropriate level of skill commitment to Hapkido.
Martial Arts Professionals
Our membership of
Martial Arts Professionals ensures that our facility, training methods and business practices are continuously evolving and are up-to-date with the leading martial arts industry practices.
The Future
The future of our style in New Zealand is very bright. Nationally we have a tight network of long established clubs all of whom have head instructors with at least 20 years experience in Hapkido supported by our strong Headquarters academy in Upper Hutt. We also have a growing number of young black belts in most of our schools to help ensure our continued presence in the decades ahead.
We are looking to develop new clubs in cities and towns where we are not represented. The New Zealand Hapkido Federation is often approached by other Hapkido students and other martial artists wanting to join it. Therefore our focus is not only on supporting our original schools but also to support other martial artists who want to study Hapkido as well. We can provide support by training people with no Hapkido experience in our style of Hapkido. Or we can provide support and direction to people who have other Hapkido experience and systems who do not need to be taught everything from the ground up.