Martial Art of the Month: South Korea - Yongmudo

Here's an obscure (but quite cool) one! Yongmudo - sometimes written Yongmoodo - is a hybrid martial art developed recently and formally announced in 1998 by Yong In University in South Korea. The university has a well known college of martial arts and physical training.

Yongmudo combines elements of traditional arts such as Judo, Taekwondo, Hapkido*, Gumdo* and Ssireum*, alongside modern scientific principles to create an all-rounder martial arts system. The selling point is its flexibility of response - ie you have a bit of all systems at your fingertips to apply in any situation. Practitioners use kicks, throws, locks, grappling and hand strikes, while also being trained in protection (breakfalling etc).

Apparently Yongmudo is first and foremost a defensive system. The offensive elements are secondary, though Yongmudo tournaments exist and the first World Championships were held in 2007.

In Korea at least, Yongmudo practitioners wear distinctive green uniforms / doboks. In tournaments, opponents are distinguished by a red or blue belt.

Also interesting (to me!) are the marketing principles behind this martial art. Strong in the ideology of Yongmudo are goals to spread the system worldwide. This to deliberately boost awareness of S Korean martial arts - but in this case, also of Yong In University! Check out the video below. Could the art have been developed solely as an elaborate marketing tool?!

To date over 1000 Yong In alumni have set up Dojangs overseas to practice and establish S Korean martial arts, among them Yongmudo. This strategy was initially used (successfully) in the 1960s to spread the little known art of taekwondo, and with it awareness of S Korean culture**. Yongmudo is now gaining international popularity, with key groups in SE Asia, and at several US Ivy League universities, interestingly. 

Anyway, back to sport! Most YouTube clips appear to show Yongmudo demonstration (flashy, pre-choreographed moves). So here is a little real sparring:

I heard about Yongmudo because we had a Yong In taekwondo instructor in London. If I can get hold of him for more info (not in Hangul!) I'll post it up!

*Hapkido and Gumdo are Korean martial arts with similarities to Aikido and Kendo respectively. Ssireum is a form of Korean wrestling.

** Taekwondo is now practiced by over 70 million people worldwide.

Photo courtesy mardb.com