FITNESS

Coordinated as a full body work-out, Kuk Sool training combines many different types of exercise - flexibility, strength training and cardio - into a single workout program.

As a form of exercise, Kuk Sool combines a regimen of flexibility exercises, a graduated cardiovascular workout with a series of hand techniques, and kicking techniques  that begin at white belt with basic applications and then continue, as the student progresses through a series of advanced jumping and spinning kicks, combination kicking and hand and kicking drills.

The actual Kuk Sool program can be divided into forms (Hyung) and techniques (Soo) arranged in a systematic, graduated progression to teach balance and coordination, while at the same time developing the relaxed power, graceful motion and low stances characteristic of the style.  

SELF-DEFENSE

Self-defense is all about options, and that is one of the strong points of Kuk Sool. In addition to the many dozens of different strikes and punches associated with most martial arts (as well as an almost infinite variety of different combinations), the fundamental techniques of Kuk Sool are built around a progressive series of techniques designed to attack the weak points on an opponent’s body: his joints  and pressure points.

In more limited martial arts styles, the number of available techniques may be relatively small (a small number of techniques = a limited number of self-defense options), while Kuk Sool is composed of more than 226 different joint-locking and throwing techniques in the underbelt (below black belt) chart alone, giving the Kuk Sool student a variety of different options – striking and kicking, throwing techniques, joint-locking techniques, pressure point techniques, etc. – for any situation.

TRADITION

As an organization, Kuk Sool is only about fifty years old (about the same as Tae Kwon Do, Hapkido and other styles of Korean martial arts), but the history and traditions of Kuk Sool stretch back many hundreds of years into the martial history of Korea, drawing on the three main root systems of Korean martial arts:

Sado Musool – Tribal or Family Martial Arts. Drawing from some of the earliest martial arts techniques in Korea, these tribal (or family) martial arts techniques include much of the throwing and grappling skills of Kuk Sool, as well as some of the more specialized techniques such as wrestling, head-butting and stone- and knife-throwing.

Bulkyo Musool – Buddhist Martial Arts. From the martial arts handed down over many hundreds of years in the Korean Buddhist temple system, Kuk Sool has adopted many of the specialized breathing techniques  to develop increased energy and health, animal-style techniques similar to those seen in many Chinese martial arts and developed around certain ‘martial’ animals (such as the tiger, dragon, crane and preying mantis) and many of the staff-related traditional weapons of Kuk Sool, such as the joong bong (long staff), dahn bong (short stick – single and double), juel bong (flail) and ji pang ee (hooked walking cane) – all taught as a part of the standard curriculum at Kuk Sool of the Upstate.

Koong Joong Musool – Korean Royal Palace Martial Arts. From the Korean Royal Court martial arts, Kuk Sool has taken advanced kicking and striking techniques, joint manipulation techniques (Kwahn Juel Ki), pressure point techniques (Ji Ahp Sool) and special arresting techniques such as Yuhn Haeng Sool (‘come-along’ techniques) and Poh Bohk Sool (rope techniques) developed by the Royal Palace guards. Also from the Korean Royal Court comes many of the Kuk Sool weapons such as the chang (spear), sahm chang (trident) and the many different types of sword techniques taught at Kuk Sool of the Upstate, such as the joong guhm (straight sword), yuhk guhm (inverted sword), ssahng jang guhm (double long swords) and ssahng dahn guhm (double short swords).