Q. What kind of martial arts school is Beck Martial Arts?

I believe the martial arts are about self-defense and self-improvement. All training we do has something to do with one, the other, or both. I am a part-time martial arts instructor holding another full time job; I teach because I love it and want to improve people's lives. See more on the About page..

Q. Where are classes held? What is the class schedule?

See the Contact page.

Q. What do you charge?

Rates vary depending on the type of training. See the Pricing page.

Q. Do you teach kids? How young do you accept students?

Yes, in general 6 years and up for TKD and 13 and up for Hapkido and Arnis, with some caveats: - I want to teach martial arts, not rote memorization of a student creed, little Johnny to stand at attention, or how to know his left from right. I am not a babysitter or substitute parent. A child needs to have some empathy - to understand that the kicking and punching they are doing can do damage and put themselves in another's place. He or she must understand when it is acceptable and when it is NOT acceptable to use the techniques. And he or she must have the attention span to function in a group class, the attention span of a child NOT that of a teenager or adult; they must have some focus. For Hapkido and Arnis, while young people can physically perform nearly all the techniques, joint locks are not good for developing bodies. If you just walk through the motions as some teachers have kids do, they do not learn what really happens with the techniques. Also, with joint locks or when dealing with weapons, it takes judgment and experience in the amount of force to use to avoid injury. You don't give a 3 year old a box of matches... Private lessons may be feasible for someone otherwise not a fit for the group class. I have accepted students before outside of the guidelines that have previous training and good focus. Note that there are several schools in the area I can recommend that do a great job with very young kids, both with the socialization aspects (self-discipline, respect, concentration, etc) and solid martial arts. I am happy to point you in their direction for your little ones younger than 6.

Q. What about teenagers? Why do you want teens to train in your classes?

Most schools will focus on kids. Some will focus on adults. Few give much thought to the special challenges of teenagers. Adolescents can easily get lost in the sea of kids at many schools. They are very heavily influenced by their peers as they try to find their own identities outside their parents and siblings. They need rules but will push the limits constantly. Treat them as adults and you get more adult behavior. They have a great need for positive role models. They have most of their physical growth and most of their adult intelligence but little emotional intelligence, as puberty hits they are going through all kinds of changes. They often fall prey to bullies (both physical and social), drugs, and bad behavior. They also need physical activities that challenge them to get off the couch and away from the computers. Sports do this, but competitions can go too far. The non natural athlete typically hates group sports. Young males especially can get caught up in the macho beat down aspects of combat and get enamoured with all the posturing silly attitude of being the biggest bada** on the block of most MMA. BMA is a place for learning skills that WORK without all the tattoos and attitudes. They need to get past having something to prove. Young women are typically not taught any self-defense that works until after they hit puberty, and then it is typically all out rape defense. That is fine for the true all out defense situations, but young women also need practical techniques that have a middle ground, to teach the boy they like that no means no without putting him in the hospital or the morgue.

Q. Will martial arts make my child violent?

No. Martial arts are used for self-defense and as a last resort. The core principles of Beck Martial Arts is solving problems by peaceful resolution and having the self-confidence to not rely on violent behavior.

Q. My child is not very athletic. Can they still benefit from martial arts?

Certainly. We teach them skills that will help with their coordination, flexibility and strength. We make sure that the activities we assign are appropriate for the child’s athletic level.

Q. Will my child be injured if they practice martial arts?

There is a chance of physical injury with any form of exercise. We take very special care to supervise all exercises to see that the students are performing them correctly. Sparring is only performed with protective gear and always in a controlled and safe manner.

Q. How old do you accept students?

Any age. You may not be able to physically do some of the motions in a particular art, but no one is ever too old to start improving their life via the martial arts.

Q. Why should I train with you rather than this other guy teaching the same style(s)?

Martial arts instruction is not a commodity; you can't buy the skills at every corner convenience store or strip center dojo. Even if a style and organization has a rigid curriculum every instructor is different and the level of quality will differ immensely. My approach to teaching Hapkido differs a little from my teachers' approach, the same is true for Arnis; and the same is true for Taekwondo. People are individuals and the path to martial art mastery is an individual one. But I can be a guide along that path. If you want to train for self-defense and self-development, you will not find a better teacher. I'm not the most technically skilled martial artist in the world and there are certainly people with higher rank out there teaching. I'm not a natural athlete, nor are most of the people I teach. But practice anything long enough and you get pretty good; and I've been doing and teaching martial arts for nearing 4 decades now while constantly learning and growing.

Q. Which class is best for me?

Only you can answer that; it really depends on what your goals are. All Beck Martial Arts classes help with self-defense and self-development, but the primary focus differs a little among them.

Q. How do I get started?

I recommend that you set up a telephone consultation with me and take an introductory private lesson as a first step. But you can also just come show up to a class. You can pick up a uniform (for HKD, optional for TKD, none is needed for Arnis) ahead of time, or you can order one through me. Martial arts shoes are optional but recommended.

Q. Don't I need to get in shape before I start?

No, this is not the Marines! You can start at any time and in any shape. You should of course see a doctor before beginning any exercise program and let me know of any physical limitations you have, but you can begin benefiting from martial arts training immediately. I've had one person lose over 100 pounds after starting training with me, obviously he wasn't in great shape when he began!

Q. I have a past injury or medical condition. Can I still train in martial arts?

Of course. You will need to talk to your doctor about the risks you may incur by performing certain physical movements and let your instructors know what you can't do, but everyone can benefit from martial arts training; it goes well beyond any kind of specific physical motion.

Q. Why the eagle as a symbol?

Eagles have long been associated with Hapkido. The high flying bird is considered the king of the air. The golden eagle snatching the arrow out of the air was either the first or second symbol representing the art, and is still used in many HKD organizations. In the USA,the bald eagle represents our nation. I chose the bald eagle as an image to represent Beck Martial Arts because I want be a sterling example of Hapkido in America. This particular image comes from 3 sources: an image I've seen on at least three companies/organizations and believe to be public domain, the drawing skills of Chris Crawford, one of my old students, and some bitmap editing by myself.

Q. Do you sell any Beck Martial Arts gear, videos, or equipment?

Yes, just email Master Beck directly.

Q. Can I see some examples of what you do online?

Style Questions

Q. What is the best martial art style?

The one you keep practicing. All existing styles have something to offer or they would have died out. Some excel at particular types of combat -- ie TKD is known for kicking. Some are more suited to particular body types -- ie judo for a smaller stockier person. But much more important than style are the skills of the individual, and that takes a lot of practice time to develop. So 'best' is the one you enjoy enough to keep practicing in.

Q. What is Hapkido?

'art of coordinated power' - a comprehensive Korean self-defense system involving joint locks, pressure points, throws, kicks, and strikes.

Q. How does your Hapkido class differ from others Hapkido classes?

Each of my teachers are different and teach in differing ways, and HKD as an art varies a great deal from teacher to teacher in the range of what is taught and the skills required. My focus is self-defense and self-development. My HKD curriculum is concept-based. That makes it quite different from the attack-based curriculum most teachers use, and in my opinion is easier to learn, maintain, and make practical.

Q. Do you have any recommendations for books and videos?

See the Hapkido Books and Videos page.

Q. What is Taekwondo?

'art of the hand and foot' - the world's most popular martial art, it involves kicks, blocks, and strikes and is also a competitive Olympic sport.

Q. How does your Taekwondo class differ from others Taekwondo classes?

There are a LOT of TKD classes out there. Within the World Taekwondo Federation/USA Taekwondo/Olympic TKD umbrella, they will all follow the same set of forms with the same approximate techniques at the same approximate belt levels. The main differences in my classes are the amount of stress placed on self-development aspects of the art such as the 5 tenets of TKD and family training, and the amount of stress placed on the self defense aspects of the art. The sport aspects and competition aspects are there, but not nearly as important; they are not the focus.

Q. What's the difference between Hapkido and Taekwondo? Between Hapkido and Krav Maga? Between Taekwondo and Tae Kwon Do?

These sorts of comparison questions are answered on theControversal HKD Faq and Controversial TKD Faq pages.

Q. Isn't TKD just a sport?

No, it's a martial art as well. The focus of a particular school may be sport-oriented, self-improvement oriented, forms oriented, or self-defense oriented. The techniques can be used very effectively for self-defense. Even if a particular school is totally sport-oriented and pays no attention to self-defense whatsoever, a student will be in better shape and thus better prepared for an altercation. Beck Martial Arts focus for Taekwondo is self-improvement, self-defense, and fitness oriented.

Q. What is Modern Arnis?

A Filipino martial art known primarily for weapons training that also involves empty hand strikes, kicks, joint locks, grappling, throws, empty hand forms, and weapon forms.

Q. What is Arnis de Leon?

Grandmaster Anding de Leon's style primarily based on Modern Arnis.

Q. What's the difference between Arnis, Eskrima, Kali, Escrima, Eskrido, V-jitsu, etc?

See the Controversial Arnis FAQ.

Q. How does your Arnis class differ from Modern Arnis or Arnis de Leon?

Also answered in the Controversial Arnis FAQ.

Q. I've trained in Karate/Kung Fu/Ninjitsu/No Holds Barred Wresting/Tibetan Gopher Throwing/etc style? Will I fit in?

Sure, as long as you have an open mind. Try the BMA version of Hapkido or Taekwondo or Arnis and fit it into your own personal martial art.

Q. What are your opinions on MMA?

I think that martial arts are all about self-defense and self-development, and most MMA is losing out on both. The current boom in mixed martial arts is fine as far as technique goes, but tends to focus totally on competitions and physical skills. Focusing on who's the 'toughest' person means you lose out on all the non-physical benefits of martial arts study; ie self-development. In addition, competitions always limit the techniques; there are always rules. For competition, it makes sense to approach it as picking a few techniques that you can do well and making those few nigh unstoppable. But for effective self-defense, you MUST have the capability to deal with many different situations that are never found in a ring, octagon, or on a mat. I feel that traditional martial arts are the best way to gain skills in self-defense and self-development. Hapkido and Arnis have always had a mixture of strikes and grappling included and cover every range including groundfighting. Go far enough in practically any traditional martial art and you'll find techniques that address all kinds of situations. In my Taekwondo class we train in some nontraditional ways (including groundfighting) and spar under many rulesets. The things I like about MMA are that it is exposing many more people to martial arts than ever before, and that it has woken some people up to the necessity of handing many situations, in particular ground fighting.

Rank Questions

Q. Would previous rank in martial arts translate?

Depends. Skill and knowledge levels vary greatly between schools, and so do color rank schemes and rank. For Taekwondo or for Arnis, I can look at your current skills and knowledge and make a decision as to where you fit; in nearly all cases you'll keep your current rank and simply learn all my underlying curriculum before advancing. But Hapkido is different. Hapkido varies a great deal from teacher to teacher in the range of what is taught and the skills required. And my HKD curriculum is different enough in its concept based structure from all attack based structures (which means practically all other HKD curriculums) that it doesn't work well to just put someone in. I want a certain rank in my school to mean that person understands and has skill with all the concepts taught below that rank -- ALL of them. So for Beck Martial Arts Hapkido, for almost all incoming Hapkido students, skills may translate, rank does not. I fully respect other organizations, schools, and teacher's training. At a seminar or as a guest in my school you can wear whatever uniform and whatever rank has been conferred on you. But the rank of a regular student in my school means rank INSIDE my school; thus it must be earned WITHIN my school and through me. So even if you come in with a 3rd Dan black belt in Hapkido, I want you to start at white belt, learn my whole curriculum and test for every level before you wear a black belt in my school. In other words, every Hapkido rank worn at my school is earned by testing under me, no rank is ever just given out. Attending every class will certainly help your growth and makes rank advancement more likely, but just as with everything else in life just showing up is not enough. There is one exception to 'starting over' rank wise. If the curriculum and knowledge base of your level from your previous training is close enough to mine, I will allow you to wear your current rank with a single white stripe. The stripe signifies that you haven't yet learned the entire curriculum and haven't yet tested for me, but you are close. You will not need to test for every underlying rank separately, but your next test will be comprehensive over my curriculum. This category would apply to for instance some of my students from before my change to a conceptual curriculum, or to certain Sin Moo Hapkido students. Now lest you think this 'starting over requirement' is a scam to get testing fees, I do NOT have time-in-grade requirements for rank, my testing fees are almost nominal, and you may test for more than one level at a time paying 1 test fee. You do NOT have to go through every single level paying the testing fee and waiting three months between testings. For instance, you may come in with 10 years previous HKD experience and an existing 3rd Dan from say the IHF. You start at white belt 10th Gup. Maybe you're ready at the next testing and test for 9th - 2nd Gups, paying $100. Then you wear a red belt 2nd Gup. The next testing maybe you're ready and test for 1st Gup and 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Dan, paying $150 (if you want Sin Moo HKD Association 3rd Dan cert, that org's cert. fee also). At that point you've been tested on ALL rank requirements from white belt through 3rd Dan -- you've EARNED 3rd Dan rank in my school. I do believe in SOME aspects of 'time-in-grade'. Certain concepts and skills take time to develop and to sink in, and there is more to martial arts mastery than just physical skills. I do believe that in general without previous MA training it should take about 4 years to get 1st Dan in HKD and about a year/Dan level to advance after that. But if you've put in 10 years of training in some other martial art; you've mastered a lot of concepts that carry over and it should be MUCH faster. Especially if it's a Hapkido related art such as Kuk Sool or Hwarangdo.

Q. How do you feel about ranking via seminars or video?

Seminars and video are great training tools, but awarding rank via those avenues is in general a bad idea. Testing via video is too easily staged; you can too easily just record the one time in a hundred you do something right. And repetition to acquire muscle memory is absolutely essential. So if the material shown at a seminar is not practiced enough over time, it is lost. Ongoing regular practice with a good instructor will correct mistakes in your practice and stop bad habits from being ingrained. But a seminar here and a seminar there is not going to do much more than give you an idea of the material. Thus I feel that doing rank tests at a seminar that simply test what's been worked on at that seminar is a bad practice. It tends to promote memorization of the particular techniques done just before, without understanding principles behind the techniques or being able to apply the techniques to different situations. My rank tests deal with understanding of and skill with the concepts I'm teaching; every test is different and you don't know for sure what particular attack will be coming.

Q. What does 'black belt' mean?

In US culture generally it means martial arts expert. That has become watered down over the years with schools selling black belt contracts and guarantees of rank. In Asian culture generally it just means a serious student. To me, black belt in a style means that you have a solid level of understanding of all the basics of that style, and enough physical skills to defend yourself effectively using the style. For Hapkido, that means skills in joint locks, kicking, striking, pressure points, and throws. You don't have to have a perfect tornado spin kick. But you do have to be able to do some basic kicking to earn a black belt in HKD or TKD. If you're a paraplegic, you may be able to become a great martial artist with fantastic hand techniques and a wealth of knowledge; but sorry, kicking is part of the style and part of the objective measures for rank. Everyone can gain from martial arts training; not everyone can become a black belt.

Sparring Questions

Q. Can you teach me to fight?

Only if you have the right attitude. Physical fighting is condoned in civilized human society only in self-defense or in defense of others; it is always a last resort. As thinking human beings, we have an obligation to use logic and principles to handle every situation, and as citizens, to follow the existing rule of law. At Beck Martial Arts an explicit part of our student creed is never to fight to achieve selfish ends -- developing the proper attitude is an integral part of our training. The physical skills we teach are very effective in a fight, but more important are the mental skills to avoid one in the first place.

Q. Isn't sparring just like fighting?

Not at all. Every kind of sparring has rules, and a fight does not. Sparring can help you develop fighting skills, but the mentality is very different. There are aspects to a fight that simply can not safely be experienced in sparring.

Q. Such as?

Your reaction if surprised. Your reaction to being attacked in the first place. Your reaction to being severely hurt. Your reaction to severely hurting another person, ie actually breaking an arm. Legal repercussions like assault charges. Escalation of the fight to different levels, ie weapons.

Q. Then why spar?

Many reasons. To develop distancing skills, timing skills, adapt to changing conditions, to overcome pain, to overcome fear of contact, to practice at full speed with a non-cooperating partner, to experience at least part of the adrenalin rush that comes about, etc. Competitive sparring aids in building good character traits such as sportsmanship, goal setting and achieving, self-control, perseverance, and self-confidence. Also, it is essential for self-defense to be able to handle realistic attacks, where the exact attack is not known in advance, and the attacker doesn't just stop after one attack. Sparring can develop those abilities. And it can be a very fun game, especially for kids.

Q. Why not spar in Hapkido then?

Because it is simply not safe to spar competitively with joint locks in the equation -- someone will always be trying to out-tough the other guy --which means injuries. People can do full-speed full-contact sparring in Olympic Taekwondo safely because of limiting the target areas, limiting the allowed attacks, and wearing protective gear. People can do full-speed full power throws in judo safely by limiting the types of throws. But with a full speed full power joint lock the opponent either cooperates or the joint is broken. A Hapkidoist can do TKD type sparring using some of his or her HKD striking/kicking skills, and can do judo sparring using some of his other HKD throwing skills; but the core of HKD is joint locks. Also, the mindset of Hapkido is defensive, not aggressive. Sparring rules are always geared to the more aggressive person - he who attacks more usually has a greater number of successful attacks. In Hapkido we don't attack someone else; we take their attack and use it against them. It's not about hitting someone else more times or harder than he hits you; it's about stopping them from hitting you at all. We develop self-defense skills by different kinds of drills, including some with realistic attacks in which the defender doesn't know what kind of attack is coming or when it's coming, and where the attacker continues attacking until either controlled or disabled. The philosophical ideal is to merge with the opponent's attack defusing its power and taking control of the person immediately, whether via joint lock, disabling throw, or disabling strike. In other words, we finish fights as quickly as possible.

Q. What kinds of sparring do you teach in Taekwondo?

Primarily we do Olympic rules Taekwondo sparring (as governed by USA Taekwondo, formerly the United States Taekwondo Union). Those rules allow the realism of full speed and full power, while the limited target areas and protective gear keep things safe. For children the amount of power is also limited and strikes to the head are disallowed. However, the way you train is the way you tend to fight. If you NEVER do any other kind of sparring, you're unlikely to make use of techniques and weapons disallowed under Olympic rules. So we will also do some point-stop sparring as in open Karate tournaments, kickboxing rules sparring, Arnis/Wing Chun type trapping hands sparring, grappling with simple takedowns and defenses, ground grappling, submission wrestling, and some UFC type MMA sparring (not all in one class of course!) But we are always cognizant of safety; we always wear protective gear and always go under control.

Q. What about sparring in Arnis?

We'll do some limited sparring drills in addition to many reaction drills and back and forth partner drills. We do some limited freestyle step sparring training, and a set of pre-arranged stick sparring sequences. But full-contact freestyle stick sparring is *extremely dangerous*, the speed and hardness of the weapons makes it very difficult to do in a controlled manner, and limiting techniques to make it safe also makes it unrealistic. There's some additional discussion in the Controversial Arnis FAQ.