Kempo vs Hapkido?

Hapkido or Kempo, both are VERY good methods, Ed Parker founder of American Kenpo gave Hapkido his highest rating along with Kenpo. Personally I would give Hapkido the edge on the ground as part of it’s background is Daito Ryu Aiki Jutsu one of the mother arts to Aikido and in a multiple attack situation I would give the edge to Kenpo but again as others have stated it depends a lot on the individual school and you as a student. I would suggest going and watching a few classes at each and see what feels better to you, also no one says over the long haul you can’t do both, good luck.

Honestly depends on school.

I've seen Kempo places never even approach the ground, and some that spar pretty hard at it. The same for Hapkido.

Neither generally do any real ground work training, but more so a positional escape route, (as opposed to controlling or submitting) which is good.

Honestly it really depends, I wouldn't generally try to place one art over another, especially when there can be so much variance between schools. As I have seen good Hapkido schools, and bad ones, I have seen good Kempo and bad ones.

Honestly I couldn't tell you which is better because that is subjective. I think each has their plusses and minuses.

Now if you had me compare two SPECIFIC schools I might have an opinion, as to level of sparring, what level of training they do in each aspect, etc. But overall as a generalized thing, I don't really know.

Hapkido is one of the more well rounded martial arts. Now depending on which type of Kempo/Kenpo you are referring to does make a difference.There are Kenpo systems that really have no ground fighting in their original systems. There are some that up and till only recently started incorporating grappling and ground fighting in their systems to keep up with the times. Even some HKD schools don't emphasis it as much as others. My HKD school does a lot grappling. But like with all schools it's up to the instructor what he wants in his curriculum regardless of the what style it is. When I trained in American Kenpo in the early 90s' there wasn't any grappling in the system back then. I trained in the system for a few years. But switched to Hapkido when I became a cop because of the more practical application and use of joint controls and take downs and redirection. Kenpo for me relied too much on striking and stancing and prefixed fight motions. After 14 years of law enforcement in very violent South Florida city and training in Hapkido for over 10 years my ACTUAL experience in using it is proof truly does work. But with all that said it's not so much about the art as much it is the practitioner of the art. It's kind of like giving a mechanic box full of tools. If he doesn't know how or when to use them that mechanic is worthless.

kempo kills hapkido in most areas.

what is it you want from either of them? a martial art has to suit your temperament. you already know this.

both use the opponents momentum against them both have a repertoire of techniques for ground work standing work. I think the kempo/kenpo stuff is more weffective streetwise, tho there are some very effective tech in hapkido.

This would be very hard to say. What style of Kempo? How good is the instructor? Is the style geared more towards practicality or is it a style made up too compete with?

Too many variables to give a good answer, other then to say in the long run it probably again comes down to how well it is taught, how the school trains it, and how much you put into it.

I sparred with many kenpo and kempo people I have full respect fot their art but only a stupid man would judge the art and not the man. grand master tien mah ker