This is exactly the type of thing I'm talking about. I don't even know where to start with this post. First off, if you want to consider hapkido as a viable fighting system, let's examine what it teaches as martial principle. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what would happen if this "technique" was attempted ANYWHERE outside of a pre-arranged, "1 step" setting.
defense against a round kick
So basically, the hapkidoka (I'm assuming this is what you call hapkido practicioners), is taught to drop his guard hand, turn to face the kick, and try and catch it. brilliant strategy. Not only is this completely ludacrious, but even more, this hapkido club deems it as technique of the month. Apparently this was the best "counter" they could come up with for the month of december. I don't see how they're students don't get seriously injured even in practice.
Let's examine another set of ludacrious techniques:
various other bullshit
This isn't intended to criticize the practicioners or their instructors, but I'm really not one to let this crap get passed off as viable self defense just because people don't know any better and nobody wants to step up and criticize what's being taught. I'll only go through the first 3 techniques for sake of time. "Center lock 1 and 2" are pretty much your standard "wrist twist" submissions that you find in hapkido and in alot of aikido. If applied quickly and properly this move can be really really devestating, however, it's taught so improperly here that it isn't even funny. You might as well ask the guy to roll up his sleeve so you can give him an indian sunburn until he cries "Matte!". Trying to control his opponent with one hand in a wristlock is just outright retarded. If the attacker pivots out and drops his shoulder and elbow down, the defender is forced to let go or can be caught in sort of a standing americana counter. Not only that, but in this situation, the counter is actually pretty intuitive, it's the body's natural response to turn away to get out of the pain, so unless the torqued hand is taken and cut back across the body to take balance, the technique is completely ineffectual, and even if those measures are take, it's still suspect. As it is, if the attacker drops his elbow and turns into the defender, really all he has to do is lift his unaffected elbow up while he does this to take his defender's head off.
Now we get to Punch counter 1, which is absolutely fucking laughable. The insinuation that even the most drunk and ignorant bum is going to leave his *JAB* dangling out there while you proceed to block it, trap it, pivot to the outside, then complete the "throw" is absurd, it's absolutely indefensible. There's so much wasted motion here that jackie chan couldn't coreograph something more farfetched. With a little further inspection you can find 10,000 more flaws in the hapkido system. that's why people don't like it, it has nothing to do with the fact that it isn't muay thai or bjj. People like BJJ and Muay Thai because they're simple and effective and there's none of this ridiculous "self defense" aspect. And yes, there are some tactics in BJJ that are "impractical" in a street fight, but most of those are modified for competition purposes, and most BJJ practicioners will be the first to tell you "hey, don't bother trying this out on the street, adapt this instead."
As far as your "friend" who seems to be able to decimate entire crowds with his withering monkey style, I suspect it has more to do with his physical conditioning/superiority and his mental state when entering the fight moreso than the style he used.
Like I said, I have no problem acknowledging the good these martial arts can do in areas such as general fitness, mental conditioning, and recreational enjoyment, but suggesting that someone lean on this art and entrust their life to it is not something I can do with a good conscious. That's why I switched from aikido after five hard years of training. I'm intimately familiar with the system, and it's flaws. I have no qualms admitting that cross training striking and submission fighting is infinitely more viable than my aikido ever was. So before you presume to know everything about the people criticizing the style, you should.... nevermind.. you're not going to listen anyway.
whats the deal with that??
