Which one is a better fighting/self defence martial art? How would one who knows Karate fare against one who knows Hwa Rang Do and vice versa? I'd like professional opinions because I'm serious about choosing a martial art and excelling in it.
Boxa' with Karate Self Defense.
I really don't like Hwa Rang Do because the name is misleading and I heard so many shady claims from them. First Hwarang used to be an elite military class youth in Korea. (ref:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hwarang) As far as I understand they didn't have one system of martial arts just as our police force doesn't have one police force martial art. Also Hwarangdo certainly has no lineage claims to the Hwarangs themselves.
Secondly Taekkyeon is still alive in Korea and Hwarangdo looks nothing like the Taekkyeon. Hwarangdo has as much claims on Taekkyeon as TKD has on that claim.(And by claim I mean "Oh we kick a lot because Taekkyeon has a lot of kicks")
Hwarangdo look amazing like hapkido actually. Matter in fact I believe the founder(not the mystic one that's been claimed but the actual founder of the oraganization) had trained hapkido. And hapkido was developed from aikijutsu from Japan. So yeah...
As a Korean I get really pissy about some of these weird claims about ancient lineage and stuff. There is so much false claims out there due to national pride. But because of these claims actual Korean arts like Taekkyeon is hidden in the pile.
