A Short History

Chongdo has effectively two histories: a technical history, and an organizational history.

Our technical history began as a yawara-based fighting system, with its core philosphies coming from the same source as modern Korean styles like Hapkido. Many elements of Chongdo can be found in these fighting styles, although the layout of our system is unique in most respects. Many of the traditional Korean techniques have been modified to make them easier or more efficient; however, a traditional Korean fighter would likely recognize quite a few of our elementary principles. Fused to this are studies provided by experts over many years from backgrounds in the military, law enforcement, criminal justice, and the security, survival, and weaponry fields.

Our organizational history begins in the late 1970s in Chicago, where a small group of friends and colleagues synthesized their Korean-based hand-to-hand training with their various military backgrounds. In the mid-1980s, the second generation of students formalized and organized the information into a more useful, non-military-only format, divested itself of any relationship to other systems, and named it Chongdo (the Pure Way).

The group went on to teach privately, initiating and continuing on a course of constant self-analysis to verify which techniques work, and which need to be modified or removed from the training program.

Chongdo continues to teach privately and does not presently make its full program available to the public.