Early Years
Born in Sunch'ŏn, north of Pyongyang in present day North Korea, Hwang In-Shik and his family moved to Seoul while he was still a young child and it was there that he was first exposed to the martial arts, first to Tang Soo Do and then, when he was 13 years old, to the art of Korean hapkido.
Hwang identifies his teacher as Choi Yong Sul, the founder of the art. According to Kim Hyung Sang of the Ulchikwan dojang Hwang's first teacher was Kim Yong-Jin. Hwang In Shik achieved his black belt grading at age 16 and was sent shortly thereafter to the Korea Hapkido Association headquarters presided over by Ji Han Jae. A very important time in the history of the development of the art, many of the prime movers in hapkido today were his seniors there including Han Bong Soo, Kim Chong Sung and Myung Kwang-Sik. Hwang was known in particular at this time for his superlative kicking ability.
He was eventually promoted to 7th dan in 1976 by the Republic of Korea Hapkido Association (Dae Han Min Gook Hapkido Hyub Hwe) and was appointed as chief instructor for the association headquarters. In this capacity he became an influential and well known teacher of the art.
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