The only thing my father and my brother insisted on!
I have been fairly fortunate and guarded by Providence during my school years and my parents were happy with me keeping fit through yoga and some gym work, but as I got older and expressed my desire to study in Kyiv this changed. My parents suggested I go to martial arts classes with my brother (who was an adept in Hopak, a style of fighting developed by the Cossacks), and he took me to these sessions.
Combat Hopak (also Boyovyy Hopak, Boyovyi Hopak from Ukrainian: Бойовий гопак) is a Cossack martial art from Ukraine. It was systematised and codified in 1985 by Volodymyr Pylat (a descendant of a Cossack family from western Ukraine). It can be trained in light, semi and full contact formulae. Combat Hopak includes techniques of traditional Ukrainian folk fist fighting, folk wrestling, Cossack sabre fencing, and Cossack war dances like the hopak and the Povzunets (Cossack dance centered around crawling and squat position movements) and the metelytsia. Combat Hopak practitioners wear traditional Ukrainian embroidered shirts, wide long cloth belt and Sharavary. Combat Hopak fighters also wear shoes like practitioners of Savate and perform kicks while wearing them.
I found it easier because of my yoga, and I have become fairly confident about defending myself from attack (but I am not the type of person who would go out alone, walking in streets I don’t know very well) and I have been staying in my hotel here if I haven’t met up with the others and gone out together.
Combat Hopak (also Boyovyy Hopak, Boyovyi Hopak from Ukrainian: Бойовий гопак) is a Cossack martial art from Ukraine. It was systematised and codified in 1985 by Volodymyr Pylat (a descendant of a Cossack family from western Ukraine). It can be trained in light, semi and full contact formulae. Combat Hopak includes techniques of traditional Ukrainian folk fist fighting, folk wrestling, Cossack sabre fencing, and Cossack war dances like the hopak and the Povzunets (Cossack dance centered around crawling and squat position movements) and the metelytsia. Combat Hopak practitioners wear traditional Ukrainian embroidered shirts, wide long cloth belt and Sharavary. Combat Hopak fighters also wear shoes like practitioners of Savate and perform kicks while wearing them.
I found it easier because of my yoga, and I have become fairly confident about defending myself from attack (but I am not the type of person who would go out alone, walking in streets I don’t know very well) and I have been staying in my hotel here if I haven’t met up with the others and gone out together.
