Do you use armour and bamboo swords (like Kendo / Kumdo)?
Not as a rule. The art primarily deals with forms (called gumpup) and employs a hard wood sword (called a moggum). The instructors often offer armoured training at an individual level but do not employ the rules found in the competitive sparring of Kendo / Kumdo. Most people do not buy or use armour during their study of Hai Dong Gumdo but most of us have a bamboo sword (called a juk-to) somewhere. Kumdo is the Korean pronunciation of the chinese characters for “Sword Way”. Kendo is the Japanese pronunciation of the same characters. There are very few differences between Kendo and Kumdo. There are endless differences between Hai Dong Gumdo and Kumdo. The Federtion chose to use the g-u-m-d-o spelling hoping to make it easier to recognize that there is a difference. The root of the difference lies in that Kumdo revolves around personal combat with one oponent while Hai Dong Gumdo practices battlefield techniques – everything with an eye to multiple attacks.
