Background

So I guess I should start with my background in Martial Arts. I started at the young age of 5 in Karate. I started mainly because my brother started (we’re extremely competitive!!) and my parents wanted me to too. Anyway I can’t remember too much about this being so long ago... but I do recall progressing a few grades and having to stop training after about 18 months (my Dad’s job meant we had to relocate elsewhere).

After unpacking we (my brother and I) started to search for a new place to train. We eventually found Tae kwon-do (TKD) at a local school. I remember starting with a dozen or so other students. As time passed my peers started failing various gradings and then dropping out. Especially during my teenage years everyone left until my brother and I were the only ones remaining from our original group. So the TKD club I joined and am still part of is the GTI (Global Tae kwon-do International) which follows the ITF (International Tae kwon-do Federation) style. I have been training in TKD for over 14 years and although I rarely train with them anymore I still feel/have a close tie to the GTI (e.g. competing at their tournaments, participating in their pre-gradings and seminars etc).

As I have previously mentioned I am studying at the University of Bath. When I started in my first year I wanted to carry on Martial Arts and so tried out Ju Jitsu, Kickboxing and Karate. I’m not a big fan of ground fighting so I dropped Ju Jitsu after a week or two.

The University of Bath Kickboxing club was in decline when I first joined (2005/06), but it still managed to sign up 100+ members during the Fresher’s fair. The club only had about a dozen members training in the second semester. I managed to get on the committee by firstly taking the Treasurer’s position due to the current Treasurer leaving unexpectedly. There was a row between the Kickboxing Chairwoman and the Men’s Captain so I then made it to Men’s Captain. There was then a row between the Chairwoman and Instructors! It was agreed upon by the committee and instructors that I would be a good Chairman to take the club forward next year.

Currently I am in my final year at university, thus don't have the time to fulfil the duties of Chairman. So I am the Kickboxing Captain at the University of Bath, train with GTI in TKD when I can, and have recently started getting into full-contact kickboxing. In reflection this post probably has too much background information about me, rather than Martial Arts. In the future, I will endeavour to make my posts more Martial Arts focused.