Everybody Loves Taekwondo Fighting

As a former regular at my local Taekwondo club in my hometown in South Wales (I attended for 3 weeks sometime around my twelfth birthday), I jumped at the opportunity to go and see some actual experts in the flesh.

And I wasn’t disappointed. The club’s impressive record speaks for itself. In 3 competitions this year, they have achieved a flurry of medals including five golds and almost every participant achieving a podium finish. President Jee Lee’s men can literally kick ass.

This would appear to stem from their charismatic Brazilian instructor, Erandi Olimpio. A seasoned veteran, he’s been involved in the art for 20 years, entering over 140 competitions. It’s safe to say that if he’s eaten his Golden Grahams, he’ll win a golden medal. Just don’t mess with him. He’s literally crazy.

With the club just short of 80 members, it is both big and small enough to have an excellent social vibe and it was only with extreme reluctance that I had to turn down post-training Nando’s due to an imminent essay deadline. And I don’t even like Nando’s.

This social side also stems to the dark and dingy depths of Moonies and the Roxy on sports night. If you’re on the lookout for a new best friend/wingman/generic fighting partner, look no further than a member of Jee Lee’s troop. They know how to party, will show you some cool kicking techniques, and will also fight you out of any sticky situations, be it in a drunken chip-shop brawl or a genuine leprechaun assault on Oxford Street.

They are the first Taekwondo Club to organise an inter-London University joint training session, which included Imperial, LSE and the Strand Poly, with more to come this year.

And in terms of practice, you’ll face no shortage of full contact sparring, patterns (called ‘poomsae’), and self defence. In terms of feeling more physically secure, there is nothing better than a martial art like Taekwondo.

This top class society definitely gets the thumbs up from this reporter. So, if you want to get your turning kick, back kick or chopping kick on, head along to one of these all ability training days:

Tuesdays at 6.30-8 PM, Astor College,

Thursdays at 6 -7.30 PM at Somers Town Gym or

Saturdays at 10 AM-12 PM at Somers Town Gym.