Taekwon-Do legend visits Brighton Taekwon-Do Club

Taekwon-Do legend Tomasz Barada’s taken part in a sparring seminar hosted by Brighton Taekwon-Do Club. Over 50 taekwondo black belts came from all over the country to learn from three-time world champion Barada.

The University of Sussex campus was the venue for the class and Barada was keen to emphasise the importance of lifelong learning. He said: “If people think they are the best, they are really wrong. I can learn from everybody, I can learn from the white belt, from the veteran — I am always learning.”

I have to feel that I’m the same as all of them, I think they should believe that they can do similar things to me.”

Among many career highlights, Barada was five-time European champion and three-time king of Taekwondo and at the root of his success is his coach Willy van der Mortel.

Barada told Latest Sport: “He [van der Mortel] was the first one, and the only one who beat me in a championship in Slovenia. After that we really became good friends.”

Despite the fact that the sports hall at Sussex Uni was nearly full, there were very few women taking part. We asked Carol Hudson from Impact Taekwondo club how she handles it. She said: “You just blend in, you become very neutralised in your uniform.

Sometimes I feel a little bit misrepresented, in that, there might just be one female in class. I always think about how we might encourage more females to get involved, or come and watch Taekweond-Do to see what we do.”

One of the core values of Taekwond-Do is perseverance, which was personified by Malik Ayman from ITF Taekwondo in North London. Malik participated in the session with a ruptured his Achilles tendon but that wasn’t going to stop him. He said: “Although you have difficulties and challenges, it’s about overcoming those difficulties.

I could have easily sat back and said ‘I’ve got a bad leg, what can I gain?’ By watching, by looking, by listening I can actually take away a lot more.”