Meet British Taekwondo member, Liam Foran, owner and lead Instructor at Taekwondo Academy Stockport.

It’s fantastic hearing stories from our members and the reasons why they do Taekwondo. In this feature we meet Instructor Liam Foran from Taekwondo Academy Stockport in Stockport, Greater Manchester.

I’ve been training in Taekwondo since I was 12 years old and have been helping out in sessions ever since I got my First Dan in 2012. Taekwondo has helped me improve my fitness, flexibility, discipline, focus, confidence and much more. I wanted to make sure I was providing these same benefits to my students, so I started my own Taekwondo school in June 2022.

This has been a huge learning experience as I have been to many other schools and clubs, and I have become much more involved with the wider martial arts community. Many schools have been very supportive by coming in to visit or providing free and discounted equipment and mats. I also received a lot of support from local businesses who promoted us on social media as well as showed our flyers in their windows.

In this time I have also been improving my own training, and I have started other martial arts including Muay Thai, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Krav Maga, Shaolin Kung Fu, Capoeira and MMA. Last year I even competed in my first MMA match for Cancer Research UK. I still love to train in Taekwondo and British Taekwondo offers a lot of opportunity for this both through other member schools and the National Taekwondo Centre being in Manchester.

Taekwondo Academy Stockport itself has grown and improved so much over the past year with many new students old and young getting into Taekwondo and enjoying those same experiences and benefits that I did. As we grow further, it would be exciting to get into competitions for both poomsae and sparring as well as training for demonstrations such as board breaking.

I am also keen to see growth in Taekwondo athletes, with MMA potentially becoming an Olympic sport soon it would be great to see more Taekwondo represented in the sport. At Taekwondo Academy Stockport we regularly get in guest coaches to teach us different sparring styles from different arts, so we are always learning something new and adapting our game.

Taekwondo and the wider martial arts community is an excellent way to meet many incredible people. There is a lot of respect and support that is shared, and we can all learn from each other to improve and grow ourselves, our students, and the art itself. I’m forever grateful to those who have supported me on this incredible journey.

For more information about the club and how you can begin your Taekwondo journey, visit the Taekwondo Academy Stockport website.

Photos: Submitted.

If you would like to share your Taekwondo story please contact Richard Gottfried via media@britishtaekwondo.org