For Apex Taekwondo – Greater Manchester, the past few weeks have brought a challenge that few clubs could prepare for. After more than a decade of training from the same venue in Chadderton, the club was unexpectedly locked out of its home and has been left facing an uncertain future.
Rooji Karim has spent the last 12 years building a thriving community in Northeast Manchester, with the Chadderton venue becoming home to generations of athletes, families and coaches. The walls carried photographs of fighters dating back to 2017, trophies celebrating years of achievement and marking the journeys of those who had progressed through the club.
Now, that home is gone.
The circumstances surrounding the closure came as a shock to the club. Following complaints about issues with the building, Apex expected the affected area to be dealt with and potentially vacated while work was undertaken. Instead, the club was told it had to leave, with little time to prepare.
The situation became even more difficult when the locks were changed, leaving the club unable to access much of its equipment, including essential first-aid and medical supplies, training equipment and items needed by athletes preparing for competition.
For a club with over 60 members, as well as those taking part in Apex’s trial programme during the summer holidays the impact was immediate.
“There was a period where our community didn’t train at all for about two weeks,” Rooji explained.
For a competitive club with numerous athletes preparing for the British Taekwondo National Kyorugi Championships, as well as an athlete in Inayah Namoor who is heading to the European Cadet Championships in Romania in November, losing regular access to training was a particularly difficult blow.
The club’s international and elite-level fighters, in particular, have felt the impact of disrupted training, with changes to their preparation, fitness and weight management.
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Yet, when Apex found itself without a home, the British Taekwondo community opened its doors.
Clubs across the North West and beyond have stepped forward to offer Apex somewhere to train, often extending their own sessions so that Rooji could bring members of his team along.
Training was organised initially at Apex Keighley, followed by sessions with Apex Bolton Dragons, before the team travelled to Total Taekwondo in Preston and Hassan Haider’s Sansum Olympic Taekwondo in Manchester. The following week brought opportunities to train with clubs in Whiston Taekwondo and WLM in Liverpool, while other clubs, including PTL in Leeds and Jeon-Sa in Stockport, continued to reach out and offer their support.
For Rooji, the response has been one of the most uplifting parts of an incredibly difficult period, with the generosity of fellow clubs meaning his club has been able to keep its athletes training, despite the disruption. while the club has also made sure its own members have not been asked to pay for the additional sessions.
“They’ve really gone out of their way to say that they can help us out,” Rooji said. “There’s a lot of coaches reaching out and asking for me to go over with my team and train with them. So it’s really, really nice to hear that.
“Whenever I’ve asked them about payments, they’ve always refused payments and said that they’re not going to take a single penny from me or my students.”
It is a powerful example of what can happen when the Taekwondo community comes together. Rivalry disappears, club colours become secondary and the focus returns to what connects everyone in the sport: helping people continue their journey.
Apex has since secured an interim training venue, but it has brought its own restrictions. Various issues in the training environment have meant that the club has had to significantly alter how it trains.
Athletes have been required to wear shoes and socks, meaning much of the technical and physical work normally carried out barefoot is no longer possible. Sparring has had to be stopped altogether, while sessions have been restricted to movement work and guarding.
With the National Championships approaching, Rooji has had to find new ways of keeping her athletes active and motivated. On Mondays and Wednesdays, the team heads outside for running sessions, whatever the weather, while opportunities to travel and train with other clubs are taken whenever they arise.
The disruption has already had an impact. At a recent tournament, several athletes struggled to make weight, with two failing to do so, something Rooji says has never happened to the team before.
For athletes competing at the highest level, where the finest margins can make the difference between winning and losing, the loss of consistent training is significant.
And yet, despite everything, Apex continues to compete.
At the Whiston Open earlier this month, the club produced a remarkable performance, contributing a significant number of medals as Apex took the Team Trophy, with almost the entire team finding a place on the podium.
It was a reminder that, despite the circumstances, the foundations built over years cannot simply be taken away.
Perhaps the greatest challenge now is not simply finding somewhere to train, but protecting the community that Apex has spent years building.
The club’s new planned venue is around twice the size of its previous home, bringing with it significantly higher costs. Rooji is determined not to simply pass those costs on to families.
One of Apex’s central aims has always been to make Taekwondo accessible to children and families who might otherwise be priced out of the sport.
“We don’t really charge a lot and I’m not willing to put the prices higher because I want to reflect the community that’s there,” Rooji said.
“I want to make taekwondo accessible for the children and families who cannot afford taekwondo. That’s always been one of our main goals.
“The reason why a lot of our kids are getting the trophies and medals is because they’re coming from backgrounds and areas where sports like taekwondo is inaccessible because they’re a bit outpriced.
That commitment is particularly important to the club because many of its athletes come from areas and backgrounds where participation in sport can be difficult to afford. Apex has regularly fundraised to help members meet the costs of competitions and international opportunities, ensuring that financial circumstances do not prevent talented athletes from pursuing their ambitions.
But maintaining that approach while paying for a new, larger venue and an interim facility has left the club facing an enormous financial challenge.
At the same time, the uncertainty has started to affect membership. Some families have had to leave because the temporary training times do not work for them, creating a difficult cycle in which the club needs more members to help fund its future venue, while the lack of a permanent venue makes it harder to attract those members.
“We’re very much a community club, but right now we’re in a very difficult spot.”
Throughout the upheaval, Apex’s own community has continued to stand behind the club.
When the old studio was being dismantled, fighters and parents turned up to help take it apart, unscrewing equipment and helping to clear the space that had been their home for so many years.
Before one of the walls was removed, members wrote their names on it. Some even added the names of former fighters who had left the club years earlier.
For Rooji, it was a poignant reminder of what that venue had meant.
The club had been there for more than a decade. Generations had grown up inside it. Friendships had been formed, black belts earned and countless memories created.
“It became home for a lot of parents, fighters,” he said. “They didn’t know any different.”
Now Apex is trying to build that same sense of belonging somewhere new.
The journey will not be easy. There are three battles being fought at once: keeping athletes prepared for major competitions, supporting the community through the uncertainty and finding a way to make the new venue financially sustainable.
Among those athletes is Inayah Namoor, who is preparing for the European Cadet Championships and is currently having to think creatively about her preparation, including strength and conditioning work at home.
For Rooji, helping athletes like Inayah realise their ambitions remains at the heart of everything he is doing.
“They want to represent GB and I’m trying to do the best I can to be able to facilitate that dream and to push them on and give them that exposure.”
The current situation is undoubtedly a setback, but Rooji refuses to let it define what comes next.
Since 2017, Apex has consistently been one of the top performing clubs at the National Championships. The club has built a reputation for producing successful athletes, but its greatest achievement may be the community that sits behind those results.
The clubs that have opened their doors, coaches who have offered their time, parents who have continued supporting the club and athletes who have kept turning up are all helping Apex navigate one of the most difficult chapters in its history.
“To the clubs who’ve reached out to us, we want to say a huge thank you,” Rooji said. “It means a lot to the coaching staff and the team that we are thought about in such a way.”
“When we do finally get back on our feet we’ll return the favour ten times over and we’ll build this community and we’ll make each other stronger.”
Apex may currently be without a permanent home, but it has not been left without a community.
Across the North West, clubs have shown that when one part of the British Taekwondo family faces adversity, others will step forward. The future may still be uncertain, but the people who make Apex what it is have continued to stand together.
British Taekwondo remains in contact with the club and are working to understand how we can best support Apex as it looks to secure a permanent home and rebuild the stability that has been so important to its members for more than a decade.
While the circumstances have undoubtedly created significant challenges, the response from clubs across the Taekwondo community has shown the strength of the sport’s collective spirit. British Taekwondo will continue to support Apex wherever possible as the club works towards getting back on its feet and continuing the journey it has built with its community.
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