The new year has started as busily as 2023 ended!
I would once again like to say a big thank you to everyone who helped deliver a packed calendar of activity last year, culminating in the World Taekwondo Grand Prix Finals weekend where we welcomed the world of Taekwondo to Manchester.
On top of that we held across the same weekend our AGM, the busiest ever, and celebrated the wealth of talent within British Taekwondo clubs with our annual awards – you couldn’t get a seat in the House of Sport Lounge as our Technical Departments recognised the achievements of our Kyorugi & Poomsae athletes and officials who had all done us proud throughout the year.
A huge shout out also to the selfless volunteers that make up our Technical Departments – the department leaders and coaches who do so much behind the scenes and give up so much of their own time to help our next generation get on.
We also hosted the first Kukkiwon approved High Dan promotion test up at the National Centre, giving our 5th, 6th & 7th Dan masters the opportunity to test on home soil.
Congratulations to all the successful candidates.
The event brought together a panel of four Kukkiwon 8th Dan Grand Masters from across the UK community, and chaired by Grand Master Tong Wan Shin 9th Dan.
A big thank you to those involved and the example of leadership they demonstrated, to provide opportunities for our next generation.
We will aim to host another one of these opportunities in the Autumn of 2024!
Senior Masters also attended a get together at the Grand Prix and plans to host Kukkiwon led activity in 2024 were outlined including an education course, a Special Promotion Test opportunity for members to align certification and the exciting aim to get a UK Kukkiwon Cup event off the ground for Martial Artists across the community.
Further announcements will come out once dates have been confirmed by Kukkiwon and the World Taekwondo Academy in Korea, but it’s looking like early September to give everyone plenty of time to prepare and train for.
Membership fees
One of the big talking points as this year kicked off was the announcement of the move to an updated membership fee’s structure.
Following the announcement at the beginning of the year of a restructure of our membership fees model, we received feedback on the changes from a cross section of our family of clubs and instructors.
British Taekwondo’s membership structure has remained relatively unchanged for decades and needs to be updated to reflect the modern needs of our community, clubs, members and an organisation that wants to be and do so much more for its customers.
We have listened and acted.
To help us get this model right, so we can all develop together, an interim membership pricing structure will take effect from 1st June 2024. This gives clubs and members good notice and certainty.
From the 1st of June the cost of British Taekwondo membership will be:
- Member (all ages) £29
- Instructor (with / without Level 2) £70 / £90 (no change)
- Club Affiliation £15
This interim model is an incremental increase to standard membership and club affiliation fees. With no change to the existing instructor membership pricing.
In the coming months, we will continue to improve our core office services with upgrades to our phone and IT systems, including an updated membership hub system due later this year designed to serve all club needs.
We will also take a hard look at the membership models, alongside introducing new learning and membership models for Taekwondo in schools and introductory classes in clubs.
As the national governing body, World Taekwondo’s MNA of the year no less!………..British Taekwondo is a not-for-profit member organisation, here for our members – affiliated clubs, instructors, and your club members.
Your membership of British Taekwondo enables us to deliver the full range of national governing body services for everyone.
We invest your membership fees back into the organisation to support you and Taekwondo through our ongoing work to promote it, develop and deliver programmes, and develop the people, clubs and places to do Taekwondo.
British Taekwondo membership allows us to protect our members and give peace of mind to clubs, instructors, members, parents and all involved that British Taekwondo clubs and events are safe, welcoming places.
Being a part of British Taekwondo means that you are part of a positive, forward thinking, nationwide community.
We look forward to working with, listening to, and speaking to our member instructors and clubs to help them grow and thrive over the coming months and years.
Meet the British Taekwondo staff team
At the end of last year and start of this year we welcomed three new members of staff to the team.
Henry WONG joined us as Education Support Officer in December.
In January Vicki Burleigh joined us as Membership Services Officer, and Conor Rodgers joined us as Insight & Communications Officer.
We are hosting webinars in April and May where Lead Instructors will get the opportunity to meet the team. You can find out more about these meetings and how you can sign up here.
Save the date: British Sport Taekwondo Championships 2024 in Sheffield
We are pleased to announce that the British Taekwondo Kyorugi National Championships will once again be taking place at the English Institute of Sport (EIS) in Sheffield. The two-day event will be held on Saturday 5th and Sunday 6th October.
Last year saw 844 athletes from 74 British Taekwondo clubs compete and we look forward to welcoming everyone back again in October.
Please note, the date of the British Taekwondo Poomsae National Championships 2024 will be announced as soon as possible.
How British Taekwondo members can get involved in the organisation:
Technical Departments
British Taekwondo is here to provide opportunities for our members to progress, whether that’s in the club, as a black belt wanting to take higher Dan grades, an athlete wanting to better themselves or compete for their country, or officials aiming for represent Great Britain around the world – there are education and advancement opportunities for everyone.
British Taekwondo has a fantastic group of Technical Departments in the combat sport, Poomsae and refereeing in both disciplines, all led and run by volunteers within the British Taekwondo community who selflessly give back the time and knowledge for the benefit of others.
We are always looking for new ideas and people to join these departments so if you feel you have something to contribute and want to get more involved, get in touch!
Sharing the positives on social media
We recently published our Usage of Social Media Policy. This policy aims to lay out an approach to the use of social media to make the most of the benefits while also laying out best practice to minimise the risks to individuals, groups and organisations.
It’s excellent to see and share all of the positive activity from across our membership and the variety of Taekwondo activity being undertaken by our clubs. Please do continue to share your content with us.
Member stories
As we move through 2024, we’re keen to continue to hear about all the reasons why Taekwondo is the activity for you?
This could be a feature on your club, a profile of your coaches, or success stories from your club’s members.
You can find member stories on our website here.
Please do get in touch with the team to tell your Taekwondo story.
World Taekwondo MNA of the year
Speaking of good news stories, British Taekwondo was honoured to receive World Taekwondo’s highest accolade for a Member National Association (MNA) in December.
This was a massive tribute to the hard work and commitment of so many people across British Taekwondo and GB Taekwondo.
We are seen, globally, as a well-run and trusted partner of World Taekwondo, a great host of international events including, over the last two years, a European Championship, a Grand Prix, a British international Open and a Grand Prix final spectacular.
Even more recently, we played host to both and Kyorugi and Poomsae WT international referee courses, giving our family of Kyorugi and Poomsae officials the opportunity to qualify and refresh on home soil.
None of this happens by accident, with years of work from many people sitting behind every event to bring world class events to our shores for the benefit of British Taekwondo athletes, officials, members and supporters. A big thank you to everyone for their involvement.
World Taekwondo in Manchester for international referee training
Hot on the heels of the Grand Prix Final, Manchester again played host to World Taekwondo in the first couple of weeks in February, with International Referee courses in both Kyorugi and Poomsae being held across a 10-day period.
Over a hundred referees, from all over the world came to town, with more than 20 British referees taking part, some refreshing and many others qualifying for the first time.
This is great boost for our technical officials, with British Taekwondo subsidising participation and contributing to the hosting of the event for our members.
Well done to all involved and congratulations to the new candidates joining the British Taekwondo IR family following the receipt of their results!
Olympic and Paralympic year
For those that hadn’t realised – 2024 is an Olympic & Paralympic year – with the Paris 2024 Games almost on our doorstep this time around.
Whilst the focus is on our GB stars and their performances, it is also a huge opportunity for every British Taekwondo club, whether a sport or Martial Art club, to promote themselves and take as much advantage as possible of the exposure to attract new members.
British Taekwondo will be providing clubs with resources to help them promote their club themselves before, during and after the Games.
We are lucky (no luck involved – just fantastic hard work from the athletes and team behind them at GB) to have lots of qualified athletes in both the Olympics and Paralympics, so it’s hopefully going to be a bumper few weeks for coverage of Taekwondo and GB.
The Taekwondo in Paris Olympics is on the 7th – 10th August and the Paralympics in on 29th August – 31st August
You can find out how to get involved in activities on the path to Paris 2024 on our website.
As always, I want to thank you for your support, and I look forward to seeing all of the great stories from your clubs throughout 2024.
Ian
Ian Leafe
Chief Executive Officer
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