Brian Towndrow, 7th Dan.
Area coordinator for North Midlands.

My name is Brian Towndrow, I'm a 7th Dan, and I teach tae kwon-do full time from my own academy. I first became involved in the martial arts like a lot of people did – just before Bruce Lee came on the scene in 1974. I was becoming a little overweight, so I took a look at training in the United Kingdom Tae Kwon-do Association, joined and gradually it grew on me. I've never practiced any style other than Tae Kwon-do.

One of the highlights of my early practice was the visit to my academy of General Choi Hong Hi. That was history in the making because I never thought I'd ever get to meet the man, much less have him visit my own club.

I'm area representative for the North Midlands Area, plus I'm a grading examiner. As an area rep, I coordinate everything that happens there.

My area joined the T.A.G.B. roughly three months after it had formed. The person in my position at that time was Bob Harvey, and he was very pro-Rhee Ki Har. We held a meeting and decided not to leave the U.K.T.A. at that time but after a few months, it became clear that things were not working out, so we pulled out as a unit.

Quite a few of my ideas have been taken on board by the T.A.G.B.. For example, we now do advanced two-step sparring and I was the man who had the job of putting it together. I'm also a member of the grading board and a few of my suggestions on scoring have been implemented. Also, I make a fair input to our regular committee meetings.

In my area, I have to go along with what the instructors tell me, even if I don't agree with it. A lot of what my area has asked for has been voted on and put through, including a decision to start holding our own black belt gradings instead of employing a practioner from another country.

As far as I know, the T.A.G.B. is one of the few associations which operated democratically right from the beginning. Now the T.A.G.B. has more professional instructors than any other association for the simple reason that it was set up so they could all make a good living, rather than just one man at the top of the pyramid.

The T.A.G.B.'s now got over 20,000 members. I never ever thought it would grow that big!

My personal ambition is to build my own full time premises. I've bought a piece of land and am now looking into the possibility of building a centre on it. At the moment I've got premises in the same street where I live, but it's an old mill and it's leased, so I can't do much with it.

I think that people should take up tae kwon-do because it is an excellent form of self defence, though self defence is only a byproduct. The real benefit of training is the self discipline and character-building it brings about. Plus, tae kwon-do is a great form of relaxation.