Dave Oliver, 8th Dan
Chairman of the TAGB
President of Tae Kwon Do International (TKDI)
Publicity Office for the British Tae Kwon Do Council.
Area co-ordinator for South East England

I started training in Tae Kwon Do in May 1970, my instructors were Bob Howe and the late Bill McKracken. Bob Howe was the first person in the UK to be promoted to black belt by Rhee Ki Ha, the man responsible for introducing tae kwon do into Great Britain from South Korea. My original association was the United Kingdom Tae Kwon Do Association in which I enjoyed massive success both personally, I was British free sparring champion and a British international and a member of the first ever black belt team from the United Kingdom to compete at an ITF European championships, which was held in the Netherlands in the early 70’s. My students and my 3 schools that I ran, Warwick, Solihull and Nuneaton dominated the competition scene at this time. My Warwick club was the most successful in the history of the UKTA winning the English and British championships back to back in three successive years, and the British black belt team championships 3 years running. In 1978 one of my students from Solihull 17 year old Annette Sullivan won a gold medal in the sparring event at the ITF world championships in Oklahoma City, U.S.A. this was the first time anyone from the UK had become an ITF world champion. Due to the success of my schools in 1980 I was invited to take on the job as team coach for the UKTA to work with the England and Great Britain teams, in my first year the England team won the gold medal for team pattern and bronze medal for team sparring at the ITF European championships held at the Crystal Palace in London. One year later the Great Britain team won the ITF world team championships in Argentina, and also won 5 gold medals, 1 silver and 3 bronze in the individuals. The following year in 1982 England won the European Championships in Naples, Italy and also won 5 gold, 2 silver and 1 bronze in the individuals. At this championships I was also asked to pick a European select team by General Choi Hong Hi, the founder of modern tae kwon do to take on the first North Korean demonstration team, competing against them in team pattern, team breaking and team sparring, and although my European select team beat the North Korean team in all the sparring bouts and all the breaking, but not the patterns, General Choi declared the match a draw! My record with the UKTA and ITF speaks for itself. The UKTA have enjoyed little or no success at European or world level since my departure since I left to help set up the TAGB in 1983.

Since the TAGB was formed and became part of tae kwon do international I have been coach to 2 world championship winning teams and then manager to a further 3 since I moved up to that position within the TAGB. Over the last 38 years I have coached the following students to become individual world champions: 

The following are my students who have become international competitors from my schools:

My message to new students would be that the TAGB is the best tae kwon do association in Great Britain. That’s my honest opinion! I don’t think 20,000 people can be wrong.