About James Welsh TKD
I began my journey in martial arts when I was 9 years old and my twin brother and I joined a local Judo club where we trained together for about a year. My Dad had a friend who was a blackbelt Karate instructor and he agreed to let us try a karate lesson with him – we absolutely loved it. I excelled in Karate, and loved the sport, so progressed through all the training and progression until I reached my black belt at 14 years old. It gave me confidence and friends outside the usual circle of people I would meet at school. It also taught me life lessons to help me in all walks of life, determination, dedication, and respect among other things.
I took my first solo trip abroad to Canada when I was 19, here I visited relatives and through them discovered Tae Kwon Do for the first time. I fell in love with it, so upon my return home I sought out a local club – luckily I found one on my doorstep. When I walked in to the club for the first time I was unaware that I would be training under Grand Master Walton – one of the original founders of the T.A.G.B (Taekwondo Association of Great Britain) and also an International and World medal winner.
As Taekwondo is Korean and Karate is Japanese, I had to start my training from the beginning – hanging up my blackbelt and putting on the white belt again. I had no hang-ups about donning the white belt again – whilst I’d worked hard to achieve my black belt in Karate, my pursuit into this new martial art and the start of this new journey was exciting to me. I trained hard for many years, learning the art and winning competitions and awards along the way.
Whilst training hard I was starting my family, and I eventually brought my two sons into the Taekwondo family, and I can proudly say they both went on to achieve black belt status, and both winning world championships during their journey. My wife has supported me throughout this experience, and we are looking forward to bringing our grandchildren into the Taekwondo family. The Taekwondo club really is like a large extended family, where children and adults alike will make lifelong friends and learn amazing things.
In 2013 I took over as a TAGB senior instructor of Scunthorpe club, running it along side my commitments as a Tesco store manager. In 2017 I made the decision to follow my heart and a pursue my dream; become a full time professional instructor of taekwondo and now do so, both in Scunthorpe and Hull. The schools have gone from strength to strength , bringing through quality students ; right from beginner white belts, to world champion black belts. Developing confidence, discipline, respect and competitiveness whilst most importantly having some fun.
My passion to develop people through their taekwondo journey, self-discovery and helping them learn things they never thought possible, remains as strong and important to me today as it ever was.
