With Sons Nathan and Liam.
With wife Claudia in front of Kumgang yoksa (Warrior).
Queensland Members at the 2004 World Festival.
At the World's with Byron Coleborne in Beijing.
With French Coach Henk Meijer
With WTF President Chungwon Choue
Holding a board for Liam
With Grandmaster Sung Soo Lee after 5th Dan Hapkido grading.
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I
started Taekwondo in February 1973 where I grew up in Melbourne. I was inspired by my
father Dr David Tan who was heavily involved in promoting the local club. My
first instructor was Mr Young Youl Oh who had recently migrated to Australia
from Korea. At the time Mr Oh was a 5th Dan black belt and could speak very
little English. He was highly regarded and I was fortunate enough to learn at
the branch where he taught. In those days juniors were few and far between. In
fact all martial arts in the early 70s were mainly practised by adults.
My
brother and I were among the first juniors to obtain black belts. Even now,
though I have been training continuously for over 35 years, I am considered
young for a 7th Dan. In 1983, I moved to Queensland to join my parents and
family. Upon arriving in Queensland, I was surprised at the small number of
clubs and instructors around. In a quest to promote Taekwondo, my father
established a school and I began to assist in running the club. With this added
responsibility, I started to mature from being a student to an instructor.
In a
short space of time, we had established clubs in Brisbane and the Gold Coast. We
also had an active role in the State Association and Executive Council.
In
1987 I returned to competition. In preparing for the 1988 Olympic trials, I
visited Korea to endure 4 weeks of intensive training at Kyung Hee University.
This was a turning point for me. Training with the best , I began to realise how
much more there was to learn about Taekwondo. This trip also gave me an insight
into Korean culture that assists in appreciating the origins of Taekwondo.
Although unsuccessful in making the Olympic team, I did win the Australian
feather weight division for the next 3 years . The highlight of my fighting
career was being selected to compete at the 1989 World Championship in Seoul,
Korea. I was elected State Technical Director and Coach after retiring in 1991
from competitive fighting. In 1992 I was elected President of the Queensland
Division and celebrated our clubs ten year anniversary.
I
have represented Australia as an official on 5 occasions. In 1993 I was the
women's trainer at the World Championships in America. The thrill of this trip
was to coach on the floor of Madison Square Gardens - the Mecca of sports. In
1995 I was selected to manage the Olympic squad to train in Korea for one month
with the Olympic coach - Jin Tae Jong. This
involved training twice a day at two of the top Universities and High schools -
Dong Song high and Yong Inn University. In Manila, I was the men's trainer for
the World Championship team. I successfully coached five out of six matches. In
1996 I did not run for State President in a bid to become National Vice
President. At the first general election, I was successfully elected
as National Vice President of Taekwondo Australia Inc. In
1999 I managed another Korea Training camp for our Olympic athletes.
At
the 2000 Olympic games I was a video analysis for the Australian Taekwondo
Olympic team. It was a great honour to witness every match and see
Australia's Lauren Burns win our first gold medal.
In
2010 we opened our full time centre in Coorparoo.
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