TANS TAEKWONDO

Club History

Tans Taekwondo was established in July 1982 under the name “Queensland Academy of Martial Arts”. The founder – Dr David Tan, opened our first centre at the CWA Hall in Southport. Instructors Dr David Tan, Michael Tan and George Ruch slowly expanded to 5 centres being Labrador, Southport, Broadbeach, Miami and Tugun.

In 1988 Tans expanded to Brisbane with 3 clubs on the Southside – Marsden, Springwood and Rochedale. In 1990 Instructors Ray and Glenice Lovell joined our club after openning at the Logan City PCYC in 1978. From 1992 to 1998 we also had 3 centres on the Sunshine Coast. Instructor Martin Amos joined our club in 1992 with centres at Maleny and Landsborough.

In 1994 Master Michael Tan opened the Buranda centre to cater for the students closer to the CBD. Our first northside centre was started by Darren Connor at Wooloowin. Darren would then move back to Adelaide and hand the centre over to Head Instructor Wayne Mahoney. Darren start up a club in Wyndham, outback WA before moving to Geraldton north of Perth.

An old student Shane Buckley contact us to say he had moved to Roma and would like to start a centre. In May 2000, the Roma centre was established as our first regional centre with instructors Shane Buckley and Stevie Ruru.

At one stage Tans had 3 full time centres. The first was Currumbin in 1998 under Shane Hartmann. In 2001 Carlos Lakerdis from Caboolture Taekwondo affiliated with Tans. Then in 2010 the HQ in Coorparoo.

Today Tans focuses its energy on the Full Time HQ at Coorparoo. It still trains and mentors a number of Master Instructors who operate affiliate clubs in their own right.

: The Tan family with gold medalist Nathan Tan

: Beach training at 6am – TKD Camp

: Dr Tan with his Grand Children all practicing Taekwondo.

: Black Belts at Tans Taekwondo.

Dr Tan started Taekwondo in 1972 after a few years learning Judo. His first instructor was Jack Rozinszky a renowned Pioneer of Australian Taekwondo. At the time, Jack was only a 2nd Dan, so Jack sponsored out his instructor from Korea – Mr Young Youl Oh. Mr Oh would establish clubs in the north west of Melbourne. In 1974 Mr Oh’s decided to open his own club. We would continue with Mr Oh and be one of the founding members of Oh’s Taekwondo.

Dr Tan served as the medical director for the ATA from 1973 to 1981. In January 1982, Dr Tan moved his family from Melbourne to the Gold Coast to semi retire. At the time, there were only 2 Taekwondo clubs on the Gold Coast, so Dr Tan decided to start his own small club to keep in shape.

In 1992, Dr Tan retired from actively teaching Taekwondo. In 2000, Dr Tan was awarded the Australian Sports Medal by Prime Minister John Howard for services to Taekwondo. Up until his passing in 2018, Dr Tan would sit on the grading panel at Currumbin and enjoy seeing the club live on.

Affiliations

TAEKWONDO

World Taekwondo

The biggest Taekwondo organisation with over 200 countries. The WT governs competition as the Federation of Taekwondo for the Olympics (IOC) and Paralympics (IPC). It holds international events regularly for both sparring and poomse (Patterns).

TAEKWONDO

Established in 1972, the Kukkiwon is the only Taekwondo organization whose certificates are recognised by the WT. In addition, the Kukkiwon conducts research and instructional seminars such as Masters courses. All black belt at Tans Taekwondo are certified by Kukkiwon.

Grandmaster Tan is 9th dan Kukkiwon certified.

TAEKWONDO

Australian Taekwondo is the government approved organising for Taekwondo. Its sets governance policies and underpins our Olympic pathway through Sports Australia, Combat Aus and the AIS.