Garstang Taekwondo Instructors:

 

John and Sue Grime (3rd dan)

 

Our story: 

John is originally from Preston where he began studying Shotokan Karate and after taking A ‘levels went on to study Physical Education at Leeds University where he continued to train in Shotokan Karate with Sensei Bob Rhodes who was a part of the All England Karate squad. Whilst at the University John was selected for the England Shukokai Karate sparring B team. 

 

On returning to Preston he took up a position as a professional personal trainer/fitness coach at Broughton Park Hotel, (now known as the Marriot, Preston), before joining the Armed Services. Several postings later he found himself destined for Hong Kong where, once more, oriental Martial Arts became his passion. During this time John was introduced to the WTF style Taekwondo by Mr Park Bong-Kwon who won a Gold medal at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, Korea where Taekwondo was introduced as a demonstration sport before it was fully recognised as an Olympic event in 2000.

After leaving school Sue attended Colquitt Technical & Nautical Catering College in Liverpool and on graduating she took up a position in London. Shortly after this move she married into the Armed Forces and put her career on hold to enjoy the travelling and to bring up the family.

 

Once they returned to England John and Sue found themselves in Oxford where the decision was made to leave the Forces and relocate to Preston to be closer to John’s retired parents.

 

On discovering that two of his younger children were being bullied at school John once again turned to the Martial Arts for guidance hoping to teach them self-confidence and, of course, giving them the ability to defend themselves. It was at this point that John and Sue found North West Taekwondo and Mr Brian Williams, 6th Dan and Chief Instructor for the association, providing lessons in Preston. 

Seeing their confidence grow in a relatively short period of time and noting the fun and fitness side to the training the family decided to take the martial journey together. After several years of training up to three times a week with NWTKD the whole family achieved their Black Belt.

 

Sue has competed at National level sparring and became GTI National Sparring Champion 2015, and in January 2016, John claimed the English Traditional Kata/Patterns title at the WKC allowing him to compete for the English team in Portugal at the World Championships.

 

John and Sue, (both 3rd Dan Black belts) are now running Garstang Taekwondo, which is now independant of any affiliation, and have also opened a new dojang and fitness centre running 7 classes per week over six days (two classes on Saturday) with one aimed at the younger members of the family from four years and up and a class for adults aged 16 and over. This allows any Garstang students easily attend two or more lessons each week without un-neccesary travel and also means no disruption for elections, bye-elections, school plays, local council elections / business or sporting event which can occur at other locally based social and sports clubs.

Mr Scott Taylor-McCormick (2nd Dan)

Mr Stephen Pritchard (1st Dan)

Child protection
We take the issues surrounding child protection very seriously and all our adult instructors are vetted in order to teach children. To further ensure the utmost care and appreciation is afforded to all children who train with us, instructors have pro-actively undertaken a NSPCC Children in Sport Course. A fully fledged Association in its own right since 1997.