South Dublin Taekwondo

‘South Dublin Taekwondo’ [SDTKD] have their eyes firmly set on Tokyo. As part of their planning for Tokyo, Club Head Coach Robert Taaffe noted, ‘The Club are going to embrace an initiative set up by the Irish Taekwondo Union [NGB for Olympic Taekwondo in Ireland] called ‘Tokyo 2020 Talent Identification’ where martial artists of all styles have been invited to get involved with Olympic Taekwondo Training. In my role as HP Director for the ITU I released this initiative throughout Ireland after it had been proven that martial artists from other kicking sports can effectively transition to Taekwondo. In Ireland we have a small pool of Olympic Taekwondo Athletes and we would like to tap into any resource possible to build our team and help athletes reach their full potential. Our closest example of a similar exercise working would be Great Britain who have secured 5 medals in the last 2 Olympics, 4 of which have been by athletes who came to the sport from another martial arts background. They have a strong squad with great depth, and are very prominent on the World stage achieving major medals.  We hope to identify some like minded coaches and athletes who may have what it takes to adapt their game, possibly represent initially the SDTKD Team, then hopefully the Irish Taekwondo Team, whilst of course giving great exposure to their own marital art and bringing back knowledge and tactics from our sport to their clubs.’  Our club very much welcomes collaboration, we have been lucky enough to have many martial artists from different backgrounds to come train with us in the past to enhance their own kicking ability, and some to see can they make the transition to Olympic Taekwondo. Unfortunately in the past any transition attempts were late in a cycle with little time to adapt. We are at the beginning of a cylcle now, so there is no better time to get involved. We have played a part in assisting major medals in other sports where athletes training with us have gone on to win world or major titles, and now we are hoping to do the opposite in many respects, to assist some athletes to come on board to maybe one day win titles in our sport.’ Athletes eligible for the initiative must have been born between 1988 – 2002 and have a strong proven track record in their own martial art, and have the consent of their club coach and parents where applicable.’