Master Mark Willoughby | 5th Dan Master
My taekwondo career and my time with my one and only club, CTF, started in 1990, when I was 20. I started because, for the previous few years, I had been keeping fit at home, but decided to take the advice of a friend of mine called Graham, who was already at CTF. He said that training in a club environment would be more fun than training on my own. I do not think I would have had the confidence to have gone on my own and, not for the last time, a friend had played a crucial role in my progression.
I took to taekwondo immediately. I had always loved sport, but had no particular talent, speed or strength and, being one of the smaller kids during my school years, I had little opportunity to thrive. My cockiness as an adolescent had also hidden an underlying lack of confidence in myself and I did not particularly like myself as a person. But now as a fully grown and relatively fit young adult, with good stamina, flexibility and a natural springiness, I found that I was doing quite well. Plus, as I started to gain promotion through the belts, to my surprise, my confidence at work and in other areas of my life started to increase, not just at taekwondo. Even so, gaining a black belt one day was not something I considered to be a possibility. Looking at the standard at the club at the time, I thought that if I could reach blue belt (two under black), I would have done well.
In about 1994, I left CTF for about three years, as the club was at a low ebb, the classes I attended having closed one by one. By that point Graham had already stopped training due to injury, but I had formed a training partnership with my now good friend Paul. Paul, I and several others trained on our own until 1997, when Paul said he wanted to return to CTF, which was by then on a more even keel again. It was Paul who persuaded me to come back with him, and I have remained at the club ever since.
I achieved my 1st Dan black belt in 2000, being awarded it by the Chief Instructor of the club since I had joined, Master Christophis. I would have been quite happy to have stayed at this grade, but once again, Paul spurred me on to join him in a quest for promotion to 2nd Dan in 2002 and 3rd Dan in 2005. Those years between 2000 and 2005 were certainly exciting, not just in terms of training. In 2002 two new Joint Chief Instructors took over from Master Christophis following his retirement, and we rebadged as Crown (previously Christophis) Taekwondo Federation. We chose Crown as we re-formed in the year of Queen Elizabeths golden jubilee, but also as we still wanted to be ‘C’TF .
I became heavily involved in the running of the club from then, managing the accounts and producing a newsletter among other things. Topping all these events however, I met my wife to be, Becky, at class, in 2002. Becky, who is now a black belt instructor herself, is of course one of the most important people in my life. She is also though another vital person in my taekwondo story, offering help and guidance, plus understanding about the time and commitment required of me in my role at the club.
After our first child was born in 2008, I may have stepped away from the club, due to the pressures of parenthood and of work at the time. Although I still enjoyed the training, it was probably the fact that I was heavily involved in the administration of the club that was the main pull in keeping me actively involved. Plus, one of the Joint Chief Instructors, Master Pat Cloherty, died suddenly in 2009, and I felt a personal loyalty to the remaining Chief Instructor to help keep the club going. Looking back though, I can see that I needed a new challenge. I did not however foresee just how big that challenge would be!
In 2013 the Chief Instructor left CTF suddenly. He was a full-time instructor who took most of our classes, some of which occurred during the day, when most of our potential instructors were at work. We had a decision to make; step up as a collective or fold the club. Yet again, it was the attitude of my CTF colleagues who saw me through as they all voiced their passion for the club and pledged to take on as many of the classes as they could. It was at this point that my colleague Stuart and I became the new Joint Chief Instructors, and I started teaching on a regular basis for the first time. I have always said that I could not have and would have not wanted to have taken on this role on my own, without Stuart’s friendship and support. I believe we are a great team and again, ours is another vital relationship in my taekwondo journey.
The latest chapter for Stuart and I, is that in 2024 our founder, Grand Master Hock Lye Ooi, honoured the club by travelling from his home in Canada, to be with us as part of our 50th anniversary celebrations. During his visit, Grand Master Ooi promoted Stuart and I to 5th Dan Masters. If anyone had told me when I started with CTF that I would have reached either Chief Instructor or 5th Dan Master status, I would have laughed at them. My original assessment that I might achieve blue belt just goes to prove that we should never place restrictions on ourselves.
I still enjoy training, particularly forms and basics. Most of all though, as I slowly transition from fully doing to fully teaching, I enjoy working with the other instructors, and helping our students to fulfil their potential. CTF has, and continues to give me so much, so I want to give back as much as I can. I feel like one of those footballers, fortunate enough to stay with a single club as a player and manager. Maybe in time I will transition to the equivalent of a Board member or President, or maybe I will step away completely to let someone else take the reins without feeling like I am peering over their shoulder!
Like many who achieve it, the highlight of my time training was my black belt day and, in my case, chopping a brick in two for the first time. I also enjoyed getting to the final of the black belt free sparring category of the NAS competition, as a spritely 40-year-old! As I have alluded to though, it is the friendships I have formed that have been my real joy during my time at CTF. I feel like taekwondo has turned me from a loser to a winner, giving me fulfilment, confidence, fitness, friends, and a wonderful wife! I am very grateful to Graham, Paul, Becky, Stuart and to all those who have instructed me, to all my current colleagues and to our brilliant students who support the club. I also remember with love my past colleagues Peter, Pat, Mark, Dan and Sam, all who were inspirational to me and who are greatly missed.
To finish, some advice for training and in life. Trust God. Work hard. Make the best use of the human resources available to you. Never place a bar on what you might achieve. Stay motivated by giving something back.
Master Mark Willoughby