‘Motion is lotion’ for master

Steve Drummond was on the trail to jail, involved with gangs and petty crime, when he found taekwondo.

And after decades of dedication, the New Plymouth man has now become an international taekwondo grading master and examiner after passing a $12,000 course in Auckland.

Drummond started in the martial art when he was 10, secretly joining a club in Lower Hutt where he lived at the time.

He’d found himself involved in the ‘‘wrong circles’’ where situations were starting to get dangerous, so he decided to learn the basics of self-defence.

‘‘Martial arts have changed my life because if I carried on that path I would have ended up in jail.’’

The family eventually moved to New Plymouth in the mid-1980s to get him away from the gang lifestyle, Drummond said. And that’s when he got diagnosed with arthritis – as a 12-year-old.

But Drummond, now 49, didn’t give up. He pushed through with practising taekwondo and made his way to the black belt. ‘‘In 2002, my doctor said: ‘In 10 years’ time you will be in a wheelchair’. And I said: ‘Wanna bet?’

Now, ‘‘motion is lotion’’ is his personal motto. His most recent achievement came when he completed the International Taekwondo Masters course and International Examiners course in Auckland.

‘‘It was one of the hardest things in my life. And when I was able to get through, it was just a massive personal achievement for me,’’ he said.

Drummond was one of the dozens of participants from all over the world who attended the course, which has qualified him to grade his peers. Passing makes him the only master and examiner in Taranaki. Which is a skill he will use at the New Plymouth Taekwondo and Hapkido club, where he has been an instructor since 1994.

Young adults see a father-like figure in him, a mentor who can teach them the moral principles of taekwondo.

‘‘You become a surrogate counsellor. You are teaching discipline, respect, courtesy and integrity, and you are just hoping that they pick up on it.

‘‘And nine times out of 10 they do and they become good people.’’

VANESSA LAURIE/STUFF Steve Drummond says taekwondo helped him with his arthritis and his credo is ‘‘motion is lotion’’.