Return of taekwondo will save mums and dads from a kicking!

AFTER a year of kids kicking the couch, living rooms are finally making way for leisure centres once more as junior taekwondo makes its long-awaited meaningful return. ‘I feel ecstatic,’ admits British Taekwondo chief executive Ian Leafe, with England set to follow Scotland in reopening the sport next week. ‘It is a huge morale boost for anybody within taekwondo and wider martial arts because this is what people love. ‘We can get back to class-based activity, we can get back to using equipment, we can get back to sparring and all of the things that taekwondo is about. ‘People can start getting back to the clubs, seeing their friends and doing what they enjoy doing every week. It will just do everybody’s physical and mental health the world of good.’ As a close contact, indoor sport, the coronavirus pandemic has hit taekwondo harder than most. Even in the months when lockdown restrictions were eased, sparring was never permitted, meaning amateurs have gone more than a year without proper training or competition. ‘You can’t kick someone in the face without kicking them in the face,’ says Bianca Walkden, the three-time world taekwondo champion and Olympic bronze medallist. ‘You have to be quite close to do that and it’s also inside, which is another factor. I did a lot of online sessions for clubs and schools during lockdown and kids were kicking their couches or their mum and dad! ‘It was good to see everybody trying from home but it hasn’t been ideal for anyone. Everyone just wants to get back into the swing of things and get back to fighting and competing.’ The popularity of taekwondo in this country has grown since London 2012 when Jade Jones won gold, which she repeated at Rio 2016. At the start of last year, British Taekwondo had 18,000 members. But the pandemic has caused that number to be slashed in half, while up to 70 of 800 clubs have not renewed their affiliation with the governing body. ‘The impact has been dramatic and quite disproportionate when you consider a lot of other sports have been able to go back in some form between the various lockdowns,’ Leafe tells Sportsmail. ‘We have seen a 50-per-cent reduction in our membership but it is important we get everyone back to the clubs and enjoying taekwondo again.’