Motivated by Master Nicholls and Master Dalton speech in Korea regarding the expansion of ITF Tae Kwon Do in Africa, I took up the challenge to assist the ITF and its expansion around the world.

And so it started, four months later with the assistance of ITF Administration, ITF Nigeria, Ghana and Togo and with two of my students, Simone Warner and Kye Todd volunteering to accompany me to have the experience of a life time.

As it turned out nothing was going to be easy about getting to Africa, visa application problems, civil unrest in Cairo causing flights to be changed at the last moment.

But we finally arrived in Nigeria on 16 Feb met by Master George Ashiru and Adebola Otubushin at the Lagos Airport. 

The Australian contingent was hosted at the Lasal Hotel, Lagos.

Seminars were held at the Lagos University where we conducted 5 training sessions in 3 days, reaching 165 students from beginners to 7th Degree Black belts.  Participants included current ITF students, Martial Arts Majors students from the Physical Education Department of the University of Lagos, Members of the National Civil Defence Corp and other eager citizens.

During the course of the 5 days, sessions we covered ITF patterns, self defence techniques, sparring drills and basic techniques.

We took with us 250 baseball style caps with ITF embroidery on them, which every participant received as a gift from Australia, they were received really well.

We had a fantastic experience in Nigeria and look forward to returning one day.

In Ghana we were met by Mr Mohammad Mahadi and after a 2 hour drive out of Accra on roads like I have never seen before, we arrived at our hotel. Electricity was a problem in Ghana, but we managed it well.
Three sessions were taught during our time in Tema and in Accra. Training conditions in Ghana were very different than anywhere else I have trained before. Training was conducted on a dirt floor, outside, with local animals roaming the training area. But it was a pleasure to go there and teach. The students were very friendly and keen to learn from us.

Sessions covered, ITF patterns, self defence, step sparring and basic techniques.

Again baseball caps were given to all participants.

ITF Ghana don’t have a supply of coloured belts, so Australia has pledged to send 150 belts of various colours to assist the organisation and students.

Along with lots of new ITF friends we have made, many new facebook friends, and lots of photos were taken, attached to this report.

I would like to thank the ITF Administration & ITF Africa for making this tour possible.   Simone, Kye & myself thoroughly enjoyed our experience there, and look forward to returning one day.

We dropped in on Singapore on the way home and taught a 3 hour session in Master Sng’s dojang. Master Sng thank you very much for your hospitality. I would like to highlighted one important thing, that Tae Kwon Do is a wonderful medium regardless of which part of the world you are in, Nigeria, Ghana, Singapore or Australia, we met people, we made friends with the common goal:  “we all love Tae Kwon Do”.