Barry began his Martial Arts career at the age of 9, back in 1979 when his Grandfather took him to try a boxing class. Even then, after a year there he knew that Boxing wasn’t quite the sport for him. So, he asked if he could try something different and was taken to a Judo hall, he can still remember his feelings as he walked in the training hall, everyone was wearing white suites and throwing each other up in the air, he thought this looked like great fun and so he joined the club.

Several years went by until one day a friend told him that he had started training in Ju-Jitsu on another night. Curious as to what it was he went to have a look, the instructor asked him if he had done anything before and he told him that he was in Judo at the time. He explained to Barry that Judo and Ju-jitsu were the same art, and that Ju-Jitsu was simply the Martial Art aspect of the Sport of Judo. It sounded really interesting to him and he liked the idea of being able to combine punching and kicking with throws he was already familiar with, so after speaking with his Judo teacher and explaining his interest, the Judo instructor advised Barry to try the art and see if it was for him, and it was, which subsequently resulted in Judo being left behind.

Ju-Jitsu was great for Barry, because of his build and low centre of gravity, it also gave him the foundations he needed to improve on the skills he had already learned. He stayed in Ju-Jitsu for roughly five years, until he had a short break to concentrate on his exams at school. After his exams Barry needed to back to training, so instead of going back to Ju-Jitsu he decided to try an art that didn’t so much concentrate on throwing, but more on the kicking and punching side. This is when he joined his local Karate club.

Again, it was a totally new experience for him, he went there expecting to fit straight in, as he had already learned how to kick and punch in Ju-Jitsu, and throw in Judo - no such luck. Karate was fast and powerful and he realised there and then that he was not in the same environment as before. As most people did, Barry attended Seminars with high-ranking Karate Masters and also competed in several Tournaments, but his heart was in the Philosophical and Traditional aspects of the art. Again a few years passed until another short break was needed for Barry to focus on his College exams.

The next year in 1990, a WTF (Olympic) Taekwondo cub opened at Barry’s local leisure centre. Of course he had heard of Taekwondo before, but there was never a class close enough to where he lived to go and have a look at. Taekwondo to him meant being able to perform high super fast kicking combinations and being able to sit in all the 3 splits positions, so he couldn’t wait to go and try a class. The class was great, nothing like anything he had seen before, and for the first time in his life he had to wear a uniform that looked like his old school jumper. This was very strange to him and took several weeks to get use to.

During his time in Taekwondo, Barry has had the fortunate opportunities to have been trained by several of the worlds great Taekwondo Masters, some of which are movie stars of the Martial Arts genre, he has also travelled to other countries such as the USA and Canada to train and learn from the world best. Barry has never looked back since beginning his training in Taekwondo and still enjoys it as much today as he did in his first class almost 20 years ago.

In 2007, Barry developed his own unique system of Martial Arts training, which was a culmination of several Korean Martial Arts with his then previous 28 years of Martial Arts training. This new Martial Discipline was named Cheongye Kwan Daehando (Schools of Excellence in the Korean Way), and classes today have never been better.

Some of Barry’s competition History includes:

London Technical Synchron Champion 2001
London Technical Individual Bronze medallist 2001
Southern Technical Freestyle Champion 2001
Southern Technical Synchron Champion 2001
National Technical Championships (Synchron) Silver Medallist 2001
Great Britain Poomse Team Reserve Squad Member 2001
Made National Rankings - 3rd overall for Male Poomse for Great Britain 2001
1st BTA North West Championships Senior Male Dan Grade Individual Champion 2005
Visited Master Tommy Chang at the Olympic training centre in Toronto, Canada 2007
Visited several Taekwondo schools in and around the state of New York, USA 2007

New students are always welcome at Barry’s school based at the village hall on Liverpool Old Road, Much Hoole, you can contact the clubs secretary – Helen on 0786 698 0622 or you can visit the associations main website at www.cheongye.co.uk