David Sheppard

I started Tae Kwon Do at the age of 12 for the same reason as many others, I was getting bullied at school, my parents saw a small advert in the local paper and took me to a demonstration. I started training in the very next class. The first year of training, I was like most kids, went along twice a week and saw my skills slowly developing over this time, I wasn’t anything special and just looked forward to the next lesson.

After the first year things changed drastically, other clubs opened and I was able to train 9 Tae Kwon Do sessions a week, 3 on a Sunday. I entered competitions and wasn’t very good, I didn’t win any fights for nearly three years but still worked really hard in the club as I enjoyed what I was doing but it was a little disheartening.

It took me a lot of hard work and dedication before I even won a fight in competition, that day I won seven fights and earned my first title.

Since then I have worked very hard with many different instructors and spent a lot of time and effort improving my skills and knowledge. I have represented both Great Britain and Wales on numerous occasions, being captain of both, gained 12 world titles, European individual and team titles, 20 plus national titles plus many more in all aspects, sparring, patterns and destruction and was voted International fighter of the year on two occasions as well as being voted Sports personality of the year for Newport.

I have been teaching the Hereford club for over 25 years and have had the pleasure to meet and teach many extraordinary people, each and every one of them has brought something to the club, whether it is a personal experience or skills from past training, some have been challenging, some have been easy but I have found enjoyment and satisfaction from watching them improve and overcome their own personal challenges and achieve the goals set either through Tae kwon Do or by themselves.

With all my experience I feel it is very important to keep an open mind and still look forward to learning and gaining more knowledge and experience to pass on to my students.

The main reason for my success is hard work, dedication, determination (some call it stubbornness) and most of all, I enjoyed every single second of it.