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Ellie Clay

I began training in Taekwon-Do in May 2002 and have continued to train ever since. Both my brother (Tom, who also has a black belt in Taekwon-Do) and I began classes under Mr Paradine at Woodlawns in Brockworth. We started Taekwon-Do as we were both interested in starting martial arts, and Mr Paradine’s Taekwon-Do club was the nearest to us.

In November 2007 I gained my black belt in Taekwon-Do; it was one of the proudest moments of my life. Then following this, in 2010 I went on to gain my 2nd Dan black belt. Whilst training under Mr Paradine in 2006 I began to train in Kickboxing. In December 2008 I gained my black belt in Kickboxing.

Whilst doing Taekwon-Do and Kickboxing I have made a variety of achievements; having competed in all types of sparring: Point stop, continuous and full contact. Also I have competed in individual and team patterns, and have fought on many circuits including WUMA, WAMA, Cimac Super league and Bickma.

In May 2008 I took part in the Wuma European championships, winning 1st place in the junior individual patterns and also 2nd place in the junior advanced continuous. A year later I then went on to win the Wuma World Championships in team patterns with Mr Paradine and Mr Seckulic.

At the age of 16 in 2008 I had my first full contact fight.

Ellie Clay
Ellie Clay

With the help of Mr Paradine in January 2010 I opened my very first kickboxing class. It opened originally at Abbeydale Community centre and now is the class at Brockworth Primary School on a Friday.

In March 2010 I seriously damaged my knee whilst competing at a Cimac Superleague tournament. Since then I have been lightly training, having had an operation earlier this year (2012) I hope to training again once I have fully recovered.

In terms of future ambitions I hope to further myself in the Dan grades of both Taekwondo and Kickboxing. Also I would like to continue to compete in Point stop. Martial art has helped me to develop as a person with the knowledge and skills it has offered me over the years. I could not have done this without the help of Mr Paradine.