J Burgess' Professional Martial Arts

22/03/2026

60th anniversary of the formation of the International Taekwon-Do Federation.
Formed on March 22nd 1966.

17/02/2026

2026 is the year of the Fire Horse. In traditional Eastern culture, the horse symbolizes strength, speed, courage, loyalty, freedom and talent. Those born under this zodiac sign are often said to be brave, steady, upright, faithful and independent

07/02/2026

Congratulations to the GTI Squad. Awesome. Hard work & dedication paying off.
Well done to Alf from the Wells club who supported the team as coach.

Flanders Fields 2026: complete ✅ 🇧🇪👊

Loads of tough opposition, but a great effort from the whole GTI team 👊

🥇 x 6
🥈 x 3
🥉 x 10

GTI Squad members:
🥇🥉 Reilly McGinley (Excalibur MA) - gold sparring, bronze patterns
🥇 Adam McKinlay (Phoenix MA) - gold sparring
🥇 Eloise Williams (North West Spirit TKD) - gold sparring
🥇 Owen Gargan (North West Spirit TKD) - gold sparring
🥉🥉 Jasmine Roux-Nel (Phoenix MA) - bronze patterns, bronze sparring
🥉 Logan Rutherford (Phoenix MA) - bronze sparring
🥉 Callum Edwards (North West Spirit TKD) - bronze sparring.

GTI club members:
🥇🥈 Jonny Almond (North West Spirit TKD) - gold sparring, silver non-contact sparring
🥇🥈 Luca Parry (North West Spirit TKD) - gold sparring -25kg, silver sparring -30kg
🥈🥉 Elise Horton (North West Spirit TKD) - silver sparring, bronze patterns
🥉🥉 Lucas Kershaw (Phoenix MA) - bronze patterns, bronze sparring
🥉 Dominik Kruk (North West Spirit TKD) - bronze sparring
🥉 Liam Murphy (North West Spirit TKD) - bronze sparring.

Congratulations to everyone who had the courage to step onto the mats, including Rod Hizmeri, Jacob Almond, Raza Rehman, Oli Kruk & Jay Williams-Garrett. Sometimes you might not gain a medal, but you always gain experience 💪

Thank you to the tournament organisers for a well-run event; to the GTI Committee for granting funding for the Squad; and to the National Squad Coaching Team for making it all possible.

Well done, team! 🙂

11/01/2026

The first tournament of 2026 will be in Hinckley

03/01/2026

2026 is a special year for our club as we have been running for a fantastic 30 years 🥳 Training started well this morning with everyone giving 100% even with very cold toes!

20/12/2025

Great last session this morning!
As per the previous 25+ years we did the now famous 12 days of Christmas, thanks to Alf this year for putting everyone through their paces! Have a great Christmas and see you all on 3rd January 🎅

09/12/2025

Happy Birthday Master Burgess!

16/11/2025

Last tournament of the year 👊

06/10/2025

Congratulations to Wells Taekwon-Do instructor Mrs Sarah Burgess who was promoted to 6th Dan at the GTI Autumn black belt grading held in Swindon.
This is a substantial grade which was awarded after a challenging grading held under the eye of 3 Taekwon-Do masters.
Sarah has been training in the art of Taekwon-Do for 34 years & is proud to be an inspiration to other women & girls in martial arts & other sports.
This grade means Sarah is one of a select few women who have reached this level.
We are all very proud of her achievement.

03/10/2025

October 3rd is celebrated as a national holiday in Korea. Known as Gaecheonjeol or Dan-Gun Day it marks the founding of the Korean nation in 2333BCE.
There is a week of public holidays which also incorporates Hangeul Day on the 9th October when King Se-Jong presented the Korean writing system of hangeul to his people in 1446AD.
These two important people in Korean history are honoured in the ITF Taekwon-Do patterns which are named after them.

01/10/2025

Latest blog post on our website. About the esoteric art of breaking.

One of the most impressive & visual aspects of the traditional martial arts is ‘breaking’ or ‘destruction’. Some practitioners of modern martial arts view it as being an outdated practice, but does it still have a place ...

14/09/2025

A great day at the GTI National Open where Sam took part in his first tournament and both Sarah and Alf came out of retirement!
All 3 won their sparring events and 3 well deserved gold medals were won 🥇🥇🥇