Pictured from Left-Right
Master Roberto Roena, Master Carlos Ramirez, Master Gordon Wallace, Master David Karlstadt.
MASTER
Gordon Wallace
VII Degree
Pictured from Left-Right
Master Roberto Roena, Master Carlos Ramirez, Master Gordon Wallace, Master
David Karlstadt.
Master Gordon Wallace is a 7th Degree ITF Blackbelt and International Instructor/Examiner. Master Wallace started training in Tae Kwon-Do in 1977 and now has 33 years experience.
He was one of the founder
members of the United Kingdom
Tae Kwon-Do Federation and was on the Board of Directors from 1993-2007.
During his own competitive career, he
achieved a large number of National and European medals along with a World
Championship Gold Medal in 1984 for Power Test (pictured left).
Following this, he was the UK Assistant Coach
for 3 years and the Scottish National Coach for 4 years and in that time,
travelled to many European and World Championships.
" I started training in Tae Kwon-do on 1st March 1977 at the Elgin Community Centre. My main motive for starting Tae Kwon-do was because all my friends from work were going. As I had nothing else to do, I tagged along. Tae Kwon-Do was something that I knew about, as I used to watch the classes at Elgin Community Centre when I was at school.
I would never have dreamed of pursuing such an activity. It was not that I wasn't interested in physical activity I may add, but because I was shy and very conscious of what my peers would say should such a ridiculous notion ever enter my head. In later months, as it would happen, after a few scenes of "Enter the Dragon", the lead peer decided it would be good to try this.
After
work on the Thursday night, we tried our first
lesson. The rest is
history...............................
Personal
Tae Kwon-Do History
| DATE | ACHIEVEMENT |
| 1978 Scottish Championship | Gold
- Blue belt Pattern Silver - Lightweight Sparring Elgin School Student of the Year |
 |
|
| 1979 British Championship | Gold - Bluebelt Pattern |
| 30 March 1980 | Gained 1st Degree Blackbelt |
 |
|
| 1980 British Championship | Bronze - Blackbelt Lightweight Sparring |
| 1980
European Championship (Crystal Palace, London) |
Final
- Blackbelt Pattern 1/4 Final - Blackbelt Sparring |
| 1981 Blackbelt Team Championship | Bronze - Scotland Team |
| 1982 Welsh Championship | Silver - Blackbelt Sparring |
| 1982 Scottish Championship | Silver - Blackbelt Sparring |
| 1982 British Championship | Bronze - Blackbelt Sparring |
| July 1982 | 3 day seminar with Tae Kwon-do founder General Choi Hong Hi 9th Deg |
| 1983 English Championship | Gold
- Blackbelt Patterns Gold - Power Test - Hand |
| 1983 British Championship | Gold-
Blackbelt Patterns Gold - Power Test - Hand Bronze - Blackbelt Sparring |
|
|
|
| 4 March 1984 | Gained 2nd Degree Blackbelt |
| 1984 4th ITF WORLD Championship | GOLD
- POWER TEST Hand Technique (Reverse Knifehand) |
|
|
|
| 1984 Scottish Championship | Gold
- Blackbelt Patterns Gold - Blackbelt Sparring |
 |
|
| 1984
European Championship (Budapest, Hungary) |
Bronze - Blackbelt Team Pattern (Scotland) |
 |
|
| 1984 English Championship | Gold
- Power Test - Hand Bronze - Blackbelt Pattern |
| 1984 British Championship | Silver - Blackbelt Pattern |
| 1985 Scottish Championship | Gold
- Blackbelt Sparring Silver - Blackbelt Pattern |
 |
|
| 13 July 1985 | Qualified as a National Instructor with Master Rhee Ki Ha 8th Degree |
| August 1985 | 5 Day Seminar with ITF Technical Director - Master Park Joong Tae 8th Degree |
| 1985 English Championship | Gold
- Blackbelt Pattern Bronze - Blackbelt Sparring Scotland v England v Ireland Team Match Bronze - Blackbelt Team Sparring |
| 1985 British Championship | Silver
- Blackbelt Pattern Bronze - Blackbelt Sparring |
| 23 February 1986 | Gained 3rd Degree Blackbelt |
| 1986 English Championship | Bronze - Blackbelt Sparring |
| 1986 Scottish Championship | Bronze
- Blackbelt Pattern Bronze - Blackbelt Sparring |
 |
|
| 1986 British Championship | Silver
- Blackbelt Pattern Bronze - Blackbelt Sparring |
| 1987 Scottish Championship | Silver
- Blackbelt Sparring Bronze - Blackbelt Pattern |
| 25 March 1989 | Gained 4th Degree Blackbelt |
 |
|
| 14
April 1990 (Vienna, Austria) |
ITF International Instructor Course with General Choi Hong Hi 9th Degree. |
| July
1991 (Edinburgh, Scotland) |
ITF International Instructor Course with General Choi Hong Hi 9th Degree. |
| September
1992 (Dublin, Ireland) |
Gained 5th Degree Blackbelt |
| October
1992 (Benidorm, Spain) |
6 Day Sparring & Umpire Seminar with Mr Wim Bos 6th Degree, AETF Director for Sport. |
| January 1993 BTC Championship | Bronze - 4th Degree Pattern |
| February
1993 (Edinburgh, Scotland) |
1 Day Sparring Seminar with Mr Wim Bos 6th Deg, AETF Technical Director. |
| October 1993 | Gained position as Director for Scotland on UKTF Directors Committee. |
| November 1993 | Elected to UK ITF Technical Director for UK National Team. |
| November
1993 (Mulheim, Germany) |
Coached Scotland Team Scotland: Russia, Poland, Netherlands, Germany and England Team Event. |
| February
1994 (Groingen, Netherlands) |
Coached Scotland Team: Netherlands v Scotland Team Event |
| May
1994 IX ITF European Championship (Lublin, Poland) |
UK Team Coach |
| July
1994 IX World Championship (Kuala Terrengganu, Malaysia) |
UK Team Manager / Assistant Coach |
 |
|
| November
1994 (Pisa, Italy) |
Coached Scotland Team Scotland: Italy, Poland & Slovenia Team Event. |
| April
6-9 1995 (Cologne, Germany) |
Assistant Coach UK Team. ITF European Championship. |
 |
|
| December
1995 (St Petersberg, Russia) |
Coached Scotland Team in the "Cup of Peter the Great" Championships |
| January
1996 (Benidorm, Spain) |
ETU Umpire/Technical Course with Mr Wim Bos VI Degree |
| April
1996 (Riccione, Italy) |
XI ITF European Championships - Coached Scotland Male & Female Team |
 |
|
| June
1996 (Koszalin, Poland) |
ITF European Team Championships - Coached Scotland Team |
| July
1996 (Zakopane, Poland) |
European Coaches Summer Camp |
| May
1997 (Zrece, Slovenia) |
ITF European Championships - Coached Scotland Male & Female Teams |
 |
|
| July
1997 (St Petersberg, Russia) |
XII ITF World Championships - Coached Scotland Male & Female Teams |
| Feb
2000 (Dublin, Ireland) |
River
Valley Open
Coached Scotland Squad in Open Championships |
| May
2000 (Edinburgh, Scotland) |
ITF European Senior and Junior Championships - Coached Scotland Male & Female Teams |
| November
2000 (Warsaw, Poland) |
Country Coach: Poland vs European Select Demonstration Event |
| March 2001 | Promoted to UKTF Technical Committee |
| August
2001
(Inverness, Scotland) |
Gained 6th Degree Blackbelt |
| January
2002 (ITF Headquarters, Vienna, Austria) |
1st
Historical ITF Master Instructors Course conducted by Grand Master General Choi Hong Hi. |
| March
2003 (Livingstone, Scotland) |
International Blackbelt Course |
| May
2004 (Rimini, Italy) |
Sparring Seminar with Tomas Barrada 4th Degree |
| October
2004 (Brussels, Belgium) |
International Training Course |
| March 2007 | Celebrating
30 Years in Tae Kwon-Do at our Annual Academy Awards Ceremony 
Pictured with |
| April
2007 (Houston, Texas) |
ITF
International Instructors Course Hosted by the ITF- |
| April
2007 (Houston, Texas) |
Promoted
to 7th Degree MASTER Pictured from Left-Right Master Roberto Roena, Master Carlos Ramirez, Master Gordon Wallace, Master David Karlstadt. |
| May
2008 (Dublin, Ireland) |
35th
ITF International Instructors Course
Hosted by ITF Sr. Vice President Master Pablo Trajtenberg,
Technical Director Master Hector Marano and Secretary General Master Wim Bos). |
| 2009 (Benidorm, Spain) |
Umpire - European Championships |
| International Instructors Course | |
| May
2010 (Skovde, Sweden) |
National
Team Coach - Patterns Umpire - European Championships |
| September 2010 | Gained position as ITF Scotland Secretary General |
| December (Treviso, Italy) |
International ITF Umpire Course |
| March
2011 (Wellington, New Zealand) |
National
Team Coach - Patterns |
| October
2011 (Benidorm, Spain) |
Umpire - European Championships |
There are many people who have helped, assisted, coached and inspired me throughout my career in Tae Kwon-Do, none more than Grand Master Wim Bos 9th Deg; Master Sheena Sutherland 8th Deg and Master Mark Hutton 7th Degree.
I
do feel however, the most gratitude should be
given to the certain individuals who took this
young, cheeky shy individual, with no focus or
sense of purpose in life and without whose perseverance
and guidance, would be unlikely that I would
have ever have had the necessary inner strength and
physical skills to achieve as much as I have done.
To my instructors at Elgin from 1977-1980:
Mr James C. Scott
IV Degree (1947 - 1988)
Mr Greig Chessor
III Degree
Mr David Benton
IV Degree
and
to the most important person, for whom his strict
guidance, all of us in the UK are for ever in debt
to:
Grand
Master Rhee Ki Ha IX Degree OCM
who brought Tae Kwon-Do to these
shores in 1966.
Thank you."
