TaeKwonDo Academy

Cameron Barfoot 

Senior 2nd DAN Black Belt

L2 Trainee Instructor

​​

​​

Whilst in my final year at Portsmouth University, I was looking for exercise and luckily TaeKwonDo was down the road to where I was staying.

​

I joined the TaeKwonDo Academy in 2019 for simple fun and exercise. That’s when my journey started; later in 2019, I was encouraged by Travis to attend and compete in an Open Mixed Martial Arts competition. We had to adjust our sparring style to meet the requirements set out by the organisation who ran the event. This was challenging, however, I achieved 3rd place in ‘Team Sparring’ which was a great achievement as there were over 100 participants and from a mixture of other martial arts.

​

In late 2020, Travis asked me whether or not I wanted to help teach. Luckily for me, I’ve got lots of experience instructing, so I said yes. Soon I achieved rank of a Cadet Leader when I was a red belt. In October 2021, I achieved my 1st DAN black belt and my L2 Trainee Instructor qualification.

​

Two years after that, I achieved my 2nd DAN black belt. During that time, I was introduced to Judo by Phil, where I’m currently an orange belt. My advice when doing martial arts is don’t stop when you reach your black belt.

 

I like to think when you achieve your first black belt, it’s the new white belt. There’s a lot more to learn when you reach your black belt. Currently, I’m slowly building up the confidence to grade to be a Level 1 Certified Instructor, and later my 3rd DAN black belt.