‘I loved it, and it was my life. It was absolute life.’
As a teenager in the late 1990s and early 2000s, Taekwon-Do wasn’t a hobby for Chris Ryu – it was everything. Training daily, competing nationally and internationally, he became British Under 18 Taekwon-Do Champion in 2005. By 17 he was already a qualified instructor.
Then he walked away.
An injury, a new relationship and a fallout with a club meant the sport that had shaped his youth slipped into the background. He kept a connection to it, but it was more than two decades before he returned fully to the mat.‘I had a long break,’ he says. ‘But I always missed it.’
Today, he is back. At the end of 2025 Chris launched Unity Taekwon-Do, a new North Dorset-based club that has attracted 62 students already.
Unity now runs classes in Sturminster Newton, Shaftesbury and Gillingham, as well as sessions within Sandroyd School.
‘Our youngest student is three and our oldest is 64,’ says Chris. ‘We’ve built a bit of a family unit at the club – there’s lots of actual families that train together, too.’ He has even finally managed to convince his wife to try Taekwon-Do herself. ‘Just a few weeks ago I got the pleasure of presenting her with her first belt, after 23 years of being together,’ says Chris. ‘There was a moment in the grading where I gave an order and she replied, “Yes, sir.” That was a little bit strange. I don’t get that at home!’
The intergenerational mix is deliberate. While martial arts are often seen as something primarily for children, Chris is keen to challenge that assumption. ‘A few weeks ago during class I saw someone who was 12 years old teaching someone who was 64. It felt like a really special moment.’
The benefits for older bodies go beyond strength, he says: ‘Keeping fit, keeping active, keeping joint mobility – that’s the obvious bit. But there’s also the social aspect. Belonging to something. Being welcomed into a club. It’s nice. And we try to encourage that.’
He is currently training to deliver Choi Kwang-Do, a version of Taekwon-Do adapted for older bodies, removing harsher movements and focusing more on circular motion, balance and mobility. An over-50s class is planned.
The club’s early growth has surprised him.
‘We’re five months in and we have 62 students. I’m blown away, actually.’
Chris is well known locally for his IT and web development work, and he previously opened a STEM education centre. That background is evident in the running of Unity, down to the digital lesson planning tool he has built. ‘We have a formal lesson plan for every single lesson. Everything’s structured. Students can even see that in advance if they want to prepare their minds for what they might have to do later on,’ he says, explaining that this can be particularly helpful for those with autism spectrum disorder.
Everyone’s different
Chris holds multiple safeguarding and autism-related qualifications, and says lessons are adapted around individual needs.
‘We’ve got boisterous confident kids, but also shy students, those who struggle with attention, we have students who don’t speak,’ he says. ‘Our lessons look different to different students, but we work with them on that individual level. Sometimes that might mean a one-to-one with a senior student, or simply getting them to hold a pad for someone – it’s a very easy way of building some social contact.’
That individualisation extends to physical ability. Standards are fixed, but execution is judged technically rather than athletically.
‘Everyone’s different shapes and sizes,’ he says. ‘We have a set criteria they need to pass at grading and there are no exceptions. But one person’s side kick might be waist height, someone else might be head height. It doesn’t matter. Did they side kick correctly? Did they chamber? Did they pivot? That’s the important bit.’
A modern club with big plans
Although Unity is not formally tied to a single governing body, Chris has trained across multiple major Taekwon-Do styles. He holds black belts in two systems and is working towards a third: ‘I wanted not only to get a black belt in all three, but also unify them into one syllabus.’
His aim has been to combine those different schools and approaches under one roof – though for most students that complexity sits quietly in the background. What they experience is a traditional martial arts club that competes regularly and invests heavily in equipment. The group is entering several competitions over the coming months, and a minibus has already replaced the original van as numbers have grown.
Unity uses reaction-testing equipment and kick paddles that measure striking power and feed data into an app. Chris has also published a children’s book, and is currently developing a mobile game aimed at reinforcing the life skills taught in class. Perhaps it’s no surprise that he reflects his software and systems background with an unusually digital approach for a local martial arts school. Affordability has also been a priority. Membership starts from £25 per month, with no sign-up fee, and licence and personal accident insurance included. Even the dobok – the formal Taekwon-Do uniform – is embroidered in-house to keep costs down.
Looking ahead, Chris is determined to secure a permanent, fully matted martial arts centre in Sturminster Newton. The aim is not a single-club Unity headquarters, but rather a shared space hosting multiple martial arts disciplines, alongside daytime sessions for older adults and other exercise classes. ‘I think we might then start to see the creativity,’ he says, recalling the more dynamic, acrobatic elements of Korean training he experienced in his youth.
For now, though, his message is simpler.
‘Just give it a try,’ he says. ‘Even if you tried it before and didn’t like it, just try it again. Maybe you just didn’t enjoy that club, or you didn’t enjoy that teaching style, or that style of Taekwon-Do. We’ve had lots of students return after a long break – and they’re really loving it.’
And after more than 20 years away from the mat, he understands that feeling.
For more information or to contact Chris direct, please see Unity’s website unityma.co.uk
