Instructor Profile Michelle Harper 2010 – Melbourne

PROFILE

NAME: Michelle Harper

LOCATION: Melbourne

BRIEF HISTORY: 

I had been around Taekwon-Do for a few years having supported and accompanied my husband to many Taekwon-Do seminars and tournament events, including World Championships as well as a “grading run” with Master Daher up the Queensland coast. I also assisted my husband to establish his new club by being in charge of all the paperwork and the admin side of things, and I went along to watch his every class. It was at one of the seminar events that I was sitting quietly watching when one of the black belts walked past me and whispered “You should be a black belt by now!” She had seen me attend so many events but of course my attitude was “I can’t do THAT”. Well as it happened I came home from work one day in March 2006 with the need to blow off some steam so I asked my husband if I could join in class. That was the beginning of it all……. 

Six months after first joining in I commenced teaching, with Master Daher’s permission. I began running my own children’s classes with 6 kids on opening night. I am proud to say that some of the children that began their training in my junior class back in 2006 are still training, now under Mr Harper in the senior class. When I got pregnant with my first child I needed Mr Harper to take over my juniors’ class. I did, however, continue training and attended every class right up until I was 8 months pregnant. Obviously I modified what I was able to do in class (definitely no jumping or flying kicks!), but I was glad that I could maintain an exercise routine throughout my pregnancy, even with such a huge belly! After the birth of my daughter I resumed training as soon as I could and this was instrumental in helping me lose my pregnancy weight. My training continued to progress and it wasn’t long before I was heading towards my 1^st degree black belt. The only “problem” was that I was now pregnant with my second child. I did continue to train though, and at 5 months pregnant I was very proud to have Master Daher grade me for my black belt. Again I continued to train until I was just over 7 months pregnant.

After another forced break from training with the birth of my son, I then decided that I needed to return to training. It was difficult in the beginning as I do not have a babysitter available to me and need to bring my babies to training with me. With both being 2yrs of age and under it has been challenging but fortunately I have a very understanding instructor! So now that I am back I continue to assist with instructing in both our club’s junior and senior class. (Needless to say I am also still the admin guru!) Through Mr Harper’s hard work our club has progressively grown to the success it is today. We enjoy being a great team and feel a sense of achievement in bringing Il Shim Taekwon-Do to Melbourne. Being family people ourselves, we have developed Taekwon-Do for families, making it easy for parents and siblings to train together.

Taekwon-Do has taken us to many places and has introduced us to many new and wonderful friends. I am glad that I changed my mind from “I can’t do that” to “If I can do it, anyone can!” I’m not the fittest, I’m not the strongest, I’m certainly not the most athletic. I’m just a wife and mum with 2 small children and the desire to continue improving!