Welcome to Europa Taekwondo Club (Olympic style WTF):

"A meaningful leisure activity"

Master Tessa Van Velsen

6th Dan Senior Instructor

( in action on the right)

Introduction

We have successfully been operating this excitingly explosive Korean martial art / selfdefence in north London since 1991.  Today we are primarily based in Edmonton and have operations in the City as well.   Our students come from all over London to attend our classes and many of them have been with the club ever since it began working their way through the grades.  We have produced high quality black belt students with some of them having achieved gold medal fighting awards.  We're also proud of the fact that students who arrive at the club with an aggressive attitude soon learn that there is a more constructive way of dealing with life than with violent behaviour. 

Our Approach

If you're looking for a club that is truly professional and that will put you first, Europa is for you.   
 
We are a friendly and inclusive club, with an emphasis on discipline.  Our programme is designed to suit complete beginners, intermediate and experienced martial artists of either sex at any age. We offer several grade levels, from novice to black belt and beyond. There is a good mix of girls and boys in our junior classes and of women and men in our adult classes. We run group classes, (traditional taekwondo and sparring/fighting classes), private sessions and seminars (which often include other types of martial art/selfdefence) and participate in competitions. 
 
We not only teach our students how to fight and defend themselves but we also instill discipline and self control.  A typical Europa class will include sparring and selfdefence techniques and a whole range of exercises to enhance these skills such as flexibility training, patterns, speed, power and mental and physical strength training.  For the more competitive students, separate sparring classes offer an opportunity to enhance their fighting skills. 
 
If taekwondo is new to you, at first you may find it almost impossible to imagine being able to execute certain kicks. However, with the assistance of the encouraging instructors and with the students hard work and dedication it's amazing how much can be achieved over time.  So, whatever your interests, whether it be social, fitness, weight loss, self confidence, flexibility, stamina, sparring, discipline, power or strength; Europa is for you.  Our goal is to produce excellent martial artists who can react to whatever they have to face: whether it be in selfdefence or competition.  Our everyday objective is to see that you will come away from a Europa class feeling confident and great about yourself, having had a strenuous and meaningful work-out. 

We pride ourselves on our high teaching standards and all of our leading instructors are of black-belt status.  However, advanced non-black belt members are at times also encouraged to assist as part of their preparation for black belt.  A group of 30 to 40 junior students can have between 2 and 5 Instructors present.  

My Background

I am the master instructor and founding member of Europa and am a 6th dan black belt master.  I began taekwondo at age 11 in Denmark and have trained in several countries.  Being a Dutch citizen, I went on to compete at international level with the Dutch taekwondo national fighting squad and won numerous gold medals and best fighter awards. I now dedicate my energies exclusively to Europa and endeavouring to make it the best club in London .  But it's not only the instructors (male and female) that make Europa a great club to be part of, it's the members themselves; they're a friendly bunch from all walks of life who genuinely love taekwondo and I'm honoured that they instill their trust in me and our instructors to help them on their taekwondo journey.    

I hope that you'll get in touch for further details about the club online or even better, in person at our club where you can also see first hand what the club is all about.

Feel free to browse around our site for more insight in the Europa Taekwondo Club and the Taekwondo style as a whole. We'll be glad to receive any comments and feed back via the contact page. Please use the same page for any specific information requests.

We look forward to training with you. 

Yours in Taekwondo,

Master and Founder

Tessa van Velsen - Senior Instructor