Master Callaghan

Master Matthew Callaghan began his Tae Kwon Do training in 1980 and passed to 1st Degree black belt 1984 in Edmonton.
In the summer of 1986 he went to Seoul Korea and trained with a Tae Kwon Do club. During his time in
Seoul, he visited the Kukkiwon, the official headquarters for World Tae kwon Do Federation.
In 1988 Master Callaghan stopped training and teaching due to business and family responsibilities and moved
back to Ontario. Unable to find a club in Ontario that taught the same style, Matthew stopped training
and was left to train on his own in order to retain some level of competency and fitness.
In 2014, Master Callaghan met Master Seong, who was preparing to open the Oakville school. Master Seong
invited Master Callaghan to continue his Black Belt training and assist in teaching. After an absence of 28 years
out of Tae Kwon, through a rigorous program of personal instructions and exercises by Master Seong,

Master Callaghan was brought to a level of fitness and competency necessary for
continuing to the 2nd Degree program. In December 2015, Master Callaghan, after hiatus of 28 years,
successfully passed to the 2 nd Degree Black Belt. Now in Master Seong’s Do Jang, he continues
training for the 5th Degree belt and learn new and improved pattern and fighting techniques, as well as
train as learn Korean Sword, Nunchuks and Hapkido self-defense techniques that were not taught 30 years
ago.
It has been privilege to train with and teach the kids in the Oakville Taekwondo School and know that it is never too
late train. Master Callaghan’s hope, as a role model as a seventy-plus adult, that other mature men and women will
train and acquire the exceptional level of fitness that no other sport can offer. Also, in this time when
crime is becoming more prevalent in the streets, kids and adults, through training in Tae Kwon Do, will
gain the knowledge and ability to protect themselves as well as their love ones.