Master Dale Eagling
Mr. Dale Eagling was the founder of Taekwondo in Tasmania introducing it here in 1971. Mr. Eagling was also internationally recognised as a pioneer of Australian Taekwondo. Since 1972 Mr. Eagling has introduced clubs to all parts of Tasmania and has taught over 25,000 Tasmanians Taekwondo and trained over 350 black belts. Since 1985 Mr. Eagling travelled to Adelaide and Perth to assist with establishing clubs and he also travelled every 3 months to the mainland states to teach and conduct their grading examinations and ensure Taekwondo was developed correctly physically and mentally. There were 87 Taekwondo Clubs throughout Australia of which Mr. Eagling was the Master Instructor.
Mr. Eagling had over 26 years experience in the martial arts, studied judo and held a 1st dan in japanese karate and extensive training in weapons. He held a 5th dan black belt in Hapkido and has studied under a number of famous Korean Hapkido Masters like Mr. Han Jae Ji who was a direct student of the founder of hapkido Grand Master Yong Sool Choi.
Until his resignation in 1978 he was a Vice President of the (A.T.A) Australian Taekwondo Association and a founding member, contributing greatly to the early development of that organisation. He was a member of the successful 1975 Australian Taekwondo team for korea and in the same year won a ‘Special Citation’ from the World Taekwondo Federation for outstanding service and contribution to the development of Taekwondo in Australia.
On a special visit to Australia in 1976, 9th dan black belt grand master taekwondo and then secretary general of the WTF Mr. Lee Chong Woo reported to the Mercury Newspaper in hobart that Mr. Eaglings Taekwondo Clubs per capita of population were the largest number of students in the world. This was later featured in korean and leading martial arts magazines worldwide.
Mr. Eagling held the rank of 6th dan black belt from the WTF (Kuk Ki Won, Seoul Korea) and was among the highest graded westerners in the world. Mr. Eagling trained regularly in korea under leading WTF masters and was highly respected there for his enthusiasm to reach the highest technical standards. In the 1960’s Mr. Eagling was well known in sporting circles as an outstanding professional sprint runner and a leading NTFA footballer. He played senior football with north launceston straight from school at 16 years of age.
Also Mr. Eagling was a successful australian rules football coach and athletics coach, producing one of tasmania’s best professional sprinters John Howard. Academically Mr. Eagling was a qualified accountant and held a degree in business administration. Prior to teaching and administrating taekwondo full-time Mr. Eagling was a practising company accountant and management executive.
