History of
Ballerup Martial Arts Center

In 1974 Palle Petersen started Ballerup Taekwondo Club as the first taekwondo club in Zealand (eastern part of Denmark). The following year the club began to train with master Shin Boo Young, which soon made Ballerup the leading club in Denmark. People from other clubs came to train in Ballerup, which also became the starting point for new clubs. On top of that Ballerup became the centre of Hwa Rang Denmark. After some years with varying success Ballerup started to rise again in the mid-nineties. Today Ballerup is one of the most successful clubs and has a leading role within Danish Taekwondo.

Palle Petersen

At some point in 1973 a young man named Palle Petersen started to train taekwondo at the training sessions arranged by the Danish Judo Union. The training session often took place in Sønderborg and Oksbøl. In November 1973 the first train session on Zealand was arranged in Brøndby. Like in Jutland the instructor was Gunnar Sørensen from Sønderborg.

Palle Petersen was 25 years old at that time. He trained judo and was manager of the judo division in the sport club IF Frem in Bjæverskov. In the meantime Palle Petersen moved to Ballerup where he made preparations to start a taekwondo club. Meanwhile he trained taekwondo in the back yard with some friends.

In 1974, probably around May, Palle Petersen founded the club together with Niels Viborg and Otto Christensen. On September 2nd the first official training took place in the fitness room in Måløv Hallen (sportshall) where the club could train late at night three days in the week.

Collaboration with Shin Boo Young

In the beginning Gunnar Sørensen came to Ballerup to teach taekwondo. However, eventually Ballerup had enough of Gunnar Sørensen who made a lot of money each time he visited Ballerup. On top of his teaching fees he also made money on gradings and the sale of belts afterwards. In one weekend Gunnar Sørensen made 5-10,000 DKK, which was a lot of money at that time.

Some time in 1975 Ballerup called Tangun Sportschule in Hamburg, Germany, where Shin Boo Young was teaching taekwondo. Shin Boo Young was also national coach in Germany. Students from Ballerup had already taken part in training sessions with Shin Boo Young, which were held in different parts of Denmark.

The following years Ballerup used Shin Boo Young as their taekwondo master. Shin Boo Young was a superb martial artist. The close collaboration with Shin Boo Young resulted in Ballerup becoming the leading club in Danish taekwondo for many years.

Different club names

In January 1975 the club had no alternative but to train in both Ballerup and Måløv. There were too many classes in proportion to the available space of time in Måløv. In addition to that, after the summer in 1975 the club also established satellite clubs in 4 cities nearby (Ølstykke, Skovlunde, Herlev and Albertslund). Because of that the club changed name from Ballerup Taekwondo Club to Copenhagen Taekwondo Club.

In May 1976 Shin Boo Young started his own school in Hamburg, Germany. He named the school “Hwa-Rang”. He also gave this name to Ballerup. Therefore the club name was changed (again) to Hwa-Rang Taekwondo Club.

Over the years the club name has been changed 1 or 2 times for technical reasons. Today the club name is Ballerup Taekwondo Club (like in the beginning) and has “Hwa-Rang” as a supplementary name.

The club logo has been changed in accordance with changes to the club name.

First black belts

In July 1975 Morten Vedel Nielsen went to Korea. There he trained taekwondo for 8 months and was promoted to 1st dan black belt. As a result, Morten Vedel Nielsen became the first black belt student in Ballerup.

Unfortunately, Morten Vedel Nielsen did not train much in Ballerup after that time. Among other things he wanted to give private lessons and earn some money from that. Maybe that was to retrieve some of the 26,000 DKK he spent on his trip to Korea. Of course, he was entitled to do so even though it did not match the big expectation that his club had of him and his trip to Korea. 10 months later Morten Vedel Nielsen started a club in Rødovre.

Palle Petersen became the next black belt in Ballerup. Shin Boo Young promoted him to 1st dan in November 1976. Since then over 100 students have been promoted to black belt.