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Instructors

All our instructors are registered with the BTC (British TaeKwonDo Council) and have undergone enhanced checks with the Criminal Records Bureau as well as attending courses covering child protection. They carry instructor's insurance details of which can be found on the BTC website.

Master Pat Donnelly

The chief instructor at Powerhouse is Master Pat Donnelly (5th Dan). Pat has been training in TKD for about 18 years, initially in Germany and for the last 13 years in Britain. He has been teaching for the past 10 years firstly at Southampton University under Master Graham Jones, and then in Powerhouse club at Westbourne/Thorney Island/Havant/Swanmore. He is a 5th dan black belt and continues to train with Grandmaster Mark Biddlecombe. Pat has also trained with a number of other internationally recognised TKD instructors (Grandmaster Lindsay Lawrence, Master Pschorr Meyer, Grandmaster Kwon Jae Hwa, Grandmaster Cha Sok Park and Grandmaster Park Hae Man). In 2000 he attended and received accreditation from the World TaeKwonDo Seoul Academy International Instructors course held in Korea. Pat normally instructs on a Monday and Wednesday night in Havant and on a Tuesday in Swanmore. He also instructs at Portsmouth University on Thursdays and Sundays.

Stephen Butlin

Stephen has been training in martial arts for over 20 years, starting in Goju Ryu Karate in South Africa, where he trained for 9 years receiving his 1st Dan black belt in 1991. Later, as a student, he trained for 3 years in Shotokan Karate. After moving to UK in 1999 Stephen decided to try something different and joined Powerhouse Taekwondo in mid 2000 with Master Pat Donnelly at the Westbourne Church Hall. In this time he has had the opportunity to train with many national and international instructors and even represented Chungdokwan GB at a competition held in Detroit, USA, winning a gold medal in Adult Dan grade poomsae.

Darren Bailey

Darren is a 3rd Dan Black belt who has predominantly trained with Powerhouse TKD. He has trained with many instructors including Master Pat Donnelly, Stephen Butlin, Master Brian Hussey, Grandmaster Mark Biddlecombe and Master Gerry Reilly. He has also attended seminars with Grandmaster Lindsay Lawrence and Grandmaster Park Hae Man and other masters.

Darren has successfully competed in both local and national sparring and patterns competitions. He normally trains and instructs on a Tuesday and Thursday in Swanmore and is the lead instructor for the Wednesday evening session in Swanmore. His other sporting interests include competitive running in events from 5k to Marathon and he is also a keen cyclist.

To help avoid injuries Darren recognises the importance of strength training and stretching and devotes time for a few sessions a week for each. Darren’s other interests that impact on Tae Kwon Do and sport in general are optimising nutrition for health and fitness, sport psychology and developing mental training techniques to help performance and focus.

Tessa Philpott

Tessa has trained in Tae Kwon Do with the Powerhouse club since 2003 and had been a first dan black belt since 2007. She has successfully competed in both local and national poomsae competitions.

She has trained under Stephen Butlin, Master Pat Donnelly, Master Brian Hussey, Grandmaster Mark Biddlecombe. She has also attended seminars with Grandmaster Park Hae Man.

Tessa normally trains and instructs on a Tuesday and Thursday in Swanmore and is also an instructor for the Wednesday evening session in Swanmore.

Tessa is on the executive committee of Taekwondo Chungdokwan GB, the national body that Powerhouse TKD belongs to. This involves helping organise the national events, and also helps her maintain links with other TCGB clubs and Instructors.

Russ Pay

Russ has been training in Taekwondo for 5 years; taking it up when he started at Portsmouth University. He was club president from 2007-09 and was the first Portsmouth student to attain his black belt with the club ( in November 2008). In 2009 he became an Instructor and was given his own class at the University which is dedicated to senior and experienced grades in order to focus on more advanced techniques, sparring, and of course, fitness!

Russ trains on Monday and Wednesday with Powerhouse in Havant, on Tuesday and Friday at Vanessa Anderson’s Powerhouse class in Southsea, and potentially Thursday, Friday and Sunday with the University. He has been to the Hungary training camp twice where he’s had the pleasure of training with Grand Master Lindsay Lawrence, Grand Master Suh Ki Young, Hungary's own Master Tamas Lanyi, and of course Master Pat Donnelly and Stephen Butlin.

Russ is currently preparing himself for entry into the Royal Marines, and as such his life in general is very fitness-based. This rubs off onto his training and teaching methods, as his students at the university would reluctantly agree!