Red Star coach Jon Mackey was appointed assistant national kickboxing coach for Kickboxing Ireland at the recent WAKO European junior kickboxing championships in Poland.
Mackey, a long time coach in the sport of Taekwon-Do and Kickboxing got the nod from the ‘Kickboxing Ireland’ president Roy Baker during the championships. The position was agreed on after a meeting of the director of coaching for Kickboxing Ireland, Micheal McDermott and the national coach Ian Kingston and the president Roy Baker.
“I got called to control table where the officials were congregated” recalls Mackey, “I was met there by Roy who put his hand out and said ‘it’s time you stepped it up, you’ve been around a long time, your fighters are good and we want you working with Ian helping him develop the light contact division’, we had a chat about the future of kickboxing in Ireland and across the world with WAKO working hard for IOC recognition”
Later that day, Jon Mackey met with Micheal McDermott and Ian Kingston to discuss ideas and a plan for light contact calendar for Kickboxing Ireland which stands as Ireland’s only government recognised Kickboxing organisation with recognition from the Irish Sport’s Council through the Irish Martial Arts Commission (IMAC).
“I just want to say thanks to Micheal McDermott who spotted the work I was doing, and to Ian Kingston. Ian is one of Ireland’s leading kickboxing coaches with a plethora of European and world champions training out his gym in West Cork Kickboxing. I look forward to working with him and learning from him in the future”
Jon Mackey has a number of international fighters training regularly at his gym Red Star Kickboxing based on the Ballyboggan Road between Cabra and Finglas. Amongst them is current WAKO junior champion Lauren Bradshaw who is also a uITF double world champion, former ITF European champion (Bulgaria 2012 and Croatia 2009), Open European Champion (2011) and World TKD Festival (Korea) gold medalist.
Along side Lauren, Mackey has also trained Neidin Coulahan current uITF world champion, former European ITF champion and World TKD Festival (Korea) gold medalist, Dylan Russell and Lauren Russell both national Kickboxing champions (KBI 2011/2012) to name only a handful of the international talent fighting out of Red Star. Jon also coached the senior men’s Taekwon-Do team to Gold at the World Taekwon-Do Festival in Korea 2010, beating Greece in the final. He also coached the junior Irish girls team to gold at the recent UITF World Championships beating the hosts England in their back yard.
“The future of light contact kickboxing in Ireland is very strong. With fighters such as Tony Stephenson, Lily De La Cour, our own Lauren and Aine Leonard in Sligo to name a few the standard we have in Ireland is very high. At Red Star we also have some very strong juniors coming through, hopefully they will secure national positions for themselves in good time” Jon Mackey
Any Taekwon-Do coaches interested in getting their fighters involved with the light contact squad for Kickboxing Ireland can contact Mackey at coach[AT]redstar[DOT]ie : PH: 086 466 1661
