Titan Taekwondo was founded in 2007 by Laura Bell (née Sweeney), who began her career at Caledonian Taekwondo, a club that Titan still meets with regularly for competitions.
On reaching 1st Dan, Laura decided to start her own club, where she would be able to share her experiences, in both training and competing, with new students. She decided to start the club in the southside of Glasgow, closer to King’s Park, where she was brought up. Titan was initially based in Langside Halls in Shawlands and offered classes to everyone aged 5 and up.
The club started out small with just a single one hour class on a Saturday, with students mainly coming from the local Shawlands area, but started expanding in 2011, adding more Saturday classes.
In 2013, in addition to longer classes on Saturday, Titan was able to expand their classes to a Thursday evening, with these evening classes based in Craigholme Sports Complex, a modern sports facility next to Pollok Country Park and a Glasgow Life Community Sports Hub. Students could now come along for after school practice and it was at this time that the club also started offering adults classes, allowing parents to train alongside their kids.
In 2015, the Totkwondo class was added to the Saturday programme, allowing preschool children of 3 and 4 to get involved in the sport and for many, to come along with their older siblings and be able to take part.
In 2016, the club continued to grow, with students now coming from all across the south of Glasgow, moving the Saturday classes to the Craigholme complex, as well as adding a Tuesday night session, which focused on traditional taekwondo and grading preparation.
Throughout 2020 and the Covid-19 pandemic, Titan continued running classes, online during periods of lockdown, outdoors at the Craigholme complex, now owned by Hutchesons’ Grammar School and renamed Hutchesons’ at Pollock Park outdoors at Clydesdale Hockey Club, and indoors at Re:Hope Church in Shawlands.
Once we were able to fully return to indoor training in 2021, Titan made Re:Hope Church our main home on Thursdays and Saturdays, while also running Tuesday classes at H@PP.
For 2022, Titan has updated our look with help from The Bakers Dozen, taking elements of our classic helmet logo, combining them with the image of a Taekwondo student mid kick.
From January 2025, Laura and the club finally realised our dream of having our own full time facility, moving to Enterprise Park, located between Linn Park and Castlemilk, just 10 minutes drive away from Re:Hope Church. Enterprise Park is an exciting new development from H Morris Group, who have previously developed Morris Park in the southside. The new venue is going to allow the club to run classes at more suitable times, add extra classes and run more events, while also giving parents and members access to lots of other small businesses at the location.
In addition to teaching taekwondo, Laura has also been a personal trainer and sports therapist for over ten years, operating as The Glasgow Fitness L.A.B. in the Caledonian Health & Fitness facility and, following the arrival of her daughter Elodie in 2022, has been running pre and post natal fitness classes in the West End as Bumps & Bubs.