It's a figure of a 10-year-old standing up among men.

Fighting, training, earning their respect - and now a pair of national gold medals.

Oliver snared the boys' 10-11 years under-42-kilogram blue belt division, holding off Queensland and New South Wales state champions.

The back-to-back taekwondo champion was so impressive, he pushed to a 17-point lead in the final and forced his rival out at the end of the second of three rounds.

South Launceston Hoju Martial Arts master instructor Joshua Warren felt that Oliver's gutsy win was all about fighting the odds.

The chances to succeed in Tasmania against opponents who mix with dozens of elite clubs on the mainland and each year in multiple state championships are slim.

"Down here, we just have nothing," Warren said.

"The state body does very little to nothing to help support him. He's kind of built this all up with a few teammates at the club.

"He is also fighting against me, as a 31-year-old male, one of my instructors in his mid-twenties and I have an 18-year-old fighter too.

"So as a 10-year-old kid, he doesn't have a lot of other 10-year-olds to train against."

The few that are around his age training at the dojo are a different weight class and provide less of a challenge to meet the high standards at the national level.

ELSEWHERE IN SPORT

Warren cops the brunt of Oliver's regimented ways.

The instructor has little shame admitting to wearing extra padding in sparring.

"I have watched him go through as a nine-year-old into a 10-year-old basically wearing all of his hits where he's getting upset and feeling the pain to keep pushing his way through," Warren said.

"As far as doing it tough, he's done it tough alright."

Nothing comes natural.

Warren never knew when Oliver first walked through the door the instructor would have a bona fide national champion on his hands.

The success boils down to a determined perseverance more than anything else.

"He's definitely got there with hard work and he's not like it's natural technique or kicking behind it," he said.

"He still had to learn how to do it. We still work very hard on fixing his technique, so he can do things well."

Oliver is set to complete a red-belt grading - one from black - by the end of the year.

This comes after training for more than four years, five hours of fight training a week in a sign of his discipline and, and more so, his maturity.

"He's one of the loveliest, sweetest young men I have ever had the joys of working with," Warren said. "He will be the first to be friends with someone, but in a hard core way that will allow him to push as far as he wants."

Subscriptions are available here.

Sign up to our Sport email here.

Know a junior sport star? Make a nomination for our 2019 Junior Sports Awards here.