Ilmar Tooming was born on the 17th of October in 1976 in Tartu. He started his karate trainings in 1989 in karate club „Mainor Karate“ and trained there until 1994 when the club was closed. In autumn 1994 he joined a karate club “TTÜ SKK”. In January 2004 he established his own karate club „SKK Tiiger”. He has been teaching karate since autumn 1998 and his children classes began already in year 2000. At the moment the club has four different training places - in Tallinn, Saue, Saku and Haapsalu.

In 2003 he passed Shodan exam under Ochi Hideo sensei 8th Dan Japan Karate Association; in 2007 Nidan exam under Tanaka Masahiko sensei 8th Dan Japan Karate Association and in 2009 he was ranked as Sandan by Tashvishi Mahmoud sensei 5th Dan Japan Shotokan Karate Association.

Ilmar is also recognized as  national A level instructor by JSKA Estonia and
2nd level karate coach by Estonian Olympic Committee.

He has trained and learned in several international training camps under such world-class senseis as Okazaki Teruyuki 10th Dan, Abe Keigo 9th Dan, Ueki Masaaki 8th Dan, Tanaka Masahiko 8th Dan, Iida Norihiko 8th Dan, Ochi Hideo 8th Dan, Yamamoto Hideo 7th Dan, Naito Takeshi 7th Dan, Kobayashi Kunio 7th Dan, Sawada Kazuhiro 7th Dan, Jorgen Bura 7th Dan, Risto Kiiskilä 6th Dan, Akita Shinji 5th Dan, Mahmoud Tashvishi 5th Dan and many more.