The turning kick was the problem, but balance was the real subject of the course. My client, aged 66, came to me with a very clear brief. He wanted to improve his turning kick so he could pass his yellow belt grading in taekwondo. It sounds simple. Lift the knee, pivot the supporting foot, turn the hip, extend the leg, recover, land. Anyone who has trained striking arts knows it is rarely that tidy once the body starts moving under pressure.

There’s a lovely moment in private coaching when a new movement stops feeling like “a move” and starts feeling like part of a conversation. That happened today with my 62-year-old kickboxing client as we began the fourth hour of his first lesson. We’d already laid down the basics. Today was about making them work together: round kicks, straight punches, and teeps.

Hour seven of my senior personal training course means that my client back onto strength and conditioning. As in previous classes, we stuck to the formula of using the big three lifts and a progressive pull-up routine.