A lot of people think kicking is mainly about flexibility. Flexibility helps, of course, but it’s not the main issue when moving from one kick to another. The real challenge is this: can the body stay organised while one leg is in the air? For my client, we worked on transitioning from one kick to another without putting his foot down. In taekwondo, this sort of control matters. A student might need to chamber the leg, kick, bring it back, turn the hip, and kick again.

The rules are simple but clever. Each round, both sparring partners roll a die or dice in secret. The number rolled corresponds to a specific technique or strategy from a numbered list. Only the techniques linked to the rolled number count for scoring during that round. All other techniques are allowed but do not score points.