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.

A good second lesson should feel familiar enough to build confidence, but fresh enough to expose gaps. This session does exactly that. It revisits the teep, adds pressure through body punches and low round kicks, then finishes with pad-work that links boxing combinations to both rear and lead leg low kicks.

I do not teach taekwondo or any Korean martial art formally, despite starting my own martial arts journey in them during the early 1990s. Instead, I offer bespoke martial arts personal training that adapts to each client’s needs, drawing from a broad range of disciplines and experience. This outside perspective has proven valuable.

There is an overly simplistic adage that one should master one discipline before moving on to another. Well, it's not really much of a wise proverb outside of the often tribalistic and insular subculture of martial arts. Go to a regular school, and students are expected to not only study a wide range of subjects but often several similar subjects. Yet, when it comes to martial arts, there appears to be this pervading idea that you need to get to a certain level before you sho