Elbow strikes expose gaps that long-range kicking arts can hide. Once the range collapses, footwork, posture, hand position, and balance get tested fast. The theme came from recent work with Cotswold Karate School. We took elbow strikes from Muay Thai, placed them in a Taekwondo training context, and tested them through specific sparring rounds. The aim was not to turn Taekwondo into Thai boxing. It was to study a proven striking tool and see how it behaves under pressure.

One of my teacher clients from Hostlebro Taekwondo Klub in Denmark continued his regular online training with me and asked for a special session on knees and elbow strikes. The idea came after he had seen my recent work with Cotswold Karate School through social media. It was a good request, but for a single lesson I decided to narrow the brief. Rather than try to cover every knee and elbow option, we focused on straight knees on the heavy bag.

In the second hour of an online martial arts training course with a teacher from Drum Martial Arts and Fitness in the Republic of Ireland and his son, the lesson returned to the scarf hold. The son is preparing for an upcoming grading, with a focus on ground-fighting. The previous lesson explored attacking and defending from the position. This session shifted more clearly towards defence, especially the hip escape onto the back and the transition into an arm bar.

Some sessions need more movement, not more techniques. That was the theme for a recent remote online submission grappling personal training session with Drum Fitness and Martial Arts in the Republic of Ireland. The lesson changed pace with a father and son pairing working on the traditional scarf-hold, also known in many grappling rooms as kesa gatame. Rather than treating it as a static pin, we used it as a live attacking position. The focus was simple: control the body,

Remote martial arts training presents unique challenges, especially when focusing on complex skills like footwork and combination techniques. One of my clients from Drum Martial Arts and Fitness in Ireland has been progressing steadily through online sessions, and our recent work has centered on refining footwork while layering in combination strikes. This approach not only improves movement but also enhances the ability to set up and execute effective techniques like the che