This week’s private lesson with my 62 year-old client was hour five of his current kickboxing course. It was also hour six of his overall kickboxing training with me, as we had attached one hour to the end of his previous boxing course. That earlier boxing work is now paying dividends. His guard, punching mechanics, foot positioning and basic ringcraft have given us a strong base. The challenge now is to add kicks without letting the boxing fall apart.

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.

Starting a new martial arts discipline can be both exciting and challenging, especially when moving from a familiar sport like boxing to kickboxing. My senior client recently made this transition after a year focused solely on boxing. This change aims to build a solid foundation for an upcoming Muay Thai course. In our latest session, we concentrated on mastering the teep, a fundamental kickboxing technique, using constraints-led games to sharpen precision and timing. This po