Anyone who knows me will agree that I'm not the most athletically endowed of people and I was always spectacularly awful at gymnastics which is why I'm surprised to be writing this review.

On Saturday 22 June I attended a seminar given by Ashley Beck and hosted by Paul Drury in Dawlish, Devon. Ashley, aged 20, is not only a 4th Dan in Freestyle Karate; he's also 14 times Kata Champion with a number of World Champion Titles under his belt. Performing Creative Kata to music he is able to perform the most amazing moves with the greatest of ease.

The seminar started out gently but this was probably the most painful part of the entire day. For roughly an hour we concentrated on stretching, singularly and with partners, working on loosening up our legs as much as possible. By the end of the hour most people were struggling to walk properly.

Then it was on to basic kicks. The front snap kick was first with Ashley getting us to concentrate on holding the leg out just that little bit longer, then the roundhouse and then the sidekick. He was very clear as to the fact that the latter kicks can look very similar if performed at speed. Slowing them down slightly and holding them out for that little bit longer makes all the difference.

Then it was on to spinning kicks. Again, Ashley took the time to break the kick down into bite sized chunks, even showing how to wind the body up for each particular kick. I must mention at this point that he was aided by Team Evolution, a demonstration squad of some of the most talented children I have ever seen. Clearly used to instructing and demonstrating they helped Ashley by wandering through the attendees and answering every question thrown at them.

Once we had spinning kicks 'perfected' it was on to jump spinning kicks and by this time I was started to get ever so slightly tired. Again everything was carefully broken down so that even the lowest grade attending knew exactly how to perform the kick. It was at this point that Ashley demonstrated how to make the kicks look better whilst being performed in the air. Tucking legs like this, holding your hands like that, creating the illusion of being higher in the air than you actually are. This part of the lesson was most helpful as I had a grading to attend the next day and my jumping rear leg front snap kicks were apparently quite impressive. Thank you Mr Beck!

The final part of the seminar was gymnastics and my heart quailed at the prospect. First off were cartwheels, then one-handed cartwheels and then no-handed cartwheels. To my surprise I literally threw myself into the techniques with abandon, taking my lead from Simon Wachon of Evolution TKD who seemed to have no fear at all! Ashley even had us performing 360 and 540 degree spinning kicks and butterfly kicks.

If you ever get the chance to attend such a seminar I heartily recommend you do. Ashley is one of the greatest ambassadors for his sport that I've had the pleasure of meeting and a credit to his instructor and family. Even though I'm more concerned with the fighting side of the martial arts I'll definitely be attending another seminar and I may even host one in the near future!

Thank you Mr Beck for a most enjoyable day!

Matthew Sylvester has been training in the Martial Arts since 1991. He currently studies Ao Denkou Jutsu, Kempo Ryu Karate, Tae Kwon Do and Shunryu Kempo. Jeremy M. Talbott is a regular contributor to Practical Martial Arts and a prolific author on the Korean Martial Arts.