Reviews on Private Online Coaching

Many are rightfully skeptical of any benefits derived from private online coaching. In a world where some vie to teach things they have not yet digested, I can not only appreciate the raised eyebrows, but I encourage it.

That said, I have been offering POC sessions via Skype to numerous teachers, coaches, dancers, athletes, and martial artists from around the world for years. These lessons have proven invaluable to many who have grown stagnant with their training. I personally use this powerful communication medium to teach my HQ chool while traveling abroad.

Although nothing can beat hands-on, qualified instructions, under the watchful eye of a competent teacher, a personally-tailored coaching class from a lifelong, veteran trainer of trainers, and founder of KaizenTao comes close. 🙂

Classes are tailored to address specific issues to each students. There is no cookie cutter approach applied to all, as every student comes with their unique set of skills, problems, and misunderstandings. Issues which hampers performance both known or unknown are quickly exposed, and can often be remedied within minutes, if not seconds.

Here are some thoughts from recipients of my sessions.

I live in Paris (France) I am 43, and I work as an HR Consultant.

I have been practicing various types of martial art in my life but on and off for various reasons, the last and longest attempt was with Systema.

Anyway when I first contacted Thong my question was more about learning about relaxation and fluid movement rather than learning combative skills. I said to him, I never had a real fight in my life but I would like to be able to apply those principles to my everyday life.

To my surprise, this was enough for him to say ok let’s try a lesson.

I must say now, after almost 10 skype sessions, that I am getting what I came for. The most surprising fact is that I am familiar with most of the principles Thong shares with me but his very accurate vision, his sense of sequence, pedagogy and especially his integrity (accountability) bring a completely new light on each exercise.

For me it is like starting a journey towards the very center of my body/ myself, removing all the layers, all the un necessary tensions, progressively, step by step and gaining freedom again, that is what I call an amazing path.

Thong is a very patient, knowledgeable teacher but I can dare to say that above all he is an honest man with very strong human values : integrity, respect, gratefulness and open heart.

I am glad to be part (even if far away) of this community and glad to have met through the web with a man that IS the change that he wants to see in the world.

One more thing I wanted to add (feed back about the work)
I used to be part of a traditionnal polyphonic choir (10 years ago) singing traditionnal corsican songs. I like to sing very much.

Saturday afternoon when I was practicing standing on the medicine ball my wife selected some songs in my playlist and played them very loud in the flat (U2, Extreme -More than Words-…)and of course I started to sing (on the medicine ball) and again I was very surprised by the sensation my voice was coming out very clear and was filling the space very differently.

Saturday night I shared that story with one friend with whom we were having dinner who happens to be a singing teacher…and she was not surprised  at all and very enthusiastic, she said she wanted to buy one medicine ball to try it herself !!

~ Pierre Antonini

Before I started my first Skype lesson with Thong I was very sceptical that my understanding of English would be enough to follow his teachings.
Also I was not sure that it would be possible to acquire certain skills from instructions by using a multimedia tool like Skype, without having actual physical contact to my teacher.

After my first Skype lesson with Thong I was blown away by the detailed instructions and the great guidance. Even for me not being a native english speaker I could follow his calm and very structured instructions and explainations. There was no stupid question for Thong, so that I could even ask very basic questions. What surprised me right at my first lesson with Thong was that he can see the smallest movement / the smallest mistake and “mirror” it to you, so that you can see and realize what you did wrong or right and shows you how to improve. I saw the changes very often directly after been corrected by Thong’s guidance and was able to feel the “sensation” of moving more natural. After having several Skype lessons with Thong I can definately say that our weekly lessons improved my life quality tremendously because he helped me not only by helping to move more freely … but also to understand myself better and I am very grateful for that!

– improvement in patience and showing gratitude
– improvement in awareness
– improvement in how to work on something with my training partners to acquire certain skills (teamwork) or how to do proper solowork when there is no training partner available
– improvement in balance and coordination
– improvement in structure / posture
– less tension in the body
– improvement in moving more natural
– improvement in mind – body control (imagination)
– improvement in proper breathing
– being more calm and relaxed (less stress)
– overcorrection is no correction
– not getting greedy but really enjoying movement and having fun learning something new
– you can learn something from everything and everyone
– learning something new is not difficult it’s just new

I enjoy every class with my close friends and training partners Youssef and Jörg! Never had such an incredible team to work with and I feel very blessed going together on our path of continual growth!

I feel very honored being a part of this beautiful KaizenTao family around the world and I am extremely grateful for your guidance and for all the help you are giving us in Munich Thong 🙂

~ Alexander Schilgen
Judo, Shotokan/Fudokan Karate, Wing Chun, Latosa Escrima, Systema

First of all I was very skeptical when my dear friend Alexander Schilgen with whom I trained martial arts for a decade already, told me about his first lesson on Skype with Thong Nguyen. I could not imagine that it is possible to learn a movement art through a computer based communication tool without being able to feel what the instructor talks about but I was curious enough to give it a try. So I kept meeting Alex and a group of other guys to study second hand what Alex had learned in his Skype sessions on a regular basis. I admit that it was difficult to perform the exercises because no one could correct us if we do them right or wrong however the concepts behind the exercises where clear and logic from the beginning.
After a couple of month we got a very pleasant message. Thong was going to meet us in Munich in January 2014. He asked if everybody who trained in our group that time could join a Skype session a week before the seminar to get to know to each other. After we talked a bit about our backgrounds, Thong gave us instructions for a very basic escape exercise from a wrist hold without tensing up the body and it worked right away. My personal impressions that day about Thong Nguyen teaching where that he is very confident about moving the way he explained and also in dealing with people in general. He is talking very calm and clear so that everyone although nobody of the group is English native speaker could follow his instructions with ease. In addition to the way Thong teaches we were positively touched by his politeness. This lesson made me even more curious to meet Thong in person and feel what he was talking about on Skype.
The seminar was mind blowing and we all were convinced that the skills we were seeing on videos actually are real and can be done. Again, what touched me as strong as Thong’s skills was the way he deals with people in such a calm and respectful way. Long story short: the seminar encouraged us to continue studying the KaizenTao method. A couple of month after the seminar I took the chance to work and travel in Central America. When Thong got to know about my plan he shared some instantly applicable knife defense concepts in a Skype lesson with us. That showed me once more how serious he cares about his students. Unfortunately it was not possible to participate on regular training sessions during my travels but I took the chance to meet Thong in Washington D.C. on my way back to Germany where I could experience his power again and meet some of his students. I am very grateful about that experience and can confirm that anybody I met from the KaizenTao family is an honorable person with remarkable skills. Meanwhile I looked forward to continue my movement studies with our Munich group which already became smaller as it became obvious, that acquiring skills is not that easy and requires lots of patience and correct guidance.
Thong offered me to participate on regular Skype classes after I got back. Since March 2015 I receive teachings together with Alex and Jörg. Thong has a unique way of teaching from a distance. He gives lots of details and instructs his students until the exercise can be done properly on a very individual basis. There are no secrets however there are limiting factors such as physical and mental tensions and insecurities in our-selves that have to be identified and eliminated step by step. Thong helps tremendously in overcoming those tensions and insecurities. If done regularly the exercises and help everyone to get in touch with her- or him-self. Furthermore everything is applicable in daily life as well and is not limited to movement only. It rather is energy work in general.
This is what I got out from the skype lessons so far and without any doubts slowly become better and better:
Rotation is crucial to reduce tension in the body
Self-awareness as well as awareness of one’s environment can be learned and helps in just everything
Alignment is the foundation of well balanced and adequate actions
Mind-body connection through imagination significantly enhances your abilities to stay balanced and aligned
Negative stress can be reduced through maintaining balance and finally can become a positive experience
Patience and persistence is crucial for success, which means it is not possible to become a master in just a few weeks
Teamwork and correct training value are fundamental pillars for success of a group
Gratitude and integrity as a key principle keep yourself in balance
Overcorrection is no correction so changes must be adequate
Breathing fuels your mind and body however we have plenty of natural reserves when we can’t or subconsciously hold our breath
I also would like to mention, that Thong answered every question no matter how basic it may seem as fast as he could and further more supports his students in many other ways. For instance I received so much support from the KaizenTao family all around the world when I had to overcome a personal crisis I will never forget! Without any doubt, Thong’s teachings helped me to improve my life in many ways so far and I am extremely humbled to have the privilege to experience the process of continual growth.

Love, Respect and Gratitude

~ Youssef Koriche
Tae-Kwon-Do WTF 1st Dan 10 years; Yang Taijiquan 4 years; Wing Chun Alexander Schilgen 3 years; Systema 4 years.

First I was extremely sceptical whether it is to be realised possibly about Skype training hours. After my first Skype hour with my dear friends Alex and Youssef, I learned better one. Thanks to Thong Nguyen’s astonishing way of teaching. Long-standing experiences and his unusual ability about Skype immediately scanning to recognise false positions to point out and orrect to make enrich our Skype training.
With Thong Nguyen’s teaching and guidance we’re able as a group to enjoy the path of the continual advancement.
After one year of Skype lessons I have personally improved in these areas:

– Improvement of the body structure
– Improvement of the body feeling
– Improvement of the balance
– Recognise and dissolve from unnatural movement pattern
– Improvement of the mental imagination
– practice in patience, things need their time
– Train, right form expirations compile
– Things with spirit to compile each other
– Mutual help to support  and around a common goal to reach

Thong´s teaching, the great support of the whole Kaizentao family and the great Training with my great buddies Alex and Youssef, our little Munich group, helps us to master everyday life.

~ Yörg Muller

These days I am convinced more and more that it is nonsense to talk which martial art is more effective than the other, since I came to the realization that freedom of movement is a goal for martial art practitioners.

I can say I practice freedom of movement in forms of Aikido and piano playing. Both are the art forms: a martial art and a musical art. I think art is a Jutsu/術. To me Jutsu/術 is a quality/質. In both Aikido and piano playing, I work with my body thoroughly as a tool to create efficient, natural, relaxed, flexible, unresisting, continuous movements. Jutsu is not about technique. Jutsu cannot be learned from quick, repetitive strength training.

I also learned that martial art and art parts are inseparable. If we say Aikido is not effective, than we are not doing right. Russ and I learned important things from a two-hour  session with our friend Thong Nguyen this morning.  If we obsessed with kata forms like Aikido and Karate, than we might be limiting our freedom of movement.

I think freedom of movement doesn’t give us any categorization like Jujutsu, Aikido, Judo. It is like a switch. There is only one that gives us on or off, and it is always there. We can live it on and practice it every moment of our daily lives like, sitting, standing, etc.

Also what I have been learning from Yoshinori Kono sensei and what Thong taught us today really made my goal clear: unlocking limitless physical ability. Russ and I are so grateful that there are great friends who give us inspirations and feedback. We are convinced that we are walking on the right path.  Also this realization reminded me of O’sensei’s words:
“There are many paths to the top of Mt. Fuji, and yet only one summit. This summit, in other words, is the Way of Love. Each individual’s practice is different, while the final destination is the identical.

The way of Bu (the Martial) of Japan is by no means a path of battle, contest or confrontation. Bu is the way of being at peace with everything and treating everyone along the path as one’s brother.

~ Harumi Makiyama

Feeling the transformative powerful of nearly instantaneous improvement, is believing! Please drop me a note if you are interested in booking a private Skype coaching session.
Enjoy your Paths!