There aren't many sports where we can claim to be beating the originators at their own game, but the Koreans are now looking over their shoulder at the phenomenal achievements of a handful of young Brits who are living for kicks.

Taekwondo is the ancient martial art they invented (it translates from the Korean as "the way of the hand and the foot"), and we are getting pretty damn good at it.

An amalgam of kick boxing, kung fu and karate, it has its own distinctive pattern of controlled violence, and has been growing in Britain since a girl from Doncaster, Sarah Stevenson, started getting the better of the Asians. Fourth at the Sydney Olympics, she went on to become world and European champion and an Olympic bronze medallist in Beijing.

The newly-wed Stevenson, now 27, still has outstanding Olympic ambitions but there is a new kid on the mat. Jade Jones may sound like an X Factor wannabe but the 17-year-old from Flint in north Wales is actually a pocket rocket who punches harder than most female boxers and kicks like a mule.

These attributes have brought her a junior world championship silver medal, a bronze in the European seniors and, in Singapore three months ago (where she beat a Korean), Britain's first gold medal in the Youth Olympics. Now she has been shortlisted for this weekend's BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year.

Stevenson and Jones (pictured) are by no means alone is making taekwondo one of the biggest success stories of British sport. Aaron Cook, 19, has won the European senior title, narrowly missed out on a medal in Beijing and last year knocked out the five-times world champion Steven Lopez. He took silver in last month's French Open, where another 19-year-old, Bianca Walkden, won gold.

So what is the secret of British taekwondo's emergence as a world power. One reason is that the enlightened use of funding has seen top-quality coaching brought in from overseas, notably one of the sport's greatest gurus, Professor Moon Won Jae, poached from Korea where he was the Angelo Dundee of his sport, an ace mentor and motivator who tutored 24 world champions and five Olympic gold medallists.


He has joined Nelson Miller, who comes from Cuba, via making Holland one of Europe's top nations, and two of the best English coaches, Steve Jennings (Stevenson's new husband) and Paul Green.

Another is that GB's performance director Gary Hall sought the advice of his renowned opposite number in cycling, Dave Brailsford, based just across the road from taekwondo's own Manchester HQ.

"Our programme very much follows that of cycling," says 47-year-old Hall, himself a former British international. "Dave has been something of a mentor. We are treading new ground all the time, the ground that cycling trod years ago, and Dave has always been willing to give us the benefit of his advice.

"The sport has moved on significantly over the last two years and this year has been the best yet. We've collected more golds than ever before and the players, working within the elite academy supported by UK Sport and Manchester City Council, are definitely going in the right direction.

"We have the best quality coaches and also the sports scientists and psychologists from the English Institute of Sport.

"We are currently in the process of moving headquarters to a new school academy in Manchester which will be a British first for an elite sports programme. We will also be moving to a new gym with the support of Sport England."

Taekwondo may require the deft footwork of the tango but it is the only Olympic sport where a kick in the teeth is not only permitted but positively encouraged, with a hit to the head worth double one to the torso.

"Knocking people out is part of the sport," says Jones. "After all, they are trying to do the same to me. When we went to Korea for a training camp I was beating a lot of the Koreans but I know there's a long way to go yet. The sport is my life now, I just love it."

"What Jade has done this year is just phenomenal," says Hall. "She's one of these characters who is never satisfied and always wants more – she is absolutely driven to be the best. She may be slightly built and is in a weight category [under 57kg] that is dominated by the East, but she has been to Singapore and Korea and beaten them in their own back yard. She has a very special ability and a great future ahead of her."


This is echoed by Stevenson (pictured). "Jade Jones has surprised me a lot. She has come a long way in a short time and to do so well at senior level at such a young age is amazing. She reminds me of myself when I was her age. She is quite slim but a real powerhouse and quite flexible. Because she's so light she can get her legs up to the head very easily, which is beneficial as these days you get more points for kicking to the head.

"She is getting much better now at controlling her nerves but even when she is nervous she manages to get in there and do it, just as I did. If I could do it at that age (17) without a lot of help, imagine what she can achieve with all the expert coaching and assistance physically and mentally that's available to us now. She will have a great future.

"Taekwondo has come on tremendously in this country and should really be challenging for those Olympic medals in 2012. But nothing is certain because it is not one of those sports where you can say the best is always going to win. A lucky kick to the head can change everything."

Jones says she realises the road to 2012 will be intensely competitive. "There are only two places available for girls and three of us are in contention – Sarah, Bianca and myself. I really look up to Sarah because she was the first British girl to win an Olympic medal. She has been very helpful to me and actually coached me in the junior worlds in Mexico. She was a great inspiration. I'd love to go on and do what she has done.

"I know I am quite small and I have to meet quite a lot of taller opponents but in this sport it doesn't matter about size if you have the ability to win."

You can be sure that Jones will be putting her best foot forward. And upwards. After all, a medal of any colour in London will be better than a kick in the teeth.

Talking of which, I gather there are quite a few head teachers would like to give me a good kicking. One even invited me to meet him in his study! Seems I stirred up a hornets' nest with my comments about the Government cuts to school sports funding.

Apologies again for neglecting to mention that the letter in The Times I quoted was from Barking Abbey School's former head of some years ago, not the current head.

Baroness Campbell (chair of UK Sport and the Youth Sports Trust) also tells me that the YST - whose future in under threat following education secretary Michael Gove's decision to end the ring-fencing of £162 million ($260 million) cash for schools sport - do not act as middle man in the distribution for School Sports Partnership projects.

Fair enough - I'll write out my lines while maintaining my view that worthy as it is, sport's funding, whether for schools, the community or the elite, should not be sacrosanct when virtually all aspects of society are taking a financial hit.

And I predict that while there will be no complete U-turn from the Government, Gove, who apparently acted without proper consultation with relevant parties, will be made to offer some sort of compromise following the mass protests. If not they should set our taekwondo toughies on him.

Alan Hubbard is an award-winning sports columnist for The Independent on Sunday, and a former sports editor of The Observer. He has covered a total of 16 Summer and Winter Olympics, 10 Commonwealth Games, several football World Cups and world title fights from Atlanta to Zaire.