John Hutton, 41, decided it was time he stepped up to the mark and learned the Korean martial art with daughters Laura, 19, and Amy, 15, and sons Joe, 13, and James, 10.

The family joined the Cowplain Taekwondo Academy in January 2006 as complete beginners and fought their way up the colour belt-rankings with ease from white, yellow, green, blue, red and finally black.

Despite reaching the top belt Mr Hutton says he still gets regularly beaten by his children.

'It's very strange to take on my daughter,' he said.

'James is in the junior class so I don't get to fight him unless we're at home, but it's an interesting experience getting beaten up by your daughter. All the children are very, very good so they tend to beat me.'

To graduate up the taekwondo skill levels, the Huttons, from Bedhampton, took exams in which they performed about 20 to 30 moves, as well as fighting other practitioners.

Some of the tests involved breaking a plank of wood with a single hand movement to demonstrate strength.

Laura said: 'Taekwondo is a brilliant stress buster especially during exam time. It's really good to work out on bags, spar with friends and beat up dad.'

Master of the Cowplain academy Brian Mitchelmore said: 'The academy has been established for over 18 years and in that time several thousand students have reached the coveted rank of black belt, but never have four siblings and their father made black belt together.'

Mr Hutton added: 'The kids have always been into martial arts.

'I didn't sign them up because I was worried about them being attacked or wanted them to beat anybody up, I was concerned about health and fitness and it's great for increasing confidence.

'It's an amazing achievement, especially for the girls. They have trained very hard two or three times a week for the past two and a half years.

'They inspire me, their commitment to it is great.'