Why the L-step could be your secret weapon

Step back.

Take a lateral step.

Universal advice.

In boxing it’s an L-step, in other spaces it might be called re-something… reframing, refocus, reset – name your re. The point of an L-step is to evade or cut off your opponent. It helps reduce the pressure and you can capture more intel. It can buy you time to consider options, and set up attacks. Best of all, the L-step negates an attack and helps you turn defense into offense.

Three months into 2025, I’m enjoying the power and possibility of the L-step. It applies both in the ring and in my career. I took an L-step on my cyber journey and joined The Safer Internet Project to learn about and work on my skills and knowledge in penetration testing and ethical hacking. It also seemed like an avenue to join a new network and explore what freelancing in the space looks like. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m curious by nature and although I love technology and learning, I do not come from a technical background. I didn’t study CS. I spent a chunk of my career split between the not for profit sector and then in exercise science and digital communications. Cybersecurity is a great and brave new world for me.

I joined SIP as I was seeking a proactive way to get some hands on experience and to join a different community. As an aside, I’ve always rebelled against the push to ‘surround yourself with likeminded people’ My experience has taught me it can create an echo chamber and, in the worst instances, toxicity.

There is both beauty and discomfort in leaning into different ideas and approaches and being around people who have very different lived experiences. In this environment, empathy can develop and our own ideas, skills and self-belief can evolve.

If I had chosen to surround myself only with likeminded people I would not have joined AWSN, a CTF team or SIP.

The L-step concept was incepted some time ago when I saw GGG (legendary Kazakh boxer Gennady Golovkin) use it. However, it wasn’t until this year – when I began working with a new coach in my new gym back in January (2025 feels simultaneously whippet fast and achingly slow and torturous if you’re on orange watch and give a flying about human rights…) – that I began to learn and apply it. This week I saw the applicability in cyber.

Regardless of the domain, I think the L-step is an important tool as it opens up new possibilities. You can leverage the L-step to literally circle and evade your opponent and it simultaneously provides an opportunity to take some breaths and see new vulnerabilities to exploit. It’s dynamic and fluid, and it feels nice to execute it.

As a SIP member, I have the opportunity to work through modules and jump in on a host of weekly Zoom sessions and CTF’s, but perhaps best of all I can sit in on work with real clients; to see in real-time how a penetration test is conducted and have the ability to ask questions on processes and approaches has been invaluable. It’s been surprising to see how many tools I’ve been exposed to courtesy of CTF’s and through self-study pop up, and to discover how vital OSINT skills are.

So, as I zero in on the final weeks of prep for my second and last boxing match (for the foreseeable future anyway, as I have a miler to train for) and lean into my hands-on learning journey with the SIP community, I would encourage you – if you are feeling stuck or uninspired, or questioning your pathway – to consider an L-step.

The worst that could happen is that you simply circle back to where you started and return to your stance.