From Dill Young – Karate Instructor
I was introduced to Steve Rowe many years ago through the pages of Combat and Traditional Karate magazines. His insights and subject matter always interested me and stood out from the crowd. I finally got to meet and train under him on his regular summer school during the mid to late 90’s in Chatham. Over the years I have had the pleasure of studying with him on and off as I pursued my Karate career to the present day, training in most of the major systems including trips to Okinawa.
From Carl Jephcote – Wing Chun Sifu….
A few years ago I was introduced to Sifu Steve Rowe, who luckily for me, accepted me as a private student.
Little did I know how much this ‘down to earth’ knowledgeable guy would impact my life.
When he put together the Shi Kon Tai Chi Coaching Programme I jumped at the chance.
The well structured course far exceeded my expectations.
On a personal note, my health and wellbeing have improved dramatically as a result and I have a far deeper understanding of the internal aspects of my own art of Wing Chun.
I have also been running a successful Shi Kon Tai Chi class with the help and guidance from Sifu Steve.
If you are looking to improve your health and your chosen art, I highly recommend that you get in touch with Steve and sign up for the next course, you will not regret it.
From Mikey Wright – Systema Instructor…
I was fortunate to start training privately in Tai Chi with Sifu Steve Rowe a few years ago after years of following his teaching and philosophy online.
Steve’s depth of knowledge and structured, principle based approach to martial arts is in my mind virtually unmatched.
The Shi Kon Tai Chi coaching program has given me the information, skills and confidence to now offer Tai Chi as part of my offering as a martial arts coach.
I chose to continue my development Under Steve and his team on the 2 year advanced coaching course which started this year and look forward to many more years learning and training under his mentorship.
I highly recommend the Shi Kon Tai Chi coaching program to anyone looking to broaden their skill base and offering.
From Wayne Challoner-Keough – Karate Instructor
Wayne Challoner Keough took the 2018 programme and is now running successful classes in his karate club and is now on the advanced programme. This is his story.
I started training with Steve Rowe around 4 years ago, straight away I knew that Tai Chi was what I had been looking for in my martial arts journey.
I had practised Karate for around twenty years and since starting tai chi both myself and others have noticed the difference in how I move and the connections I am able to make when both training and teaching.
Last year I made the decision to take part in the level one Tai Chi coaching programme with Steve, it was the best decision I have ever made. I have found a new passion alongside my karate and I have now opened my own Tai Chi classes in the Walsall area. I am teaching people and they leave feeling positive.
I would highly recommend the course to anyone, in my opinion there is no one better to learn from than Steve Rowe. I have just started the level two course and I can honestly say that I am looking forward to what’s in store.
From Keith Collyer – Wing Chun Sifu and Krav Maga Instructor
“I have been training and teaching martial arts for over 20 years and as I have got older looked at training and teaching a system that can have some longevity, so I can teach and benefit from the wealth of health benefits into my old age.
I have followed Steve’s Rowe’s posts and read articles his written over the years, so when he put together the Shi Kon coaching program I thought this the ideal opportunity to train with such an experienced martial artist.
I thoroughly enjoyed the Tai Chi coaching program, and love the depth that this art has, also the way the course is presented and taught, with great assistants there to guide you and assist Steve’s fantastic instruction.
To me, learning the application for techniques reafirms and helps me learn, Steve has so much in depth Knowelege that you get this in abundance and apart from learning the many other benefits Tai chi can give you the martial applications are there which are often not taught in other Tai Chi Systems.
It has also helped in other areas and enhanced the other arts I teach so a no brainier if you all ready teach or want to start something new.
I enjoy the sessions so much that I have joined the level 2 programme so I can look forward to the monthly training with a great bunch of fellow martial artists and have something to train that’s more for ‘ myself’ though I am looking forward to opening my class very soon.
Thoroughly recommended.”
From Matt Hudd – Lau Gar Sifu
I have been studying under Sifu Steve Rowe as a long distance student since 2013, Steve is a very knowledgeable and experienced martial artist and the sort of person you could listen to for hours.
Going back to my first seminar and any other time I have trained with him any confusion I had about the arts was cleared up and I would have loads of eureka moments. Things would just fit into place, even in my own art. It isn’t necessarily about his style or your style, I’ve never trained in Karate and had done little Tai Chi at that time but Steve’s principles and teachings fit into any style of fighting.
Because of the 4 hours’ drive from my home town of Hereford to Chatham and my own clubs’ commitments, I was finding it hard to get to train with Steve, it was frustrating and slow gaining the knowledge I wanted that he so freely gives. Therefore, I didn’t have to think twice when Steve invited me to attend his Tai Chi Coaching Programme.
Since starting it, my whole martial arts training and teaching skills have dramatically improved, beforehand, I was just dipping into Steve’s training and taking away what I could, but the Tai Chi Programme starts at the beginning and as I have mentioned previously, it fits together and makes sense as the course continues.
Now I am doing level 2, it is so obvious why Steve teaches the way he does. His own years of training under great masters is evident and he has developed a formula to teach that is structured and layered. I believe that anybody that says that they are a true martial artist needs to be on this course, it will bring about a new meaning to your own art.
On a final note, for me martial arts is all about personal development, take away the martial aspect of this course and it is also up there with the top personal development courses that I have done, in today’s society where it is all about material items and social media, we need to be able to look into ourselves and work from the inside out. Steve teaches you all this and more at an affordable price.
I am truly humbled and will be eternally grateful for all the knowledge and wisdom that Steve has given me. This course really will change your life!
From Jeremy Hicks
After completing Steve Rowe’s Shi Kon Tai Chi Coaching course last year, and benefiting physically and emotionally, in both my training and my personal life, it was obvious to join the Advanced Coaching programme this year.
Even this early in the course it’s extraordinary the extra depth and layers, in Tai Chi, that Steve and his team are teaching us. Showing, demonstrating and explaining techniques, moves and concepts in a pragmatic, open way that leaves you hungry to achieve what you’ve been shown and understanding why and how the techniques are done in a certain way and why they work. No ‘smoke and mirrors’, but sometimes it does seem like magic.
From Robert Musil Czech Republic
I was unlucky enough to be born in early eighties behind the Iron Curtain in what is now the Czech Republic. On the other hand, I was lucky enough to live through fall of the Iron Curtain and through the ever so happy nineties, which brought peace and hope to Europe. For me personally, the fall of Iron Curtain brought one more thing in 1990 and that was Steve Rowe.Steve, (as I know him), was invited by my Father to teach the Police Self Defence Instructors, including some of our special services and Presidential Bodyguards and has done so for many years. In that time he has been a huge influence in the Martial Arts in the Czech Republic, is seen regularly on our sporting TV station, and 2 years ago he was awarded 9th Dan by our Martial Arts Governing body for the support and knowledge he has given us. His annual Summer School in Jizerka is a very popular event and will be 30 years old next year.He has always been willing to give his vast knowledge of Martial Arts and philosophy to us with a Buddhist spirit – and this quality actually brought something unique to our country at that time. It was given to us free of charge and free of any limits. He has introduced us to several martial arts under the Shi Kon International banner, namely Wado-Ryu Karate, Aikido, Iaido, Jodo and Shi Kon ‘Yang Style’ Tai Chi Chuan.
During my years of training with Steve (thirty by next year), I have grown old, made it through schools of all sorts, gained several World and European WKC Karate titles in kata, started my legal services carrier and become managing equity partner of a Czech legal subsidiary to the Europe wide consultant company VGD, member of Nexia Group, ranking as the fourth largest in Czech Republic for corporate transfer among such as KPMG or EY.
I trained in Karate with him from a small child and took up Shi Kon Tai Chi when I was 15 years old. Through continuous in-depth-training I have learned not only the external skills but also internal skills such as mindfulness, focus and the ‘soft cotton boxing’ strategies, not only in my training but to my entire life. Some of my friends, top ranked managers and business owners’ practice Shi Kon Tai Chi together with me and can easily testify to the positive impact it has to their everyday life and business.
Steve’s analytical approach to martial arts and his life philosophy has brought many benefits to our club, association and everyday life here in Czechia and helped all of us on what was a very hard journey from a nearly underground karate club in communist years in a country tested by the atrocities of national socialism, communism and soviet invasion, to one of the most outstanding and world wide recognised clubs in a free and prosperous society.
I strongly recommend Steve’s Shi Kon Tai Chi Coaching Programme to every martial arts coach who is serious about their study and teaching. I would also very strongly recommend it to every professional person who is serious about their personal development and looking to gain a competitive edge to their craft and more abundance and mindfulness in their practice.
Also I would like to contribute a personal bit. I am a huge fan of Robin Sharma’s 5AM Club and as such I do follow his 20/20/20 rule, where my very first pocket, starting at 5AM everyday with my Tai Chi exercise. It has really helped me to manage the huge stress levels that are connected with my line of business. If you are fan of 5AM Club or any other morning routine, I can only recommend adding Shi Kon Tai Chi to it.
From Gavin King Karate and Kung Fu Instructor
When I was a kid I used to read my Dad’s Martial Arts magazines. There was a column in one called “A Voice from the Deep” written by Steve Rowe. It was a series of tales about a wise Karate Sensei and life in his dojo. They weren’t stories simply about learning to kick or punch, but lessons about how martial arts had the power to transform lives. Those stories shaped my whole view of what studying martial arts should be and inspired me to take to the path of a life long student of the fighting arts and philosophies.
About 10 years ago my martial arts journey led me to have a private lesson with Steve and the entire direction of my life changed. Through Kung Fu, Tai Chi and Meditation Steve has guided me to becoming a full-time Instructor running my own full-time martial arts centre. But he’s become far more than that, he is a mentor, a counsellor, a business coach and most importantly one of my closest friends. No matter what he is always there for me for support, advice and friendship.
In a very short period of time, Steve has helped transform my life to the point where now every day is like one of his stories that inspired me as a child. He has helped me turn my passion into a way of life. When you study with Steve and the Shi Kon system you are not becoming a student, you’re joining a martial arts family. Being part of that family is the sole reason I have the life I have now.
I have trained in a range of Martial Arts over a period of 44 years – Karate, Iaido, Jodo, Kung Fu and Tai Chi, so have some experience in both Instructors and systems. From day 1, I have trained with Steve Rowe who has always encouraged (if not required) me to work with other Instructors and train in other Martial Arts.
I have been training in Martial Arts since 1983 when I joined our local Aikido club when I was 10 years of age. From the very first session I was hooked and joined the local Karate club and over time every other martial arts clubs and group that I could find locally. There weren’t that many around in those days but at one point I was at training at a club 7 days a week and on some days would train at one Dojo and then go to my Karate Dojo later in the evening, although at the time I couldn’t tell either one that I was doing this due to the club politics of the time! I got every book from the library that I could find since the internet didn’t exist and ordered in any that they could get. You could say that I became a little obsessed! I trained with some top level Japanese instructors and had a strong foundation, mainly in Karate, Aikido and Tai Chi.
In 1994 I first met Steve Rowe at one of our Black Belt gradings. Whilst he demonstrated the same techniques that I had learnt he presented them in a totally different way to anything that I had ever experienced. It was like someone had switched on the light in a darkened room and I could now see the direction that martial arts training could take me. Little did I know that the room had a door that once opened showed many more of those rooms!
He had a gentle manner about him and I had experienced this with top level masters before. Those that don’t need to prove themselves don’t make a point of doing so, but when you cross hands with them you know it! I had trained with and met so many high level martial artists over the years and taken a beating from many of them when I was still a teenager, but it was often just bullying stemming from their own insecurities. Steve was different. There was a great depth of knowledge and a desire and willingness to share it without ego. He was not out to prove anything but taught and spoke with a level of depth that I had never really seen elsewhere.
I started to attend Shikons monthly Sunday training sessions and joined them at the summer school in Chatham, Portugal and Czech. At these courses martial artists of all levels trained and when someone of a high level was there they also taught. Over the years, through training with Steve, I have been introduced to some very skilful practitioners who have shown mutual respect to Steve and his group. There was no holding back or not letting you see different ways of doing things, even what to an untrained eye may appear contradictory.
In 1996 I took my 3rd Dan with Steve and soon after started taking regular weekly or bi-weekly private lessons with him, which I continue to this day even though I now live 150 miles away! I have learnt so much over these years from Karate to Jodo to Tai Chi to meditation and healing. Steve has been instrumental in helping me to become both the person and martial artist that I am today. I am forever grateful for the time, wisdom, knowledge, skills, guidance and energy that he has given me and the impact he has had on my life and training. He has done this not by dictating what I should do and having expectations but by leading by example. Even with my experience I always hold a beginners mind and feel like a beginner in my lessons with him. If I didn’t I don’t think I would have continued to take lessons for so long. I am still learning and over the years I have watched Steve too continue to take lessons himself and develop the Shikon system. Steve leads by not just doing martial arts but by being a martial artist in every sense of the word. When I arrive for my private lessons he is always training as I walk in and over the years I have seen the ups and downs that he has faced and how he has had the wisdom and maturity to deal with them which has come from martial arts training.
The Shikon Tai Chi coaching program is the result of these years of experience. I cannot recommend it highly enough and if you thought that Tai Chi was just for old ladies and that the martial has been lost then prepare to have your eyes opened and the light switched on. Whatever martial art you have studied you will benefit, and if you are an old lady that wants to learn Tai Chi too then do not fear that the course is all macho because it really isn’t. You won’t be disappointed.
From TV producer of Mind Body & Kickass Moves and World Of Martial Arts TV Will Henshaw.
Who do I train with and why?
It’s very simple why I train with Steve Rowe. The first time we met in 2005 I watched him perform the tai chi form. His easy, loaded, intent filled, flowing movement was mesmerising and somewhat counter intuitive, for he transcended his frame, age and my expectations. I was intrigued and hoped to learn some of what he embodied. I presume my interest shone through as he offered to teach me. Since then his clear, insightful, patient martial arts tai chi teaching in weekly private lessons, and seminars has given me a training structure, informed my thinking and being in the world.
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