Month: April 2025

ArticlesLeave a comment

Selfies…

Steve Rowe

I was brought up in the 1950’s and 60’s when there was no mobile phones or computers and internet. The gym’s we trained in were mainly ‘spit and sawdust’ and full of natural testosterone. A ‘selfie’ would be a term used for someone abusing themself with ‘hand to gland’ combat in private. Posing scantily clad in front of a mirror, male or female would be ridiculed and you’d get thrown out being told to ‘grow up and put some clothes on’. To be honest, I still think that every time I see someone cavorting or posing like a 6 year … Continue reading Selfies…

ArticlesLeave a comment

Recovery & Rehab

Steve Rowe

It takes longer than you think to recover from injury, surgery, illness and grief. And you never fully recover, scarring and weakness can be physical, emotional and mental. And sometimes you never get better, only worse until you die. If you’ve always been healthy, often your mind and emotions think you’re healed even when your body hasn’t. Get back to normality as soon as possible, but it needs to be a new normal. Damaged and replacement joints are not like the original ones, illnesses like cancer and sepsis take a deep toll and grief has only eased, it never fully … Continue reading Recovery & Rehab

ArticlesLeave a comment

Moving Chi

Steve Rowe

‘There is stillness in movement and movement in stillness’ – Yang Chen Fu This skill can be used in ALL martial arts, adding the internal to the external. Neigong (inner work)In stillness, (meditation and standing postures) we learn to open our body, opening the joints, fascia, lungs and empty spaces filling them with chi energy. We attach and harmonise our mind to our energy and breath (Sanchin, Saamchin) using our attention and intention to ‘follow our breath’ we stimulate and move the energy around the body. In the standing postures we learn to use intelligent and alchemised emotion to colour … Continue reading Moving Chi

ArticlesLeave a comment

Abraxus the God of Effect

Steve Rowe

I remember journeying to Watkins books in Charing Cross Road in the 70’s to buy this book, unobtainable at the time from nowhere else. Apart from Tai Chi, Karate and Iaido, Zen, Buddhism and Taoism, I was also studying paganism, and ritual magic and had read Carl Jung’s ‘Memories Dreams and Reflections’ so this was a natural follow up as he had written it whilst being possessed by a spirit. As you can see from the screenshot the beginning very much followed the start of the Tao Te Ching using different terminology, but as you can see in the quote … Continue reading Abraxus the God of Effect

ArticlesLeave a comment

The Magic Jian

Steve Rowe

We study the names of the jian (Chinese double edge sword) techniques in great depth. The jian is the ‘magical’ sword in Chinese culture (a bit like King Arthur’s Excalibur) and the names carry the mythology and cultural stories that go along with it, and most importantly, tell us the ‘spirit’ and mindset that the techniques are done with. They are poetic, they include real and mythological creatures, they are shamanistic as we take on the spirits of various types of dragons, gods, swallows, cats, wasps, phoenix, wild horses, lions, tigers, rhinos, apes, celestial beings and observe and copy everyday … Continue reading The Magic Jian

ArticlesLeave a comment

Dying Dream

Steve Rowe

I was tired after a long day yesterday and sepsis fears must have been on my mind, but woke this morning from a deep dream. It must have been in around the 17th century and I was making a journey, where everyone was dressed in rags and the road was muddy and filthy, with a bedraggled army travelling the other way. For some reason I was hoping to not be recognised by them. One soldier driving a heavily laden donkey (he was about 40 yrs old dressed in rags, no uniform) starting dying from fatigue and could feel his life … Continue reading Dying Dream

ArticlesLeave a comment

Professional Help

Steve Rowe

When you need professional help. When we want to learn martial arts, if we are clever enough we do our due diligence and find a good coach. We check history, who they’ve successfully coached, qualifications and what kind of person they are. It’s a serious and can be a life altering decision. When we finally become a coach, running a club means we have to be able to deal with grading and training programmes, coaching qualifications, tournament programmes, property management, accounts, recruitment, managing others, student welfare, social media, AI, our own professional development, governing bodies, health and safety and so … Continue reading Professional Help

ArticlesLeave a comment

Your Belly Button Is Important!

Steve Rowe

Your belly button is important! Twisting the waist against the hips and releasing it is the biggest power source we have in the martial arts, but far too few practitioners are able to use it. When twisting the waist most practitioners turn either the hips or shoulders instead, either collapsing the knees and/or leaving the waist motionless. Kata like Naihanchi and exercises like Chan Si Jing in Tai Chi are structured to learn this skill. If you adopt an internally rotated stance like Naihanchi Dachi in Karate or Ma Bu in Tai Chi fixing the hips to face forward and … Continue reading Your Belly Button Is Important!

ArticlesLeave a comment

Club Demons

Steve Rowe

When an over enthusiastic person joins your club and tries to ingratiate themselves really quickly you have to be careful. Red flags can be: Being too friendly and trying to command attention in class. Using unnecessary titles to flatter you that you don’t use, like ‘Master’, ‘Shihan’ and attaching themselves to them on here like “my Tai Chi Master….” Volunteering to take on tasks and/or trying to form business partnerships using your background to their advantage. Trying to include you in their social life and pushing themselves into yours. Doing unnecessary favours without being asked. Gossiping to separate students and … Continue reading Club Demons

ArticlesLeave a comment

Fingering In The Martial Arts

Steve Rowe

Fingering in the Martial Arts Hands and fingers are really important in the martial arts. Our arms are tentacles, our hands are feelers on our tentacles and our fingers are our feelers on our feelers that are on our tentacles. Our palms are the ‘arches’ of our hands, our wrists the ‘ankles’ of our arms, elbows are the ‘knees’ and shoulders the ‘hips’, connecting through the body to our legs and feet and working in harmony with them. The nervous system and meridians of chi end and ‘bundle’ in the hands and fingers enabling us to have enormous sensitivity in … Continue reading Fingering In The Martial Arts