Taking Notes I get all my students on my programmes to take their own notes. I give them a standard set and support videos but in each session they get a lot of instruction that’s not in the standard notes and is individual to them. Hand writing it means that it goes deeper into their minds and is aways accessible to them. Continue reading Taking Notes
I think only a small group of interested people read my explanations of the Tao Te Ching each day and I have been asked why I bother to do them and post them on here. For me the book was literally life changing and I still refer to it on a daily basis more than 50 years later. Every passage I analyse gives me added insights and understandings as I evolve, I’m amazed at depths that I’ve missed again and again. I often thought that the writer or writers were repeating themselves or maybe the translators weren’t seeing the hidden … Continue reading Why I’m Explaining The Tao Te Ching
Now available on Amazon. https://amzn.eu/d/g4rwaTT Continue reading Insights by Steve Rowe
Most of social media is designed to lead you astray, particularly in the martial arts and some of the worst manipulators (whether they know it or not) are those that train and teach our arts. First of all YOU ALREADY KNOW IT so you don’t need ‘teachers’ telling you that you don’t understand and it takes years of training etc. they are laying smoke screens and diverting you from seeing what you should already know naturally. Every mammal is born with this inner knowing, look at cats, dogs, monkeys, tigers and so on, even humans when they’re ’in the zone’ … Continue reading You Already Know It!
Let’s talk a little bit about ‘lineage’. What we’re really talking about is what’s passed down from a teacher or teachers, what the quality of that teaching is and whether the student learned or understood what they’re taught and then what they can add to that. The hours spent arguing about lineage in Tai Chi is crazy and most people arguing about it have the worst Tai Chi I’ve ever seen. The only way you ever know the quality of a person’s Tai Chi is understanding the depth of their character and by crossing hands with them. Everything else is … Continue reading Let’s Talk About Lineage
Is a Tai Chi technique of stepping back to remain powerful with structural integrity and ‘politely’ pushing the monkey god of mischief away. We don’t want to invite mischief into our life so we ensure to repulse him politely and gently. This is a strategy of life. We are always encouraged to be active and push forwards, to attack and conquer both others and ourselves. But it’s not always the best action. Sometimes it’s better to step back, it doesn’t mean that we have to be weaker, we can keep our structural integrity, take a wider perspective to see things … Continue reading Retreat And Repulse Monkey
The passing down of mistakes and bad practice is what destroys martial arts. When asked why something is taught, to answer “because that’s how I was taught” is lazy and a cop out. I ask my students to not believe a word I say, but to pay attention to what I teach, then practice it enough and challenge it to see if it works. If they can’t make it work to come back and discuss and experiment with it here. It’s the only way they can fully understand what I’m teaching and it’s how we all evolve how to learn … Continue reading Don’t Believe Anything
Zhan Zhuang, the 5 Standing Postures There is lower and upper yin, lower and upper yang and neutral. In my system they play an important role, they train:BreathingPostureMental awarenessFocusSensitivityIntensityLeft and right harmonyUpper and lower body harmonyHow to use these skills to move energy around the bodyHow to use emotion to colour energyDifference between yin and yang energy Being sensitive and skilful with energy means that we don’t just stand for long periods but as the energy ‘peaks’ in each position we transition to another as this is what happens all the way through the Tai Chi form and when push … Continue reading The 5 Standing Postures
One of the things that came out on the seminar yesterday was the importance of the structure of learning, putting in the important base layers right from the start. We all advertise and discuss the importance of character training in the martial arts and yet many don’t teach how to educate and alchemise the character and only make vague references to it. We should look to the teacher and their senior students to see how the training system has worked for them. The most important base layer is emotional intelligence, as an angry or frightened martial artist is a danger … Continue reading The Base Layer Of Learning
Tai Chi is ‘simple and easy’, it’s only one thing that we view through many different windows to increase our understanding. The first aware breath you take in neigong makes you better than you were before you took it. Your first lesson where you’re taught to ‘stand tall, breathe deep and focus your mind’ makes you better than before you attended. It makes you feel better, healthier, more happy and positive. From that point on you can only improve these skills. Always practice with an inner smile knowing that you can only get better. It takes years to ‘master’ musical … Continue reading Tai Chi Is Simple And Easy
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