Tag: chi

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Drawing Lines From Insight

Steve Rowe

Whilst meditating this morning my mind was connecting the chi to the breath. As I breathed in it moved it from the lower dantien through the coccyx, up the back, over the head where it collected between the in and out breath and as I breathed out I sank the chest to drain it down from the tongue back down to the lower dantien. I found myself naturally drawing the line with my hands in front of the body and that drew a mental image of the shape of Daruma meditating in the cave. (I wish I could draw, AI … Continue reading Drawing Lines From Insight

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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!

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Sneezing In Tai Chi

Steve Rowe

Sneezing in Tai Chi When we sneeze, there is an incredible build up of energy, a hover, then a powerfulrelease. This is the natural way our body works and we can use it in our Tai Chi practice. The lines in our body that we can use this skill in are called ‘jins’, to identify them we need to practice neigong (meditation and standing postures) to calm the body, mind and emotions and then qigong (energy work) exercises to understand the sources of power in the body created with movement. When we have practised these skills we can employ them … Continue reading Sneezing In Tai Chi

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The No Inch Punch

Steve Rowe

The No Inch Punch I’m writing about this because of all the arguments you read about ‘magic chi’ on the Tai Chi and Kung Fu pages. It started as a joke in the 80’s with the Bruce Lee ‘one inch punch’. I joked that I had a ‘no inch punch’ and demonstrated it to show how the ‘internal mechanism’ of power worked. By placing my fist on a student and applying pressure from the feet to the floor, turning the waist against the hips to release power and vibrating the hips to send power to the wrist, hammering and screwing … Continue reading The No Inch Punch

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2026 Shi Kon Tai Chi Coaching Programme

Steve Rowe

No Previous Experience Necessary.This one day a month for 10 months programme will be taught personally by Steve Rowe 9th Dan and his team of assistants, Steve is an internationally renowned Tai Chi teacher, Chairman and founder of Shi Kon Martial Arts International.  The programme has been running for 9 years and has qualified over a 100 coaches, it is designed to certificate and give Tai Chi Students the ability to teach Tai Chi and run and administer a club to a basic level standard. Participants will be registered with Shi Kon Martial Arts International Association and the British Council … Continue reading 2026 Shi Kon Tai Chi Coaching Programme

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Fingers & Thumbs In Tai Chi

Steve Rowe

Carrying on from my posts on cupping and flattening the palms of the hands to pump the energy and the power of mudras to manipulate it on discharge I thought I’d do a post on fingers and thumbs as they manipulate both. All these posts are on my blog. The thumb controls a large part of the hand and the ‘tiger’s mouth’ (the area between thumb and forefinger) and is used extensively for trapping and guiding the opponent. The forefinger ‘points’ and directs the hand and energy also stretching to work the other part of the tiger’s mouth. The middle … Continue reading Fingers & Thumbs In Tai Chi

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Qi – Our Life Force

Steve Rowe

The air we breathe and the food we eat gives us the energy to think, feel, move, and function. Our ability to harmonise the different manifestations of this energy, to use them intelligently and alchemise their harmony is the base of all martial arts study. We call the energy qi, the ability to look inwards and study it neigong (inner work), we exercise it by stimulating, storing and releasing it with qigong (energy work) we diversify that with solitary technical self defence of our health, skill and body with forms (kata) and apply it toward others with partner work. If … Continue reading Qi – Our Life Force

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Training With A Full Bladder

Steve Rowe

“You should train with a full bladder”. This was advice from my teacher. It took me a while to understand. The pubococcygeus muscle controls the urinary flow and coccyx and is the lower bridge between the governor and conception vessels promoting the flow of chi. But it doesn’t act alone. The spiralling of the feet to the floor opens the hips and raises the pelvic floor the tightening of the PC muscle in this movement bows the bottom part of the spine helping to connect the 3 bows of the body (legs, spine and arms) connecting, stimulating, storing and releasing … Continue reading Training With A Full Bladder

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Releasing Energy

Steve Rowe

Understand how the body naturally builds up and releases energy and you understand how to use it in qigong and Tai Chi. This also applies to the internal energy in all martial art technique. Your morning stretch is different to your exercise stretches. This is because you build up your energy in your stretch and then release it to wake up. Notice the feeling that goes with the release. You do the same when you sneeze, yawn, when you go to the loo, when you ejaculate and even when dealing with emotion and pain. Understand this and you go a … Continue reading Releasing Energy