Tag: karate

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Your Body Knows Best

Steve Rowe

Back on the antibiotics for infection in my knee and have all the side effects of bad stomach, pain in all my arthritic joints, fatigue and a bit of nausea so my morning training took a strange turn. You know how when you do your morning stretch it’s different to a ‘training’ stretch? I often refer to it in qigong because it has a ‘stimulate, store and release’ quality to the energy. Well, today my body spontaneously did it in every tai chi technique and it alleviated a lot of the side effects of the antibiotics. Sometimes our bodies know … Continue reading Your Body Knows Best

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Mudras & Martial Arts

Steve Rowe

Every Tai Chi and Karate body and hand ‘attitude’ and shape can be considered a mudra. Mudras are internal actions, involving the pelvic floor, spine, joints, cavities, diaphragm, throat, eyes, tongue, anus, genitals, abdomen, and other parts of the body and the energy of these actions are then expressed through the hands. In Tai Chi it is said that’s its important to have ‘beautiful hands’. All the hand shapes in Tai Chi are categorised in the Karate kata ‘Tensho’ also known as ‘Rokkisho’, ‘Heavenly Palms’ or ‘Spirit Hands’. The ‘6 Hands’ of Tensho represent the ‘5 Animals’ and are grafted … Continue reading Mudras & Martial Arts

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Don’t Overtrain

Steve Rowe

I think I overtrained yesterday, by the time I went to bed, everything hurt and this morning everything is sore and due to low testosterone from the cancer hormone therapy, radiation and age, emotionally fragile. So morning training has to be ‘small frame’ and ‘double meditation’ to heal. The 8 core skills are soften, connect, open, close, stretch, compress, twist and release, so small frame meant that I didn’t use stretch and compress meaning no fajin. This meant that I moved the energy around the body and kept it in to nourish it and heal ‘monk’ style. Double meditation means … Continue reading Don’t Overtrain

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The Art Of ‘Preframing’

Steve Rowe

Running a successful martial arts club. It’s important to understand the art of ‘preframing’ on all is levels. Recruiting lots of people with inaccurate adverts ‘because they work’ will give you high recruitment but also high attrition levels, by explaining exactly what you teach and what the outcomes are is important to filter your potential students and so you don’t have to waste both your time and theirs. More importantly it will reach the potential students you want who might be put off by your ‘catch all’ advertising. It seems that most club owners haven’t thought out exactly who and … Continue reading The Art Of ‘Preframing’

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The Top Of The Mountain

Steve Rowe

Anyone training in the martial arts needs to educate and alchemise their body, mind and emotions. There are only so many ways they can effectively do this. If they train to fight, they have to train the body and also their health, including the emotions and mind. If they train for health or skill the same also applies, so whatever the reason, to reach the top of the mountain. the route has to contain the same basics. The mountain can have many paths, soft, hard, internal, external, different arts and styles, but when they reach the top, they have to … Continue reading The Top Of The Mountain

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Using Both Sides Of The Brain To Learn

Steve Rowe

We spent a lot of time yesterday ‘learning how to learn’, understanding how differently the left and right brain learns and how both are useful. Learning in words, in a linear logical method is essential and the most useful way of starting, once the sequence is internalised the mind can easily become distracted or lazy, at this point we need to go deeper, increasing our awareness, focus, sensitivity and intensity until we are eventually studying micro moments and connections. We also need to learn by ‘direct transmission’ and this depends on the relationship between teacher and student, it’s wordless and … Continue reading Using Both Sides Of The Brain To Learn

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Knowing Yourself

Steve Rowe

I’ve never been comfortable with titles, grades, certificates and awards. Nothing against them, they’re just not for me. I haven’t turned grades down from people I respect but have upset and subsequently fallen out with people that run awards ceremonies because I wouldn’t associate with them or accept their awards. I know who and what I am so don’t need recognition from others, I know what I’m both good and bad at and that sometimes I’m a twat with an awful sense of humour. I don’t like to put anything between myself and those I teach so I’m not a … Continue reading Knowing Yourself

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A Good Teacher

Steve Rowe

Find a good teacher that has the knowledge you need.Then yield to that teacher so there are no barriers.Don’t challenge the teachings until you understand them properly.That understanding needs to be internalised with sufficient practice .Then challenge everything in a polite, intelligent way until it’s proven.Keep challenging it as there will undoubtably be hidden depths each time you return to it.Ask questions as a good teacher will be happy that you’re interested.Questions help a teacher to improve the way they teach.Challenge, question, but don’t argue as that will immediately break the teacher/student connection.If you feel the need to argue with … Continue reading A Good Teacher