Tag: kung fu

ArticlesLeave a comment

Silk Reeling

Steve Rowe

It’s said that when silk is pulled from a cocoon, it comes out in a spiral. It has to be pulled gently with a continuous pressure so that it doesn’t break. In our Tai Chi, silk reeling means that we practice with a continuous unbroken spiralling motion. This means that all movement is curved with no weak spots, maintaining momentum and the opponent is deflected and unbalanced on impact. Pulling silk is lightly stretching and opening the joints and fascia to encourage the transmission of energy through the body with no stiffness or collapses. Continue reading Silk Reeling

ArticlesLeave a comment

Find Your Being

Steve Rowe

Look into the eyes of any animal and you can see an intense ‘being’ looking back at you. We forget our human ‘being’ and it tends to lie dormant whilst our convoluted survival mechanism subjects us to its fears and anxieties. But our ‘being’ instantly recognises itself in the eyes of the animals and intensifies, this deep recognition reminds us of who we really are and is the reason that any decent human loves animals and has a primal empathy with them. We can use this to enhance our ‘beingness’ in meditation and training. This is why martial arts uses … Continue reading Find Your Being

ArticlesLeave a comment

Beautiful Hands In Tai Chi

Steve Rowe

In Tai Chi we say that you should have beautiful, fluid, expressive hands. Fajin requires you to stimulate, store, release and discharge energy, for that transmission through the body requires loose, coordinated joints and soft tissue to bring the power to the hands, but it’s here that so many people lose it. The arches of the feet and palms of the hands are connected both physically and energetically, the drive from the feet with the loose joints and the body’s centre brings the bodyweight and momentum to the hands joining the energy released from the opening, closing, compressing and stretching … Continue reading Beautiful Hands In Tai Chi

ArticlesLeave a comment

Yield To A Good Teacher

Steve Rowe

Everyone wants to learn on their own terms. This is what holds them back. Remember those old Kung Fu movies where the kung fu monk wannabe would go to the temple and sit outside the gates for days before being accepted? They’d sweep the yard, scrub the floors and wash the others clothes for months to show commitment before being accepted. Even now, many students are abused, physically, mentally, sexually and financially by their ‘master’ because they wrongly assume that they’re going to get ‘the secrets’. Stupid eh? But….. the best way to really learn is to find a good … Continue reading Yield To A Good Teacher

ArticlesLeave a comment

8 Essential Bodycore Skills

Steve Rowe

I teach 8 bodycore skills that relate to all martial arts. They are: SoftenConnectOpenCloseStretchCompressTwistRelease We spend a lifetime studying these and are forever finding more depth. Softening without collapsing leads to connection throughout the body. Open and close are passive and a form of releasing, if you try to stretch or compress without going through these stages you will be stiff and awkward. Stretching without stiffening gives you the range to utilise stretching to encourage the flow of energy and compressing without collapsing does the same. Twisting is a form of both of these but deserves a separate study. Release … Continue reading 8 Essential Bodycore Skills

ArticlesLeave a comment

The Kung Fu of Tai Chi

Steve Rowe

10 hours of intensive private lessons over 2 days for 2 of my best Tai Chi students from the Czech Republic that I’ve known and taught for around 35 years. These kind of relationships are worth their weight in gold for both me and them. People often talk about the ‘secrets’ of Tai Chi and how the deeper teachings are ‘held back’ but the truth is that the students can only understand at a level that their study and training has taken them. All the ‘secrets’ are taught right at the beginning, but it takes decades for the student to … Continue reading The Kung Fu of Tai Chi

ArticlesLeave a comment

Pay Attention

Steve Rowe

To all you overthinkers…. I asked a student how long he meditated each day and he said “20 minutes”. I then asked him what he did while meditating and he replied ”I think about my breathing.” He wasn’t meditating, he was spending 20 minutes a day thinking…. He couldn’t differentiate between thinking and paying attention. Paying attention is mindfulness. And not for 20 minutes a day, but all day in everything we do. We think with the self, we pay attention with our consciousness. From paying attention and being mindful thinking slows down and insight and wisdom arise. “Mindfulness is … Continue reading Pay Attention

ArticlesLeave a comment

Shamanism & The Tiger…

Steve Rowe

This sits on the chest of drawers next to my bed. I was born in 1950 the year of the tiger, and it’s my 76th birthday next week. I also have a tiger tattoo on my upper arm and a painting of one in the Dojo. Tigers represent resolve, determination, strength, power, fluidity and ferocity, they are very special to me and an important Tai Chi animal, present along with the snake and crane in every technique. My kung fu is shamanistic and I take on the heart and spirit of these animals when I train. I see through the … Continue reading Shamanism & The Tiger…

Articles, Poems1 Comment

Own Your Mind

Steve Rowe

It’s important to take time and spaceTo be still and silentNo TVNo radioNo musicAnd no peopleStop filling your mind with crapEveryone else wants a piece of itIt’s too easy to give it awayMindlesslyBe stillBe silentTurn your senses inwardAnd find yourselfDiscover your powerOwn your own mindAnd don’t let anything or anyone inWithout filtering itDevelop your own locus of power. Continue reading Own Your Mind