Tag: kung fu

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What’s In It For Me?

Steve Rowe

  I hate the ‘what’s in it for me’ people. I love the people that support their family, club, association, charities and community. I love the students and instructors that support seminars, tournaments and courses and enjoy both the learning and social aspects of the gatherings. I love the Instructors that take all the right qualifications and continue their professional development. Those that register, licence and insure their students and are confident enough and not afraid to let them attend association and other seminars to widen their perspective. So many are happy enough to take their student’s money but are too … Continue reading What’s In It For Me?

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Being A Good Student

Steve Rowe

We often talk about what makes a good Instructor and what makes a good club, but what happens when we turn that on it’s head and ask what makes a good student? The one thing that I discovered was that if I knew how to be a good student I could get far more out of my Instructors than anybody else and that as an Instructor I am far more inclined to teach a good student thoroughly than a bad one. The inescapable facts are that many Instructors don’t get to choose their students, sometimes they teach because they feel … Continue reading Being A Good Student

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Keep Your Child Safe!

Steve Rowe

VERY IMPORTANT! This is the time of the year that children are going up a school, from Infants to Junior and importantly from Junior to Senior and Senior to University. Parents in their infinite wisdom decide that their children will have more homework and often drop their martial arts training and teenagers going to university often move away from the area of their club and don’t bother to find a new one. THIS IS A BIG MISTAKE! Why? The children going from Junior to Senior school will need to move up in their martial arts club to the adult training; … Continue reading Keep Your Child Safe!

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Stop Bullying!

Steve Rowe

Stop Bullying! I get very worried looking at a lot of social media posts by martial art instructors who have never undergone the holistic training of traditional martial arts and are still stuck in the neanderthal, excitable and violent mindset that the only way to deal with bullying is to become like the bully and hit them.  I grew up in that mindset on a South London Council Estate and would probably in prison for violence now if it hadn’t been for traditional martial arts.  For the past 45 years I have taught extensively in the education system, to police … Continue reading Stop Bullying!

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Mindfulness

Steve Rowe

  MINDFULNESS Our use of the word ‘mind’ in English can be quite versatile.  As a noun it describes our awareness, consciousness and thought, as a verb it can mean ‘to take care of’ like in ‘mind the child’ or when getting on a train ‘mind the gap’, so to be ‘mindful’ is to increase our awareness and consciousness and to take care of our thinking and feelings. So we ‘mind the mind’, we take care of it.  All the time we remain mindful, we are watching our thoughts, emotions and actions and this act in itself is life changing. … Continue reading Mindfulness

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Back To Front Martial Arts

Steve Rowe

  I think I live in an alternate universe. Or everyone else in the Martial Arts does. I see Instructors putting together their training/grading syllabus… “Erm, for red belt we’ll do this… for yellow this…. for orange this….” They do one set of techniques for basics, different moves in a form that don’t relate to the basics and then different pairs work that doesn’t relate to either basics or form. And I’m like…..”That’s not only back to front – it doesn’t make sense!” I ask, “what’s the end result you’re looking for at black belt and above?” And guess what…. … Continue reading Back To Front Martial Arts

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Compassion

Steve Rowe

  Compassion The human race cannot survive without compassion. It’s what joins us, makes us work together to resolve our problems and evolve.  As the World is becoming more insular, as we separate ourselves from and demonise groups of people, becoming inured to their suffering we are evolving in the wrong direction and ensuring our mutual destruction. Compassion is to be able to see clearly into the nature of suffering and not be separate from it.  Compassion is itself untainted, it cannot be attached to an outcome, it’s enemies are pity, moral outrage and fear – it transforms suffering. Meditation … Continue reading Compassion

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Rules To Live By…

Steve Rowe

Some of Steve Rowe’s Rules Of Life – 1. Don’t make friends easily. 2. ALWAYS work on your mind and perspective 24/7. 3. Always pay your way and live within your means. 4. If you help somebody, do it because it’s right not to make them indebted to you. 5. People you’ve helped will often stab you in the back, don’t let it become your problem. 6. People you’ve taught will often never give you credit – mostly that’s a good thing because that kind of student rarely gets it right. 7. Judge everyone by their actions not their words. … Continue reading Rules To Live By…

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Inside Out

Steve Rowe

How do you want people to treat you? Then treat them the same way. You want respect? Then give it and earn it. You want people to see you as a good martial artist? Then work hard and become one. You want respect as a martial arts coach? Then act like one. You want to be treated as an adult? Then behave like one. You want the coach to teach you well? Then be a good student. I study people and most can’t see the obvious. They complain about their treatment, That they’re not treated with respect, That they’re not … Continue reading Inside Out

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I See You

Steve Rowe

I see you…. Because I meditate and practice neigong, I see you, I see the savage beast when the mask slips, Maybe only for a second, But I see you. I also see the angel, When you have pure altruistic compassion, When you really care; When your caring is free from fear or pity, When there is no desire for an end result, That’s when your angel is looking through your eyes. My unfettered mind see’s how you wear your body; The tension borne from fear, The bowed head, the lazy slouch, The jutting chin and darting eyes; The deepest … Continue reading I See You