Tag: kung fu

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A Conference With My Body

Steve Rowe

A conference with my body. Before I train I monitor my mental, physical and emotional state to present my case to my body on how I’m going to train during the day. My body has its own intelligence that I know I can rely on. As I start moving it immediately starts communicating in its own instinctive language that is my first (not second) language and directs the format. Some days it’s purely health, calming body, emotions and mind and when all excessive tension is gone, it opens, stretches, closes, compresses, twists and releases driving the energy through open channels. … Continue reading A Conference With My Body

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Why Being On A Programme Is Important

Steve Rowe

Martial art classes are so random because: It’s rare that the same people turn up each time. Even with lesson plans, to cater for a group that are at different places in their learning and have patchty attendance is difficult. Classes are generally treated more like gym training these days so a ‘workout’ tends to take precedence over skill learning. The teacher often teaches what they’re enthusiastic about or what the students want rather than what they need. My Tai Chi programme is so successful because: The programme is highly structured. The same people attend every month. They pay enough … Continue reading Why Being On A Programme Is Important

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How To Get ‘In The Zone’

Steve Rowe

The window of ‘maximum depth and efficiency’ in your training session. You cannot waste this precious time. In coaching and my Tai Chi Programme we talk about preparation and warm up for this phase, how to structure it and how cool down from it. The important thing to understand is that with practice, how deep, profound and insightful this window can be and why it’s important to recognise and not waste it. In our sessions we talk about ‘waiting for Tai Chi to arrive’ Tai Chi being the perfect balanced state. Preparing to train is important, the acts of hygiene, … Continue reading How To Get ‘In The Zone’

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The Left Hand Path

Steve Rowe

Walking the left hand path. There are those that loyally carry the treasure chest of their system from generation to generation. They will say “I teach exactly as I was taught”. Not every generation will have innovators that are capable of developing a system to make it better, so the carriers have an important role until someone can unlock the chest, penetrate the ideas of the system and make them better.. These are the people that walk the left hand path. They take the instructions and then practice and internalise the skills until they become them, but don’t stop there. … Continue reading The Left Hand Path

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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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Everyone Has A Story

Steve Rowe

As the government turns on people with disabilities, removing independence payments and most importantly social help of all kinds, no one can understand the full import of what becoming disabled means. We all have a different story and I’m lucky that I’m still able to work and support myself, with a lot of family, friends and students around me to help. Others are not so lucky. Having been an independent, fit, strong career martial artist for most of my life, becoming disabled and losing my leg meant that I lost 95% of my life. If asked if I would rather … Continue reading Everyone Has A Story

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It’s A Matter Of Perpective

Steve Rowe

Was giving a private lesson to Kieran Evans yesterday and we were discussing perspective. I asked him if he was the centre of the universe or just a part of it. We often talk about how we are like a wave on the sea, we arise from the source, are separate but still made from it and when our body dies we return to it. The Tao Te Ching states ‘the space between heaven and earth is like a bellows, the shape changes but not the form”. But what if we turn that on its head? What if we are … Continue reading It’s A Matter Of Perpective

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Legacy In Martial Arts

Steve Rowe

As they age I think most martial art teachers wonder what will happen to their club and teachings when they pass. Legacy has changed as martial arts have moved from east to west and integrated. No longer do we have a style passed through family or club as the idea of ‘family’ and ‘secrets’ has largely been shown to be false and not work. It’s rare that sons and daughters carry the talent of an originator and even if they do, for it to go down through more generations is almost impossible. There are no secrets, as the formula for … Continue reading Legacy In Martial Arts

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Moving Chi

Steve Rowe

‘There is stillness in movement and movement in stillness’ – Yang Chen Fu This skill can be used in ALL martial arts, adding the internal to the external. Neigong (inner work)In stillness, (meditation and standing postures) we learn to open our body, opening the joints, fascia, lungs and empty spaces filling them with chi energy. We attach and harmonise our mind to our energy and breath (Sanchin, Saamchin) using our attention and intention to ‘follow our breath’ we stimulate and move the energy around the body. In the standing postures we learn to use intelligent and alchemised emotion to colour … Continue reading Moving Chi

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The Magic Jian

Steve Rowe

We study the names of the jian (Chinese double edge sword) techniques in great depth. The jian is the ‘magical’ sword in Chinese culture (a bit like King Arthur’s Excalibur) and the names carry the mythology and cultural stories that go along with it, and most importantly, tell us the ‘spirit’ and mindset that the techniques are done with. They are poetic, they include real and mythological creatures, they are shamanistic as we take on the spirits of various types of dragons, gods, swallows, cats, wasps, phoenix, wild horses, lions, tigers, rhinos, apes, celestial beings and observe and copy everyday … Continue reading The Magic Jian