Tag: martial arts

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Tai Chi Is A Martial Art

Steve Rowe

Yang style Tai Chi is a ‘standard’ form of Chinese Kung Fu. It is a distillation of other arts and the techniques and principles are clearly recognisable in both Chinese and Japanese arts. Every hand shape in the gold standard Yang Chen Fu form and the internal mechanisms that work them can be found in a good version of Tensho (Rokkishu) kata that also has its origins in White Crane Kung Fu. Every technique in the form can be effectively used through the ‘gates’ of the arms generally can be applied in locking, throwing, blocking, striking, strangling, choking, cavity pressing, … Continue reading Tai Chi Is A Martial Art

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Shamanism In Tai Chi

Steve Rowe

Shamanism in Tai Chi. We focus mainly on the snake, crane and tiger, these 3 animals are within every technique in a variety of ways. Snake is bound to the earth, our primalenergies and reptilian brain. It represents our qi energy, the way we move against the earth, the way we ‘coil’ bonelessly in movement, wrap around the opponent and escape grips and holds. It also represents the ‘spit’ and venom of a sudden attack. Tiger represents our mammalian energies, our powerful intention, qi projection, bone, tendon and muscular power, our structural integrity in framing our body, tearing techniques and … Continue reading Shamanism In Tai Chi

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Why I Choose A Dojo v Gym

Steve Rowe

Why I choose a Dojo over a Gym. A Dojo is a community of mutual support. Respect and dignity are paramount. We learn how to discipline the mind, develop emotional intelligence, relate to each other and develop a vigorous health that’s fit for purpose as opposed to vanity. Martial Art training is a fun way to learn these skills rather than the ‘punishment’ we tend give to ourselves in a gym for not matching media expectation. They can be practiced anywhere without the need of expensive equipment. Classes are not random, grades and syllabus are specific so we always know … Continue reading Why I Choose A Dojo v Gym

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Psychic Vampires…

Steve Rowe

Some people are like vampire spiders sitting in the middle of their web of misery waiting to capture any unwilling victims. They will manipulate situations and conversations that will trap you into their miserable unhappy life and you’re caught before you realise it. The first defence is to realise that they are out there, darkening a room when they enter and sucking the life out of it, the second is to develop your ‘spidey senses’ so that you don’t unwittingly walk into their web. They hate happy, well balanced people and environments and will do their utmost to to destroy … Continue reading Psychic Vampires…

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I’m A Man’s Man

Steve Rowe

I’m a man’s man. We don’t show pain.Not physical, emotional or mental.We don’t accept help of any kind.We’d rather die than ask. We aren’t afraid of getting hurt in a fight.We are afraid of being beaten.We don’t read instructions or maps.We’d rather die than not be the breadwinner. All emotion is sucked inward.It comes out as silence or rage.You can’t make us talk about them.You can’t make us express them. We just don’t have the capacity.We’re a dying breed.Often through passive suicide.Because we also don’t go to the doctor.Better to die early before we need assistance.Or get frail, or useless. … Continue reading I’m A Man’s Man

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Do I Want My Youth Back?

Steve Rowe

Insight while training this morning… Thank goodness the morning nausea has gone (except fort the day of the Tensho seminar 🤷‍♂️), but I still wake up with chronic fatigue, meaning that even my morning wash and dressing has to be done in stages with rests between each stage, followed by a rest with coffee and toast before I can train. Tai Chi opens my spine, deep front line and through the connection, all the joints and myofascia. Despite the underlying fatigue and pain from the surgeries, amputation, cancer treatment and chronic arthritis in all of my body, the training makes … Continue reading Do I Want My Youth Back?

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History Of Our Dojo Building

Steve Rowe

The history of our Dojo building: An Uphill Struggle by Brian JoyceReaders familiar with Chatham Hill will be aware of the martial arts centre part way up on the south­west side. What they perhaps don’t know is that the site was used for religious purposes for about two hundred years. In the early nineteenth century, the families living on the Hill had a dubious reputation. Looking back in 1873, the Chatham Observer felt that: “there has always been…a moral element on Chatham Hill very difficult to subjugate; a wild, fitful, bohemian sort of spirit, often breaking out unexpectedly and requiring … Continue reading History Of Our Dojo Building