Tag: martial arts

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Teaching Children To Meditate

Steve Rowe

Teaching children to meditate. Children have to be taught in a different way to adults, it should be threaded through their normal training. To ask them to just sit or stand still without proper instruction will make them uncomfortable and not want to do it. Mindfulness is taught through posture and breath to induce calm and included in all slower technical learning by also getting them to focus on one aspect of the movement. This way it becomes a normal aspect of their training. Children can sit or lay down in good posture and breathe naturally but a bit more … Continue reading Teaching Children To Meditate

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Enemies Of The Mind

Steve Rowe

The mind is the hardest and most important ‘muscle’ in the body to train. Nothing can be achieved without training it. The 2 enemies of the mind are laziness and distraction and this applies to both coaches and students. How many times do you correct the same points on the same students for months and even years and yet they still don’t make the correction themselves each time they move? That’s right – unconscious laziness. They think they are ‘training’ when they should be paying attention. How many times does the coach look at the student and not do the … Continue reading Enemies Of The Mind

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Happiness

Steve Rowe

Happiness In this life you either decide to be happy or not.  Every morning when I wake up I deliberately press my inner ‘happy button’ to remind me that it’s my choice to be positive about life and happy. When I look into the mirror I smile – even with my old wrinkly countenance it looks infinitely better wearing a smile.  And the eyes twinkle with a genuine smile raising ‘positive chi’.  Anyone is better looking with a smile and a twinkle in their eye and definitely more pleasant to be with. We are not independent but interdependent.  We are … Continue reading Happiness

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Why I’m Different

Steve Rowe

It took me a long time to find myself, to realise that I think differently to most other people. Never got on with family or at school, always the outsider. It was only when ‘Kung Fu’ came on the TV in the ’70’s that I found Buddhism, was already training in Karate and working in security to find an outlet for my inner violence, but in Taoism, Zen and Buddhism I found myself, I found peace. I could stop hurting other people and myself.   Without ‘Kung Fu’ and the underlying philosophy I don’t where I would be. I’m right … Continue reading Why I’m Different

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Why Tai Chi Is Losing The ‘Martial’

Steve Rowe

We are in danger of losing real Tai Chi. Whilst many practice for the health benefits, few still teach the martial. Many that do either try to to make it ridiculously ‘magical’ or they apply their other martial skills to applications, but in doing so are losing the unique skills that make it special. The combination of peng and sung give Tai Chi continuous structural integrity and root. The continuous spiralling and internal system gives the ability to receive an opponent in a combination of the 13 dynamics, disrupting their structural integrity and root, negating their ability to continue attacking … Continue reading Why Tai Chi Is Losing The ‘Martial’

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Making Tai Chi Your Own

Steve Rowe

Making Tai Chi Your Own At 68 years of age, after nearly 5 decades in the Martial Arts and 15 surgeries and 2 life threatening infections in my legs leaving me with one leg 2 inches shorter than the other, one with no knee and fused straight, the other with a metal knee and 3 quads missing on both legs, the powerful antibiotics have ruined all my joints and left me with severe and painful arthritis, I have to use a crutch to walk and have terrible trouble balancing on my legs with no ability to control a forwards pull … Continue reading Making Tai Chi Your Own

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The Fork In The Martial Road

Steve Rowe

The Fork In The Martial Road We start training in the martial arts to improve ourselves. We get fitter, healthier, better at technique and go up in our own and other’s estimation, often taking responsibility to teach and having others look up to us. This brings us to an important fork in the road of our martial arts training. We may have been weak, greedy for money, lust driven to manipulate others, bullied or a bully and/or a narcissist. Martial arts training SHOULD then reduce those weaknesses and make us a more disciplined, empathic, compassionate, tolerant and helpful person, but … Continue reading The Fork In The Martial Road

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They’re Not Your Friends….

Steve Rowe

They’re Not Your Friends…. Those thousands of voyeurs you have on social media; The people that appear to be friends all the time they get what they want from you; Using you as a stepping stone to climb the social ladder; They’re not your friends; They will stick a knife in your back as soon as it suits them. Your friends are always there; Whether they agree with you or not; Even if being friends with you harms their ‘social standing’; They support you in the hard times; Phone you when there’s no reason; Send you jokes they know you’ll … Continue reading They’re Not Your Friends….