Tag: qigong

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Form And Kata

Steve Rowe

Form can be practiced by anyone of any age or condition on their own without the need of equipment. They have 3 treasures:Health – they are moving yoga improving posture, flexibility, strength, breathing, increasing emotional intelligence,and mindfulness. Skill – techniques are combined to increase skill levels of basics moving multi directionally to long and short turns jumping and dropping. Application – breaking down each technique and applying it on an opponent to make it work. They can also be ‘coloured’ in different ways. Monk – like a moving meditation to reduce negative emotions. Warrior – as you would use the … Continue reading Form And Kata

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Eagle Eye

Steve Rowe

Eagle Eye…. I’ve already broken down what both chi and intention is and the eyes can also lead the intention. In Tai Chi we have the ‘eye form’ where in the beginning we use the eyes to draw the chi to the leading hand in the form, this helps us to develop the qualities of intention helping to keep our awareness, concentration, sensitivity, intensity and emotional content (our mindfulness) in an unbroken thread throughout the entire form. When we have internalised this skill and it becomes a natural part of our form, we can then focus on the secondary hand … Continue reading Eagle Eye

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Manipulating The Chakras With Tai Chi

Steve Rowe

Manipulating The Chakras With Tai Chi What do the chakras do? Root Chakra – is life and death, a very powerful primal energy driving sex and mortal fear. Sacral Chakra – is instincts, that ‘gut feeling’ you need to learn to rely on. Solar Plexus Chakra – is normal fear, anxiety and anger. Heart Chakra – is patience, kindness, tolerance and compassion. Throat Chakra – is expression, the ability to influence your environment. Brow Chakra – the ‘third eye’ is insight and visionary. Crown Chakra – is wisdom and spirituality. They each have their own emotional colouring and vibration of … Continue reading Manipulating The Chakras With Tai Chi

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Tai Chi’s A Funny Game

Steve Rowe

Tai Chi people can be funnyThere are people with exclusive magicWho look down on the hoi poloiAs pitiable acolyte’sConfusing everyone with terminologyThere are those that leanOn impeccable lineageWith flowery handsAnd embroidered feetSome have silk suitsThat ripple in the breezeThere are hippiesThat heal with ancestral energyThere are formsSo many formsPrayers to the ancestorsCombining meditation and energy workInto fighting techniquesPush hands to testStructural integrityAnd stop practitionersFrom just playing with themselvesBeneath all these facesLies the best structuredMost powerfulMethod of developingMental focusEmotional intelligenceGood health and vitalityAnd self defenceThat I’ve ever encountered Never judge a book by its cover. Continue reading Tai Chi’s A Funny Game

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The Perfect Workout

Steve Rowe

I don’t do short forms in Tai Chi. The Yang Chen Fu 108 for me along with the family neigong and qigong is the perfect morning ‘monk style’ workout that can be explored in a multitude of ways and the afternoon ‘warrior’ workout of the weaponry, Long Boxing and Sanshou set is perfect. Repeated techniques cover moving on the spot (grasp sparrow’s tail) with the 4 major jins (ward off, roll back, press, push), and rolling arms moving forward (brush knee), backward (repulse monkey) and sideways (waving hands like clouds). Other techniques cover the other jins and angles in a … Continue reading The Perfect Workout

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Releasing Energy

Steve Rowe

Understand how the body naturally builds up and releases energy and you understand how to use it in qigong and Tai Chi. This also applies to the internal energy in all martial art technique. Your morning stretch is different to your exercise stretches. This is because you build up your energy in your stretch and then release it to wake up. Notice the feeling that goes with the release. You do the same when you sneeze, yawn, when you go to the loo, when you ejaculate and even when dealing with emotion and pain. Understand this and you go a … Continue reading Releasing Energy

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Don’t Waste Your Time Training

Steve Rowe

Sometimes I wonder how much energy and time have I wasted on pointless exercise. All that mindless running, weight training, push-ups, sit ups, ‘warmup’ exercises and sparring that burned valuable energy, wasted time and did nothing to direct me where I needed to go. You can’t put an old head on young shoulders but with hindsight I could have done things in a far more intelligent fashion. A lot of ‘traditional training’ had so many repetions of useless movement and the blind ignorance of teaching ‘in the way my instructors taught’. Training should have a far more intelligent, structured approach … Continue reading Don’t Waste Your Time Training

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Breathing With Your Body

Steve Rowe

This morning’s neigong: Don’t eat breakfast; Drink a pint of iced water; Find your place to stand; Then find your balance. Find your natural breathing rhythm; Don’t breathe in until you would have to stop yourself; Don’t breathe out until you would have stop yourself; Let your body, not your mind deepen and control the breath. Use your entire dantien to breathe; Stomach sides and back draw the diaphragm down; Filling the lungs with air; Calming you down, making your mind aware and focused. In Tai Chi the joints and fascia act together as a pump; Expand them naturally as … Continue reading Breathing With Your Body

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Neigong Balance

Steve Rowe

  As the wheel of the year turns; There is a different kind of balance; The air is not dry and warm: And the earth is chilled and moist. Balance brings me to the Tao; The line down the middle of yin and yang: The harmonies in the body: Allow me to find the door. Left and right in the joints: Upper and lower connections; Front and back of the body; Inner to outer of limbs and body. Inner is yin, outer is yang; Front is yin, back is yang; Focus on one and the other is the small circle … Continue reading Neigong Balance

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The ‘Empty Force’ Of Tai Chi

Steve Rowe

  ‘Empty force’ sounds nebulous and difficult to understand, but it isn’t. The body is a spring, when the posture is correct and the joints unlocked, when the soft tissue carries no unnecessary tension – the compression and release of a combination of the joints, including the spine, bodycore and soft tissue is a skill that can be trained in a multitude of ways. The first level of skill is to unlock the body and keep it unlocked, start with good posture and then unlock the ankles, knees, hips, back and chest with the mantra ‘soften and connect’ when you … Continue reading The ‘Empty Force’ Of Tai Chi