Tag: shi kon

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Nebulous Principles, Ideas &Strategues

Steve Rowe

Student: Is it like this or this? Me: Yes. Student: how can it be both? Me: because it’s not what you do but how you do it that counts. If you are following the ideas and principles, depending on the situation, a technique can be done in a variety of ways. People want ‘easy’ and ‘simple’, they want rules. If you advertise ’easy to learn’, ‘simple steps’ and lay down a simple framework to follow, people will buy into it. The essential underlying principles, ideas and philosophy to a good martial art can be quite nebulous and require considerable study … Continue reading Nebulous Principles, Ideas &Strategues

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Loneliness

Steve Rowe

Some people see everything differentThey can’t understand why others can’t see the sameOthers can’t understand why they are the way they areLike oil and water they can’t mixIt’s a lonely place when everyone misunderstandsWhen they don’t talkWhen they’re just being themselvesOthers think they’re being awkwardThe truth is they’re born that wayThey can’t help itThey don’t mean itThey can’t be differentThey just need toleranceUnderstandingCommon groundThis is the role martial arts can playIt’s called inclusion. Continue reading Loneliness

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There Is No ‘Us & Them’

Steve Rowe

There is no ‘us’ and ‘them’. Because we have tribal origins it’s easy for people to be divided, fear, anger and hate engendered and we then don’t see those pulling the strings. We have the power at the polls, but even then we’re asked to vote for one party against another and most voters don’t even know the policies that they’re voting for, they’re just voting out of fear and tribalism. We should have grown out of the man made divisions of ‘them and us’, the illusions of boundaries, countries, religions and cultures, we should not see differences but that … Continue reading There Is No ‘Us & Them’

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The Power Of Wriggling

Steve Rowe

The power of wriggling. We teach our children that if they can wriggle, they cannot be held. It saved the life of one our small 10 year olds when two adults tried to abduct him from the park. Done skilfully, with the joints connected, the power can be transferred through the entire body from the feet and discharged at the hands, this is a form fajin that you can see in breakdancing as well as martial arts. It can also go from hands to feet to stop the opponent being able to lock joints or hold on to unbalance us. … Continue reading The Power Of Wriggling

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One Handed Typists

Steve Rowe

The great thing about social media is that everyone can voice their opinion. The worst thing about social media is that everyone can voice their opinion. An opinion only has the value of the experience and intelligence of the person giving it. The problem is that the most vociferous commenting on martial art posts are those of little experience and intelligence. I call them the ‘one handed typists’ (you can guess what they’re doing with the other one). “That would never work on the streets” and “you have to make it work against non-compliant partners” are the classic idiot speak. … Continue reading One Handed Typists

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Explore Your Darkness

Steve Rowe

Do you feel that if you surrender to your darkness that you won’t be able to find your way back? Do you repress and try to ignore it? If you’re always trying to be happy instead, you’re not happy – and the lurking darkness is permeating your soul in a negative way. We all know the ‘positivity’ people always trying to convince themselves and those around them that they are happy and positive but that veneer is thin and the tortured soul behind is obvious. The darkness needs to be explored and understood as it’s the balancing factor to the … Continue reading Explore Your Darkness

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How Deep Can You Go?

Steve Rowe

How deep can you train your body? How well can you manipulate the spine and myofascial core that moves it along with the vagus nerve? This, along with plumbing beyond thought and emotions to finding the deepest parts of yourself that connect you to nature are what give you a health and inner peace beyond what any modern ‘health guru’ can. Good Tai Chi, layered from meditation to neigong (inner work) to qigong (energy work) to form, push hands and weapons carefully layers these skills, training body, emotions and mind at depths that I don’t see anywhere else. It was … Continue reading How Deep Can You Go?

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Were The Ancients That Good?

Steve Rowe

Were the ancients that good? No internet, travel was really difficult, most couldn’t read or write, what little video is available was made when they were old and most didn’t move that well. Of course we respect them as they were the founders of what we practise today and some obviously were really good, but how many? The lineage carriers were often bloodline and to be honest that doesn’t mean the talent of the originator was passed down, often, non family students were better. I’ve often heard people say that the masters ‘hide’ techniques from students but in my experience … Continue reading Were The Ancients That Good?

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Closing All The Windows

Steve Rowe

Closing All The Windows The computer was designed by and is like the human mind. When you close all the active windows, what’s left? It appears to be nothing, a blank screen, but it’s actually the potential to do anything the computer or its programmer can do. When we sit still, breathe deep and close all the activity of our mind, the mind appears to be inactive but is in fact in a state of readiness to accept the insight and wisdom that our ‘windows’ (thinking mind) has been blocking that has always been there in the background. Closing the … Continue reading Closing All The Windows

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Old Was More Effective

Steve Rowe

What’s lacking in most modern marts? Power. People are derisory toward 70’s and 80’s Karate and Kung Fu because of their simplicity and training methods, but the truth is that the good practitioners of those days would smash straight through most of the modern technicians. They may have been raw but they had the components that worked for real and they tested it every bloody, bone crunching training session and in security work where there was no badges or cameras, only hard earned reputations. Why were they so much more powerful? Because they practised hour after hour of rock solid … Continue reading Old Was More Effective