Tag: Tai Chi

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Validate What You Learn

Steve Rowe

Tai Chi history is usually skewed toward the author or speaker. Once we know this we can read or listen with an unfettered mind. There is only one way to validate what someone knows or doesn’t know and that’s to touch or cross hands. In my experience it was rare to cross hands with someone that had the kind of knowledge that I was looking for. It really was a ‘needle in a haystack’ scenario. Never believe what anyone says or teaches, including me. If you find a source that you trust, yield to their teachings, practice them until you … Continue reading Validate What You Learn

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Get Real

Steve Rowe

Doesn’t matter how much you imagine it, it’s never the same as direct experience. Be it violence, cancer, enlightenment, mental health problems, amputation, or penetrating the shell to get that spontaneous freedom within your art. I feel sorry for the people that have an ‘easy life’ because without that essential hardship and paying their dues, they never get the essential insight and wisdom. So many are just travellers in life, wearing the masks and having an easy time, and it makes me wonder, WTF are they doing here? They’re like the ‘copy and paste’ internet version of humans. If you … Continue reading Get Real

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Chi Is Like Chewing Gum

Steve Rowe

Chi is like chewing gum.Chewing gum is hard and stiff but gets softer and can change shape the more you chew it. When I start my Tai Chi in the morning my chi is cold and stiff so I have use my mind, sensitivity and intention in slow careful movements to give it time to move around the body. It’s like an army sitting in my abdomen waiting to move, it sends out the scouts, then the army moves and finally the stragglers. As my body, mind, sensitivity and intention warm up and connect, the army eventually moves as one … Continue reading Chi Is Like Chewing Gum

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Tai Chi And Shu Ha Ri

Steve Rowe

Tai Chi = Supreme UltimateShu Ha Ri = Follow, break and transcend the rules Both are philosophies that predate martial arts and are regularly applied to them. The problem is that they are usually only understood transliterally and not in the way the originators meant. Tai Chi explains the structure and balance of the universe and is expressed in the tai chi (yin/yang) symbol and is also a state of enlightenment, when internalised, its analogous to the transcendence of ‘ri’ in ‘shu ha ri’. Any traditional martial art will be layered with meditation, exercises and techniques for the student to … Continue reading Tai Chi And Shu Ha Ri

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The Structure Of The Yang Cheng Fu Form

Steve Rowe

The Structure Ot The Yang Cheng Fu Form. Why is the form so long?Why are some techniques repeated so many times?Why haven’t I opted to teach any of the shorter forms? The answers are a combination of what I was taught and the results of my own studies. I was taught that the range of time it should take to do the form can range from 7 to 20 minutes depending on what I was working on that day. An average day for me is around 13 minutes but it varies according to my focus. Its length is the optimum … Continue reading The Structure Of The Yang Cheng Fu Form

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Don’t You Get It?

Steve Rowe

As teachers we often feel inadequate. Even after a lifetime of studying our art and how to teach it we find it hard to understand why so many can never penetrate the soul of what we teach. But we can only do our best. We can’t do any more. We write, we film, we blog, we post, we find a myriad of ways to explain simple ideas and concepts that to us are glaringly obvious but elude the cluttered minds of others that are either distracted or apathetic. We get students to look through windows from all angles at the … Continue reading Don’t You Get It?

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What’s Missing In Martial Arts?

Steve Rowe

With the advent of social media and mobile phones with quality cameras everyone and their dog can publicly post their martial arts, this is both a good and bad thing. From an observational point of view I often find myself thinking that many people look like they are moving reluctantly and with their ‘handbrake stuck on’ and what they are doing wouldn’t work – and asking myself why. These are my thoughts: Too much negative gym work and vanity training is isolating muscles instead of connecting them and is stiffening their body negating mobility and power. They never seem to … Continue reading What’s Missing In Martial Arts?

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Do You Hate Your Body?

Steve Rowe

Do you hate your body? When you train do you take pleasure from punishing it?Do you hurt it out of annoyance?When you look in the mirror do you hate what you see?Why? Your body is the only lifelong friend you’ll ever have.If you look after it, it’ll look after you.It has its own wordless language and is always communicating with you.Before going wrong, it whispers, then talks, then shouts warnings if you able to listen.It loves movement, loves good training, healthy nutrition and repays you good feelings and joy.Why would you let anyone else make you betray that friendship? You’re … Continue reading Do You Hate Your Body?

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Positive Tension In Tai Chi..

Steve Rowe

Positive Tension in Tai Chi.I was giving a lesson to Paul Pretty (pictured) this week who is a private student of over 30 years and an intelligent and dedicated martial artist. We were discussing the necessary tension required in Tai Chi at different levels. As beginners in ‘monk’ style we first have to get rid of all unnecessary tension to enable our body and energy to move freely with structural integrity. Many Tai Chi practitioners never get beyond this stage. Then at ‘warrior’ level we need to develop fajin – and to do that we have add in layers to … Continue reading Positive Tension In Tai Chi..

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Discipline

Steve Rowe

From my recent (not very controversial) it gives rise to this thought. We have to understand the difference between good and pad pain. We have to learn to discipline our needs and weaknesses without damaging ourselves. Discipline to make us physically, emotionally and mentally stronger is the reason we train. To permanently damage ourselves in any way is stupid. Those extra punches, kicks, push ups, minutes in stances etc push us safely beyond our limits, to go an hour without a drink will hardly damage us. I’m currently fasting for 18 hours a day, I feel hungry, it hurts, but … Continue reading Discipline