Tag: Tai Chi

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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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Soft Front, Strong Back Reviews

Steve Rowe

3 BOOK REVIEWS- When we published this book I bought 300 to do as signed copies and have a few spare as gifts etc but surprisingly, nearly all have gone, so if you are in the U.K. and want one of the remaining copies, order it here on this link https://py.pl/1m5JAm Here are a couple of reviews you might find interesting….. Francis Briers – I got my copy of my long time teacher, Steve Rowe’s book and have started to read it today. What strikes me is how vulnerable Steve has been in writing honestly about himself and his life. … Continue reading Soft Front, Strong Back Reviews

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Use Your Calendar

Steve Rowe

In my 50 years of training I always put the years training and seminar dates in my calendar first and then worked everything else around them where possible. Every year in June I do my following year’s calendar and give the dates out to all my students well in advance so they can do the same. Anyone that trains with me knows that every seminar will contain a lot of information that will never be given again. I view my calendar a month in advance, then each week and each day to remind me of what I’m doing and teaching. … Continue reading Use Your Calendar

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Waiting For God

Steve Rowe

Waiting For God I feel you looking out of my eyes,Listening through my ears,Tasting with my tongue,Smelling through my nose. But this vehicle won’t pass another MOT,The joints are rusty,Tissue is infected,It can barely run,It’s about ready for the knackers fire. It was elegant,A pleasure to drive,Would accelerate rapidly,Stop and turn on a sixpence,A reminder of classic times. Your consciousness permeates every cell,Always aware and alive,Observing yourself,When the body transmutes,The shape changes But consciousness is immortal. Continue reading Waiting For God

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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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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