Martial Arts Club Locations

ROCHFORD - MEDWAY - SOUTH LONDON

May 09 Steve Rowe Podcast with Richard Barnes

Written by Gavin King. Posted in Articles By Steve Rowe, Blog, Shi Kon Classics

Recently Richard Barnes from richardbarnes.com popped down to the Shi Kon Dojo in Chatham to chat to Sifu Steve Rowe. In a fascinating podcast Richard talks to Steve about his life story, background in the Martial Arts and how his training has helped cope with adversity in life.

Listen to the Podcast

Click to here to hear the podcast.

Apr 21 Why I Always Wanted To Be Kwai Chang Cain

Written by Steve Rowe. Posted in Articles By Steve Rowe, Blog

Why I only ever wanted to be Kwai Chang Caine. I was a typical South London council house boy doing Karate until that first Sunday afternoon at 3pm that I watched the first episode of Kung Fu in 1973, that turned my life upside down.

Here was a MAist that had nothing and yet had everything. How can that be? Listening to the wisdom dispensed from the Buddha I realised that suffering came from ownership, if you owned nothing you had everything. Happiness was simply an internal habit and unhappiness came from wanting to possess anything. Engage in everything but possess nothing – let life play with you instead of trying to own, control or possess any part of it.

I went to Tai Chi and my first teacher was like Kwai Chang Caine, he carried everything he owned on his back and basically lived on the floor of friends homes. He was incredibly patient with this stupid, angry and violent South London boy and would come early to sessions to push hands and talk MA’s with me. He gave me my first copy of the Tao Te Ching that opened the floodgates of wisdom to me, I’d never bothered to read books at school and failed all my exams, but I understood the words of Taoism almost as if I recognised them from a former life, this led me into a life long study of Taoism, Buddhism, Zen , Eastern and subsequently Western and other philosophies, I never had to struggle to understand the ideas, only to implement them.

My life has taken many turns over the years and they are many stories for other times – I’ve been relatively wealthy at times and more often than not just getting by, but I’ve always wanted nothing, just enjoyed what life brought me, both the good and the bad and put integrity, inner happiness and non possessive engagement first. The more frugally I live, the happier I am, the less I own, the happier I am, anyone that really knows me will validate this.

40 years later, I’m still Kwai Chang Caine at heart and a happy man – irrespective of what life throws at me.

Apr 21 The Circle of Implicit Trust

Written by Steve Rowe. Posted in Articles By Steve Rowe, Blog

The Circle of Implicit Trust. I have one group of really good MA friends. I have known them for between 20 and 40 years, during that time we have shed blood together and all trained and studied daily. We have been in many ‘situations’ together, sometimes quite dangerous, but always had each others back. We have worked through so many of these times that we know exactly how each other will behave under pressure, we can trust each other implicitly – and in these days of untrustworthy and ‘fair weather’ friends in the MA’s I feel very honoured to know them.

Many people have come and gone in my life and I knew I could trust them to do certain things but not others, they are friends but have not earned my ‘implicit trust’.

Who are these paragons of the MA’s? Mostly they are quiet people, not on anyone’s flashy guest list and not on the seminar circuit selling DvD’s and T shirts, but are not so hard to find. Look at who I let in close to me, who I trust to teach my students and on my seminars. I’m not a MA’s businessman (and I have nothing against them) but a martial artist, so my seminars are to give my students the best quality instruction and inspiration that I can find..

These guys are not mountains as there’s nothing on show, they aren’t flashy in any sense of the word, they are icebergs, with only the minimum on show but one hell of a lot of MA’s under the surface. You will only find them by looking close to me, touch their hands and you realise that you are in the presence of what could be a very dangerous man.

These friends have my deepest respect earned over decades and implicit trust. I am a very lucky man.

Apr 01 10 REASONS MARTIAL ARTS BENEFITS KIDS

Written by Steve Rowe. Posted in Blog, Kung Fu Kids

Was sent this blog post and thought you might find it interesting…..

In a culture that seems to glorify violence in everything from music to video games and television shows, the idea of enrolling your child in martial arts training classes doesn’t always seem like a good one. While martial arts-centered action films seem to be filled to the brim with violent behavior and gory injuries, you may be surprised to learn that martial arts’ training is actually very beneficial to kids. Like so many other things that Hollywood doesn’t always get right, martial arts isn’t quite the brutal, vicious pastime that it seems. In fact, these are 10 of the reasons why you may want to consider martial arts training for your kids. Read full article here….

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Shi Kon Martial Arts

Shi Kon Martial Arts was established in 1988 by Steve Rowe 8th Dan, after 40 years of Martial Arts study with top Japanese and Chinese Masters in the arts of Karate, Kung Fu, Tai Chi, Neigong (inner work), Qigong (energy work) and Meditation.

There are classes to suit everyone in the Family from 4yrs of age to Old Age Pensioners.

The Shi Kon Martial Arts classes on this website all have the Sport England Clubmark Accreditation and are located in Medway Kent, Rochford, Essex and South London.