Author: paulrowinski

Paul is an award-winning lecturer, who has worked for the regional, national and transnational press for two decades. He first worked for various UK regional newspapers, before becoming a national newspaper reporter. Paul was a Berlin-based foreign correspondent working for The European, Scotland on Sunday and Times Educational Supplement. He has also written for other national titles, like The Independent and Financial Times. He also worked as an assistant producer on the English section of Deutsche Welle TV, producing regular world news bulletins and as a guest columnist for the Berlin based quality broadsheet, Der Tagesspiegel and occasional features writer for Die Zeit. Paul has covered stories from Germany, Austria, Poland, Italy and the former Yugoslavia. On returning to the UK he worked for The Times Educational Supplement, the Daily Mail foreign desk, The Sunday Times and The Times night news desk: Paul was previously course leader for the Masters in International Journalism at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow and prior to that delivered an undergraduate journalism degree for the University of Middlesex. Paul’s PhD looked at different perceptions of European integration in the newspapers of Rupert Murdoch in Britain and Silvio Berlusconi in Italy, analysing both the discursive construction and political communication of Europe in the media. Paul’s research also looks at the relationships between national identity and media discourse. He was co-editor of Br(e)aking The News, Journalism, Politics and New Media, published in 2013 by Peter Lang and wrote a chapter in this book and Media/Democracy: A Comparative Study, published by Cambridge Scholars (2013). Both focused on the discursive construction of Europe in the Murdoch and Berlusconi press. Paul currently works at the University of Bedfordshire, where he organized two conferences at the university, entitled Britain in Europe, in April, 2015, and June, 2016, on the eve of the EU referendum, with politicians, journalists and academics debating the issues, as the UK hurtled towards the referendum on EU membership. In 2017 Paul published Evolving Eurocepticisms in the British and Italian Press. Selling the Public Short (Palgrave). He is currently working on another book, Post-Truth, Post-Press, Post-Democracy. Paul runs the MA in International Journalism at the university. He is fluent in German and Italian, and has a respectable command of Spanish and Polish. He is a visiting lecturer at the University of Applied Social Sciences in Berlin (HMKW). Paul is a member of the Media and Politics and Italian groups of the Political Studies Association (PSA) and Journalism Studies Section of the European Communication Research and Education Association (ECREA). He is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and was voted Outstanding Teacher of the Year (2017) in his faculty. In 2016 Paul won the 100% Effort Award at the Pantera Tae Kwon Do club. He is currently preparing for his black belt and various national and European veteran competitions. Paul has a passion for mindfulness and runs a group for journalism first year undergraduates, suffering with various issues, including mental health problems. Paul is passionate about soft and hard martial arts, history, current affairs, literature, writing, but most of all, his incredible wife and two boys. Paul is at his happiest cycling in the countryside.

Tae Kwon Do. The battle for blackbelt

by paulrowinski

TKD2

Your weaponry.

If you have had some children, they are part of your weaponry. Play football (yes that includes the girls) and any other sport they intend whenever possible, as a supplement to your training regime, but not as a replacement for it.

Recent studies show you need to do more physical activity as you get older, not less, as your metabolism slows down and your propensity to put on weight increases. You should also watch your diet far more carefully. That’s another chapter.

Another key element in your armoury is the regular, disciplined practice of a soft and hard martial art, ideally a combination of both, ying and yang, if you will. That’s a massive oversimplification but, it will do for now. Me? I practice Tae Kwon Do with my sons and train in the same class as them. They are 14 and 12, at the time of writing and very dangerous.

Soft and hard, ying and yang. One my of Tae Kwon Do masters put it best and it is something I am currently trying to put into practice, as I endeavour to crawl to black belt, but crawl I will. You need to be flexible, that creates speed and then that converts into power. So one of the key weapons is your dexterity. You may not be flexible now but in time and with daily practice you shall become far more flexible than you currently imagine, regardless of at what age you start. It has nothing to do with it. But here is a word of advice on this issue and indeed for everything this book will advise.

Be patient. It will take time and for you – grey warrior – longer than the others. My Yoga-practising wife said something to me that has stuck with me. You are as young as your back. That, in many ways is true. The greater dexterity you possess here and elsewhere around your core – the younger you are.

 

To clarify further, my dangerous 14-year-old used to swim and his coach at the time (a former Olympic competitor) said to me, when explaining why he had not been selected for a competition: “It is nothing to do with how good a swimmer he is, but how long he has been swimming.” It had been a couple of months only. His precocious younger brother started earlier and was in that squad! It is everything to do with carrying on with your journey. I have been practicising Tae Kwon Do now for some seven years now. At first I could not hold my leg sideways above my ankle.

Now I can hold it for over a minute parallel with my shoulder. How and why? Time. There is no shortcut, no quick fix. You must be patient and practice regularly all that you do, and then it will come. You must not look for a quick fix and when progress comes – you may not even notice it.

Saturday 12th, January.

Third session in the dojang after Christmas and the challenge is on. Cardiovascular, full on, no breaks. And the key is fight not flight. Back in April, 2011, I would have stopped and gone to the toilet to wretch a little. Lovely. Those days are gone. Some six months ago I developed tendonitis on my left Achilles. These are micro-tears which can be caused by various sudden stretching of the tendons. So I’m a little apprehensive, training again in bearfoot, after six months of trainers. I want my team to come first, but I don’t want to re-tear that tendon! Movement is good, the more load I have put on it, the better it has healed and the physio is happy. Maybe I’ll write about the joys of tendonitis later.

No pain, no discomfort, but here is the test for this fifty something. Tendons tighten as you get older. This tendon seems to have healed. And I’m off!!!

I come first in my heat (just) and our team comes first also in the sprint relay overall. I am back – or rather my tendon is. Truth is, when the teams were then juggled we came second and third. But this is progress. I like it.

February 16, 2018.

A heartfelt thank you to Master Janitzio Moreno, Pantera Tae Kwon Do, London.

Dear Janitzio,

I was up until early morning on several occasions this week, working on my research bid. In days gone by, I would have given up. Instead by bid is now with the European Commission – and I even polished it several times!

I want to make it clear to you that my physical and indeed mental resilience in adversity is in large part down to how you have trained me. You solve lots of other problems with other students – and nothing is ever said.

Well I am saying it!

I thank you from the bottom of my heart. To change the immortal words of Jackie Chan in the Karate Kid (obviously the most important film in my life): “Life is Kung-Fu (correction).” “Life is Tae Kwon Do!” It truly is part of all I do.

In your debt. Now that I have given you that tribute/testimonial can I pre-grade next week please?
I might cry off today, but in my dobok anyway. Depends if this cough abates a little.

All the very best, Paul.

 

 

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Qi-Gong

by paulrowinski

TaiChi

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Qi-Gong is a thing of beauty. I try to practice the Eight Brocades on a daily basis. These are a series of eight patterns, which help to create greater flexibility, release tension, through breathing and massage many of your internal organs, much like various Yoga asanas.

This, to me, is a form of morning meditation, freeing you up from your Monkey mind, with hundreds of negative chargers bombarding your mind. Qi-Gong is a marvellous coping mechanism. It makes you aware of the stress in your body and that self-awareness is key to you finding a way to a better place.

I practiced it daily with my father-in-law recently and his back problems are much improved.