Ken Gullette's Internal Fighting Arts

She just gets in there and tries to win. Shifu Lindsay Lambert is the owner and head instructor at Wu Dao Kung Fu & Tai Chi in Watertown, Massachusetts, in the greater Boston area. She teaches Chinese martial arts, including Shuai Jiao (Chinese wrestling) and she has won championships in that art. In this edition of the Internal Fighting Arts podcast, I talk with Lindsay about her martial arts journey, training in the arts and I ask about the obstacles faced by a female martial artist and teacher. You can listen here or download the podcast. 

In my opinion, a highly-skilled martial artist should be able to apply the right amount of force when needed, but in some situations, you should be able to apply no force at all. Being able to do both requires skill.

There is currently a "tough guy" attitude in martial arts, especially online. Here is one argument they make: If you spend a lot of time point-sparring, you won't be able to apply force when you need it in a self-defense situation. Instead, you will pull your punches.

I call malarkey, and I know it's malarkey because of my personal experience. 

Skill Development and Control

Pulling punches and using light contact in sparring teaches fine motor control and precision. This enables you to "choose" between delivering light or heavy contact, depending on the situation, which is crucial in real-life self-defense to avoid unnecessary harm or legal consequences. It is also important to be able to spar without hurting your training partners.

In 51 years of sparring, I have nev...

I was very honored to see that according to Feedspot, my podcast is at the top of the Top 15 Tai Chi Podcasts to Listen to in 2025. What an honor.

The podcast is 10 years old, and I plan to continue it for the next ten years.

I talk with English-speaking internal arts instructors (Taiji, Xingyi, Bagua, and Qigong) who have ties to well-known masters, and I talk philosophy with Taoist priests and Zen Buddhists. 

If you haven't heard it (or haven't heard it lately) I hope you'll check it out at the link below and browse through the 77 editions I have done so far. I am always inspired by my guests, and I believe you will be inspired, too.

https://internalfightingarts.libsyn.com/

I see it all the time. Some Tai Chi person, often someone who is called a "master," begins their form and loses their balance at the very beginning of the form.

As you know, Tai Chi is all about maintaining your mental and physical balance at all times.

We practice the movements and the intricate body mechanics to learn how to maintain our balance and our "center."

Watch this video and, if you do Tai Chi, check yourself in a mirror or on  video to see if you have kinky hips at the beginning of the form.

This is the kind of lesson you learn on this website when you become a member. These seemingly small details help you create the ability to have a stronger root and to develop the relaxed power that makes Tai Chi Chuan a strong martial art.

--by Ken Gullette

In November, 2003 -- 21 years ago this month -- Inside Kung-Fu promoted my $5,000 Chi Challenge on the cover of the magazine.

Inside the magazine, they printed my letter. I was fed up with the "chi masters" they put in their pages -- guys like Richard Mooney, who was shown knocking down students without touching them. He was not the only one. Different people showed up in different magazines, eager to show things that can't be done and hopefully get more students to hand over their hard-earned money to "learn the secret of empty force."

It was sheer fantasy they were selling, and it was making Tai Chi look bad. So I wrote this letter, which is on page 10. Here it is, under the headline "He'll Pay $5,000 For Proof!":

     "The cover of your August 2003 issue asked the question, "No-Touch Chi Force! Is It For Real?" The article answered that question with an unqualified "yes." In fact the writer, Peter Uhlmann, not only claimed that his "master," Henry Wang, can knock people down with...

Some people really believe chi masters can project their chi (also spelled Qi) so powerfully that they can set something on fire -- like paper.

In this video, Ken Gullette demonstrates this ability and then shows you step-by-step how to do it. Remember, never check your brains at the door of a martial arts school. If you would like to study Taiji, Xingyi, Bagua and Qigong without the mystical mumbo-jumbo and fantasy, you are on the right website. Try two weeks free and study REAL internal arts.

The image above is from my journal on September 4, 1973, the day I took my first martial arts class -- 50 years ago this week. It was the start of the Bruce Lee Kung-Fu Boom. "Enter the Dragon" hit movie theaters a couple of weeks earlier and that was the spark I needed to enroll in a school.

I was a 20-year-old student at Eastern Kentucky University, but I drove to my hometown for the class (about a 40-minute drive) because Sin The (pronounced Sin Tay) was a legend in Lexington. At that time he held classes in a converted garage at Eastland Shopping Center. There were so many people at the first introductory class, we spilled out into the driveway and they had to open the garage door.

It was an exciting time. Kung-Fu was so mysterious and amazing! I was always a good fighter, but the "Kung Fu" TV show and Bruce Lee convinced me to study something that would boost my fighting skills. Nothing was cooler than martial arts.

We were all very naive. The internet didn't exist so we coul...

Owen Schilling and Randel Davis are martial artists and very good people. They are also the guys behind the "Kung Fu Conversations" podcast. They recently had me on as a guest and it turned out to be very good. I have been interviewed several times and I have become tired of my own stories, but Owen and Randel tried to plow some new ground. I hope you enjoy it. Click this link to go to the YouTube verson of the podcast.  You can also find the podcast on Spotify. Click this link to open the podcast on Spotify.

A few weeks ago, Warner Bros. contacted me as they prepared to release the new 4K version of "Enter the Dragon." They asked if I wanted to do a giveaway on my podcast of 10 digital codes. Of course, I enthusiastically said "Yes!"

So in the recent edition of the Internal Fighting Arts podcast I asked listeners to come to this blog and leave comments on what Bruce Lee and "Enter the Dragon" meant to their study of martial arts.

As it turned out, hundreds of people have listened to the podcast but only nine people actually left comments here on the blog.

Those nine people who followed the rules will automatically win a digital code for a copy of "Enter the Dragon." Those nine people are:

** Tom Norio Sakaishi

** Liam Machlin

** Eddie Ooms

** Neil White

** Jim Strother

** Mike Sherlock

** Ernesto Pon

** James Helms

** Jovan Lezaravic

Since the people above followed the rules and left messages on the blog post, they will each get a code. So that means I had one left. Several m...

This week, Warner Brothers is releasing a new 4K/Ultra HD version of "Enter the Dragon," Bruce Lee's kung-fu masterpiece that helped launch the Kung-Fu Boom in 1973. 

Warner Brothers has given me 10 digital codes to give away to listeners of my Internal Fighting Arts Podcast. Just comment below about what Bruce Lee and/or "Enter the Dragon" means to you. Did it impact your martial arts? Did Bruce Lee inspire you?

You have until the end of the day on August 26, 2023 to make your comment. On Sunday, August 27, we will put the names of everyone who commented in a box and we will draw 10 winners live on my Internal Fighting Arts Facebook page at www.facebook.com/internalfightingarts. 

Ten winners will each receive a code and you will be able to watch and download the new 4K/Ultra HD version of "Enter the Dragon."

I saw the movie in a theater when I was a 20-year-old college student. I was blown away. Not only was his movement the most beautiful I had ever seen, but we had never seen te...