Defend from All Directions - What Does It Mean?
Chen Xiaowang corrected Chen Bing's posture in a video, when Chen Bing was a young man. He stood in a posture from "Buddha's Warrior Attendant Pounds Mortar." After adjusting him a bit, Chen Xiaowang turned to the camera and said, "Now, he can defend from all directions."
Defend from all directions? That sounded intriguing. I began thinking about that concept. After a few years, I honed in on what it means.
The picture at the top of the post shows Chen Xiaowang correcting my posture in 2000.Â
"Defend from all directions" sums up a core principle of being prepared and being able to adapt in the face of a self-defense situation.
It emphasizes that a Taiji person should not simply focus on defending against a single, anticipated attack from one direction. Instead, it means to cultivate a state of mind and body that can remain aware of everything around you and respond to threats from any angle at any time.
This is why when you practice Zhan Zhuang with Chen Xiaowang, he says, "Calm d...
The Yi Leads the Qi Experiment - Setting Up Internal Connections
by Ken Gullette
Here is an experiment to do with a partner or student. Have your partner stand in front of you and tell them to put their arms together as shown in Photo 1, as if warding off. Tell them you are going to push them on the arms with both hands.
Next, lift your arms and move toward them to push, as in Photo 2. When they see the push coming, you will notice a change in their bodies. They will shift to brace for the punch. It might be subtle, but you can almost always see it.
In Taijiquan, it is said that "there is an internal change before the external change." You can also say "there is an internal change before the main external action."
The mind perceives a threat, and it prepares to create the "jin" (refined force or "method") to deal with the force, and in doing so, the connections are set up in your body that will help you defend. Those connections will go from the ground, through the legs, through the dantien, and most often through the shoulders, arms and hands (al...
What Does the Term "Tai Chi Energies" Really Mean?
You read and hear about different types of "energies" or "jin" in the internal arts. For example, people talk about the "Eight Energies" or the "Thirteen Energies."
Four primary energies (jin) of Taijiquan are:
1. Peng (Ward Off)
2. Liu (Roll Back)
3. Ji (Press)
4. An (Push)
Rounding Out the Rest of the 13 Energies are:
5. Cai (Pluck-Pull Down)
6. Lie (Split - often pronounced like the name Leah)
7. Zhou - (Elbow)
8. Kao - (Shoulder - often called Bump)
9. Teng (striking at an upward angle from the bottom to the top)
10. Zhe (winding, spinning to the ground)
11. Kong (Empty)
12. Huo (lively and active while maintaining internal principles)Â
13. Five Moving Directions: Front (Forward), Back (Backward), Left, Right, and Middle (maintaining your balance - your Center)
 It's important to remember -- despite what some teachers will tell you -- the Taiji "energies" do not involve some invisible energy in your body called Peng, or Liu, or whatever.
It's a lot more accurate ...
Training with Feng Zhiqiang and Zhang Xue-Xin: the Mark Becker Podcast
The 80th edition of my Internal Fighting Arts podcast features an interview with longtime Chen Taiji student and instructor Mark Becker.
Mark lives in Denver, Colorado. He has studied with great instructors such as Liang Baiping, Grandmaster Feng Zhiqiang, and Master Zhang Xue-Xin (who was a student of Grandmaster Feng). Mark became Master Zhang's disciple in 2019.
You can listen to the podcast here or download the episode. This is the audio version of the podcast. I also recorded it on video - check out the interview on YouTube.
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Where Does Tai Chi Movement Begin? Geek Out with Me
This is the type of question that gets the juices...errr...I mean the Qi flowing.
Are you ready to geek out with me?
Where does movement begin in Tai Chi (also spelled Taiji)?
During my first ten years of Taiji study, I was given abstract, near-mystical ideas of what internal movement was. I have read countless books and magazine articles that describe internal movement in ways that are, frankly, difficult to decipher. In 1997, I began studying Chen style, which takes a less mystical approach that is grounded in good body mechanics. Not everyone approaches it that way -- you'll find a Chen teacher occasionally who loves the woo woo, but as a group, they're pretty grounded, and that's a good term to use for this post.
Everybody has an opinion, and I am not going to say a different way is the wrong way, but I'll tell you what I think based on the past 37 years of my experience.
Let's pretend I am doing Laojia Yilu. I have completed "Buddha's Warrior Attendant Pounds Mortar" and have...
The Most Amazing Thing I've Seen in 52 Years of Martial Arts
When I first studied the internal arts of Chinese gongfu in Omaha in the late 1980s and early '90s, there was a fellow student named Tim Garrean. He was around my age and lived in Council Bluffs. He wore a headband when he worked out. We were both training under Sifu Phillip Starr.
Tim and I began learning Iron Palm around the same time. He studied Iron Palm a lot more seriously than I did. I was more interested in the arts of Xingyi, Taiji, Bagua and Qigong that we were learning.
In Iron Palm training, you do repeated strikes on bags filled with hard beans or corn or buckshot (shotgun ammunition made of iron pellets). You strike with the palms, the sides of your hands, and the backs of your hands.You also do other training such as fingertip push-ups, and you work on driving your fingertips into buckets of hard corn, gravel, or pebbles. The idea was to develop strength in your fingers and palms and toughen up your fingers, hands and knuckles so your strikes would have more power. You...
Internal Fighting Arts Podcast on Lists of Top Podcasts
My podcast -- Internal Fighting Arts -- has made a couple of lists on Feedspot that I consider quite an honor.
Earlier this year, Internal Fighting Arts was listed as the #1 Tai Chi podcast.Â
Now, Feedspot has listed it as number 30 on the list of Top 70 Martial Arts podcasts, which is a much more crowded field and includes all martial arts, including MMA.
I was also listed as #8 on the list of Qigong podcasts.Â
I launched my podcast in 2014. My goal each time is to have a good teacher as a guest -- someone with ties to a top master. Occasionally, I go off-topic if the guest appeals to me like the lastest one -- Aaron Leisinger, who is a martial artist and a police officer. He had information I found very interesting about martial arts and the job of keeping the peace. You can browse through the list of podcasts and guests by following this link. You can also find the podcast on Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts.
Rest is Not Weakness -- Lessons from a Glute and Groin Injury
Two weeks ago, I did something bold, brave, and totally against the martial artist’s natural instinct.
I rested.
It wasn’t easy. I didn’t want to do it. But my body made the decision for me.
I had tweaked my left glute. I'm not sure how I didn't, I just know I didn't do it the fun way. But it quickly became one of those annoying injuries that doesn’t seem major at first, so you try to push through it. “It’s just a little pull,” I told myself. “I’ll work around it.”
Sound familiar?
But martial arts doesn’t always give you the luxury of working around a pain that affects your core stability. Tai Chi, Xingyi, Bagua — all require strong, coordinated lower-body mechanics. Even walking the dog became a lesson in humility.
Pivoting on my left leg, pushing back into a couch or recliner, bending over to tie my shoes or pet the dog -- everything sent me into a spasm of agony, like a knife was stabbing me in the butt!Â
And sneezing! Don't even get me started. We are so connected inside our...
Why Long-Term Martial Artists Put in Effort and Pain Year after Year
Martial arts -- they're not for everyone.
How often have you heard someone say that? I've not only heard it, I've said it.
David Brooks just wrote one of the best op-ed pieces I've ever read in The New York Times about how to live the best life possible. If you are a martial artist, and a dedicated one, you might see yourself in this wonderful piece.
For those of us who feel compelled to practice these arts long-term, we don't see the strain and the pain of learning as an obstacle.
We are faced with intricate movement that requires us to rewire our brains and bodies.
We are corrected over and over by our teachers.
And when other students who enroll in a martial arts class give up because it's "too difficult," we see that difficulty and pain as a challenge. Do we feel uncoordinated? Yes. Does it discourage us? No, it makes us work harder.
We work to get better, and the better we get, the more we practice. We know we can do better.
We practice and study -- week after week, yea...
Shuai Jiao Champion Lindsay Lambert - Internal Fighting Arts Podcast Interview #78
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.Â
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Author - Instructor
Ken Gullette
I have practiced martial arts since 1973 and began studying the internal arts in 1987. My goal is to cut years off your development time by coaching you in the real skills for high-quality Tai Chi, Xingyi, Bagua. To see more about my bio, click the "About Ken" link on the menu at the top of this page.
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