Ken Gullette's Internal Fighting Arts

One of the more interesting concepts I learned when I started in Chen Taiji is the concept of "investing in loss." It was a foreign concept, but over time, I embraced it. 

When you invest in loss, you check your ego at the door. This can apply to any learning situation, but it is mostly applied in push hands. You experiment against your opponent and learn what works and what doesn't. You learn what's effective and what isn't. 

Your goal in practice is not to win. Your goal is to prepare yourself to win when your life depends on it. So your opponent may get the advantage of you. So what? The question you should focus on is not, "Did I win?"

The proper question is, "What did I learn?" 

After you try it again and again, the logical next question is, "Have I improved?" 

Some people describe "investing in loss" as allowing an opponent to attack while you appear defenseless. For me, that description doesn't work. Pretending to be weak and luring in an opponent so you can lower the boom ...

My daughter Shara, a few days before her sudden death in 1980.

Do you have internal strength? 

It has been on my mind a lot during the past couple of weeks as I prepared my first Kindle ebook for publication on that very topic -- Internal Strength for Tai Chi, Hsing-I and Bagua. It provides instruction on two basic skills for the internal arts -- establishing the ground path and using peng jin.

That allows you to begin developing relaxed power -- internal strength.

So we are supposed to take what we learn in the martial arts and also apply the principles to our daily lives, aren't we? It's not just for combat, you know.

Let's look at the concept of internal strength.

Do you have a philosophy that gets you through the rough patches in your life? Perhaps it's not philosophy but theology -- religion, faith in a higher power -- Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, or one of countless others.

Perhaps you have a philosophy that provides a lens through which you look at the ups...

I saw an ad a few days about about the Mysterious Power of Xingyiquan (also spelled Hsing-I Chuan). It made me laugh a bit at first, and then I realized it was just one more way that someone was attempting to make the internal arts appear to be something they are not. 

A photo on the ad showed a guy being lifted up into the air by the "mysterious" power of Xingyi.

I guess that's marketing, right?

A well-known tai chi teacher has a photo on the cover of one of his books where he is apparently launching some poor sap into the air with his internal energy. But a video exists of the photo shoot, and the guy being launched into the air obviously pushes off and straightens his arms to get himself into the air. It's embarrassing. 

We see it all the time, don't we? It's pretty common for Taiji, Xingyi and Bagua teachers to pretend this is all mystical and mysterious, that if you just cultivate enough chi you can tap into some universal energy that will allow you to defy the laws of physics...

There is a Zen proverb -- When a master points at the moon, many people never see the moon, they only look at the master.

Bruce Lee said it in a slightly different way, when he told the student, "It is like a finger pointing a way to the moon." When the student gazes at his hand, Bruce slaps his head and says, "Don't concentrate on the finger or you will miss all that heavenly glory."

I've been very busy since the Chen Xiaoxing workshop on Xinjia Yilu two weeks ago and haven't written much about it since that time. Instead of writing, I've been practicing the movements we went through in Chicago. It has been on my mind a lot.

The workshop was a great experience, and it was organized in a way that promoted learning. In workshops past, I would scribble as many notes as possible during breaks or at the end of the day, trying to remember the little details. In this workshop, remembering wasn't a problem.

Chen Xiaoxing would demonstrate a sequence of movements several times -- slowly --...

This weekend, I attended a workshop held in Chicago by Grandmaster Chen Xiaoxing, who was teaching Xinjia Yilu. I've received some instruction on the form, including a little information from my friend and teacher Jim Criscimagna and also a short private lesson with Chen Xiaoxing's son, Chen Ziqiang. I still had questions about how to perform certain moves. 

Chen Xiaoxing -- who just turned 60 (and so did I) -- is the younger brother of Chen Xiaowang. He stayed in our home for a week when Nancy and I sponsored his visa in 2006, allowing him to come to the U.S. for a series of workshops. He held one in the school we owned at the time, and trained with me in our basement for a week. It was a lot of fun and I got some great insights. He didn't speak a word of English and I didn't speak Mandarin, but we managed.

He recognized me on Saturday and we had a brief exchange through the interpreter at t...

A young student was excited to meet a Kung-Fu master. Before his first class, he asked, "How long must I study before I become a master?"

The master replied, "You must study for ten years."

"But I will practice very hard!" said the young student.

The master replied, "Then it will take twenty years."

The young man said, "But I want to be your best student!"

"Ahh," said the master. "Then that will take a lifetime."

I love that old story.

If you've been teaching for any length of time, you'll be asked, "How long does it take to get a black belt?"

As if a black belt is something great. Once you earn a black belt, if you have any sense of reality, you understand that you have just begun. It's the same as getting a Bachelors degree in college. Advanced study is next.

It's always amazed me how many people talk about loving martial arts but how few have the drive or the commitment to reach even a black belt level.

I'm not sure when I realized that I would never become a master of tai...

I turned 60 years old yesterday. What a shock! People say "you're still young" and other things to make you feel better, but there is a profound realization that the number of years in front of you are a lot fewer than the years behind you. 

As a little test on my 60th birthday, I tried to recreate a flying sidekick that I did in 1997 (the photo above). I set my Bob punching bag to 6 feet 1 and tested myself to see if I could reach his head while Nancy took the photos. I guess I did it to prove something to myself. Three years ago, I lost a lung and about 25 pounds of muscle mass. I have recovered in some ways but it has been difficult, and I have continued practicing and, I believe, progressing, although at a much slower pace than before.

Neither my father or my grandfather got out of their 60s alive. I'm hoping to do better than that, even though I was dealt a bad hand three years ago and a couple of doctors at Mayo Clinic gave me 3 to 5 years before my heart wears out. 

Another r...

I receive messages occasionally from anonymous Internet trolls who see my YouTube videos and make comments such as, "How will that work against an MMA fighter," or most recently, "What good is a sword going to do you in a street fight?" 

Insert deep sigh here.

When I was young, I thought you studied martial arts to learn how to kick major bootay. I wanted to feel safe everywhere.

It was shallow thinking. There is a lot more to martial arts than fighting. But you can't expect young people to think at a higher level. That takes time, experience, and study.

I am not a religious man and I do not believe in invisible beings. I don't believe invisible beings are watching us, guiding us, controlling what happens (saving us from accidents, etc.) or planning to judge us when we die.

But I am a spiritual person. I believe in being kind to people, helping those less fortunate, and treating everyone I meet with friendship, humor, and cooperation. I believe in treating my wife with love and r...

My daughter, Harmony in 1988.

There have been very few bright spots in the darkness following the Sandy Hook school massacre. Many of us have shed tears at the faces in the photos -- the innocence lost and young lives stolen. 

There were several acts of bravery. Some of them -- especially stories of teachers being killed while saving their students -- brought tears to my eyes. But one act of bravery made me cheer.

Imagine the self-confidence of the 8-year old boy who -- hearing the gunshots in the school and seeing his classmates crying and afraid -- spoke up and said confidently, "I know karate," then offered to lead them out.

I would like to know more about where he studied and how far he had advanced. When we are children, we tend to overestimate our ability to be super heroes, and for this young boy to imagine that he could take on a gun-toting killer was a lot more fantasy than reality.

But he was confident in the face of chaos and tragedy. He was ready to control the sit...

I hear it a lot. Maybe you do, too if you study martial arts. It's a sarcastic comment, in my experience it usually goes something like this:

"You know kung-fu but I can shoot you before you can kick me."

or...

"I have a Glock that says your martial arts are useless."

The mass shooting at the Connecticut school two days ago is an example of the world we live in. The killer was rushed by the principal and school psychologist and he killed them both.

What good is it to study kung-fu if we would have ended up dead by trying to get close to this guy in an effort to defend the children and adults in that school?

It's easy to ask the question, and I've reflected on this during the past 48 hours. I lost a daughter in 1980, and my heart aches knowing a little of the pain the parents, grandparents, brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles are feeling about the death of those children and the adults.

Indeed, what good is a martial art in the 21st Century?

In an episode of the wonderful Kun...