Ken Gullette's Internal Fighting Arts

About once a year, as new students come in, I have to give the sparring lecture. As a school owner, the amount of contact to allow when students spar is always a tricky subject.

For one thing, most insurance policies for martial arts schools don't allow much contact, and you have to make your policies clear or else you can be in big trouble if someone gets hurt.

But some other variables come into play when you're a student:

1. Students can't train if they're hurt. If you spar someone and you don't care how hard you kick or hit them, you can put them out of class with one stupid move. Too many people come in and swing for the fences. Even some black belts enjoy showing beginning students who's boss. Once, I saw a black belt crack a beginner's rib the very first time this new guy sparred. The new student dropped out of class very quickly. The black belt didn't really do it maliciously--he just wasn't thinking. I know a black belt who once dropped out of another school because he was "...

You have to occasionally videotape yourself doing forms. When I'm practicing Tai Chi, in my mind I'm positive that I look like Chen Xiaowang. When I videotape myself and watch it, I more closely resemble Harpo Marx.

Video is an amazing tool. Imagine the treasure we would have if someone had videotaped Chen Fake or other great masters? Imagine being able to break down their movements, watch in slow motion, frame by frame, and freeze the video at certain points to examine body positioning?

We've all heard the old stories of a master demonstrating a form one time to a student, then saying, "I'll be back in one year." The student was expected to learn the form by that time. Naturally, that was probably impossible even a hundred years ago, when the attention span was a little greater.

Now, we have the ability to watch great masters on tape and DVD and study them--masters such as Chen Xiaowang, Chen Xiaoxing, and up-and-coming masters such as Chen Bing. This would be virtually impossible ...

Kim Kruse started in kung fu just a couple of months ago and is already showing the traits of a champion. As part of her novice training, she learned a basic kung fu form, practiced hard, and competed at John Morrow's tournament in Moline on Feb. 24th, 2007. The week before the tournament she demonstrated the form in class and I told her, "That is a first place form." It was sharp and precise.

At the tournament, she won 1st place in forms and 2nd place in sparring in the white/yellow/orange sash division.

Kim enrolled in both the tai chi and kung fu classes and has been a regular ever since. I'm lucky to have several outstanding students--some of them couldn't make it to the tournament due to an ice storm that day. But the Dubuque tournament is coming up on March 24 so hopefully more will make it, put it on the line, cheer each other on, and carry the banner.

The most important "jin" (strength or force) in tai chi is peng jin. Chen Xiaowang has described peng jin as "chi flowing, everything full, nothing broken."

Peng jin is an expansive feeling directed outward from the body--beginning with the ground, transmitted by the legs, directed by the dan t'ien and manifest through the hands and fingers. It must be delivered without "local" muscular tension--in other words, you use your entire body as your fist, you don't strike with primarily your arm and shoulder muscles.

Peng jin works with the ground path to provide a solid structure in the body.

This is the foundation of internal strength.

In every movement in Taijiquan, the ground and peng must be present or your movement is empty. This is my the first thing I teach new students is the ground path, then peng jin.

Peng jin feels a bit like the same type of force that exists when you push a beach ball beneath the water. The potential force is ready to be released when you let go of the ba...

In the last couple of years, I've enjoyed performing Chen tai chi forms in open martial arts tournaments. I'm often the only kung fu person in the black belt division, and I get a charge out of doing something so completely different than the karate and TKD forms done by other black belts. I've done the Chen 38 form several times, putting a little more fajing into the movements to show the martial side.

Yesterday, I won first place at a tournament in Illinois with a shortened version of Xinjia Yilu, the form I'm studying now. It's so much fun to compete with these forms, which blend the smooth, relaxed strength with sudden bursts of power, while the forms run by other black belts are so "tense" throughout every movement.

I have a Google search running every day on the keywords "tai chi," and almost every article I receive from around the world talks about how tai chi is so good for senior citizens and for relaxation. Very rarely does the article mention that it's a martial art, and w...

My wife Nancy and I bought a building for our school in October, 2005. For decades, I had dreamed of having my own school. My class schedules were being disrupted by the people I rented space from, and when we found an inexpensive building in downtown Bettendorf, we jumped at the chance to buy it. I never really expected to open a school while working full-time, and I braced for the additional drain on my time and energy.

The past year and 4 months has been an enlightening experience in many ways. Running a martial arts school takes a lot more time than I'm able to give it when putting in 55 hours a week for my primary full-time job (including commuting time). The drain on energy has been tremendous, not to mention the financial drain. Most months, Nancy and I have contributed hundreds of dollars out of the paychecks from our full-time jobs in order to pay the school's expenses. We haven't really minded, because this is a true labor of love. I've lost thousands of dollars every year ...

What kung fu has done for me:

A highly remembered Saturday afternoon ritual of mine growing up in the 1980’s was Kung Fu Theatre.  I recall the artificially sounding “whacks,” “whooshes,” “clangs,” and “swishes” that were incorporated into the fight scenes to make them more dramatic.  The obvious looking wigs and fake beards were hilarious and fit perfect with the grunts and "hmmppphs" and "hm hm hmmm..." as well as the unusual pauses and voice patterns that were almost trademark to kung fu movies.  Ever since I was a young child growing up on Kung Fu Theatre - I dreamed of one day studying some cool form of kung fu.

That day came in October 1997 when I met my kung fu teacher and lifelong friend, Ken Gullette. From Ken, I studied various styles of kung fu including Yang and Chen style Tai Chi, HsingI Chuan, and Baguazhang (which was my favorite).  One of the most important features of my studies was a philosophy that has helped me with my personal life tremendously.  I developed a very g...

ACTUAL ENGLISH SUBTITLES USED IN FILMS MADE IN HONG KONG

(Try not to laugh.)

1. I am damn unsatisfied to be killed in this way.

2. Fatty, you with your thick face have hurt my instep.

3. Gun wounds again?

4. Same old rules: no eyes, no groin.

5. A normal person wouldn't steal pituitaries.

6. Damn, I'll burn you into a BBQ chicken!

7. Take my advice, or I'll spank you without pants.

8. Who gave you the nerve to get killed here?

9. Quiet or I'll blow your throat up.

10. You always use violence. I should've ordered glutinous rice chicken.

11. I'll fire aimlessly if you don't come out!

12. You daring lousy guy.

13. Beat him out of recognizable shape!

14. I have been scared s---less too much lately.

15. I got knife scars more than the number of your leg's hair!

16. Beware! Your bones are going to be disconnected.

17. This will be of fine service for you, you bag of the scum. I am sure you will not mind that I remove your manhoods and leave them out on the d...

A young man sent me an email and asked if Bruce Lee knew anything about cultivating chi. The young man didn't think so, because Bruce Lee did weight training as part of his workouts.

I believe some people have a very narrow view of what "cultivating chi" means. They think that if you aren't doing standing meditation or chi kung or tai chi or something similar, you aren't cultivating chi.

I would suggest a broader definition of what "cultivating chi" means. In my view, it means getting healthy and strong. Anything that helps you get healthy and strong helps you cultivate chi.

That would include eating right, getting enough sleep, weight training, aerobics, running, rope-jumping, sparring, working the heavybag, doing forms, doing chi kung, meditating -- all the things that make the muscles and bones stronger, the mind more calm, and the body's aerobic conditioning better.

I would urge anyone to avoid restricting themselves to such narrow views. If you buy into the concept of chi, yo...

A young man emailed me the other day and said he wanted to study chi kung (qigong) but was worried about something a chi kung teacher told him. Apparently this teacher said that unless the guy learned chi kung properly, it could harm him, especially in a sexual way.

This young guy asked my opinion, and how he could find a good chi kung teacher so he could begin training.

First of all, I told him to give that instructor a roundhouse kick to the head. Some teachers are nuts. They believe everything they read or hear about magical or metaphysical properties of chi.

Why do we perpetuate these myths? How can a breathing exercise--a mentally and physically calming exercise--create a danger to you?

The real answer is that it can't.

Like everyone, I've heard of people who felt some strange feelings and even got ill while doing chi kung. I suspect these cases involve people who either had some physical ailment going on, or they were bringing emotional baggage into the class that triggered ...