Why I'm Not Always Polite with Tai Chi Con Artists

$5000 chi challenge chi powers qi powers tai chi con artists tai chi fantasy Jul 17, 2026

The video above shows me (blue shirt) in a full-contact match in 1991 - the Toughman Contest. They went to towns around the country, set up a boxing ring, and invited all the "Tough Guys" in the area to come down and fight.

I was 38 years old and had studied martial arts for 18 years. I had been studying Taiji, Xingyi and Bagua for four years at this point. I had to test my skills.

My opponent was much younger, bigger, and stronger. But I had done a lot of sparring, mostly non-contact or very light contact point sparring. I had good strategy and was pretty accurate with my punches. Very often, his punch missed and mine didn't.

Going up against a bigger guy wasn't unfamiliar. Growing up, I had fights with several bullies who were bigger. So I had a very good idea what a real fight was like.

When a grown man is coming at you, trying to hurt you, it puts everything you have studied into perspective.

His motivation is to damage you. His fists are heavy and deliver painful blows.

It drains the energy out of you very quickly.

It is no time for B.S.

But that, unfortunately, is what a lot of Tai Chi Con Artists try to give you.

Some Tai Chi teachers pretend they can knock an opponent down without touching them -- using their Qi, of course.

Some pretend they can lightly touch an opponent and make him hop away, or fall to the ground.

And then there are the people who pretend they can use an opponent's fascia against them. I recently saw a video of a female Tai Chi teacher touching a man's arm -- the man was twice her size -- and he went jumping and hopping backward because she was "connecting" with his fascia.

Each of these instructors need to test their skills by having an adult male attack them, trying to hurt them, and then see how their Qi and fascia manipulation works.

And so, I'm not polite about the dishonesty not only of the teacher, but also the students who play along with the lies. It's dangerous to pretend these abilities are true.

Tai Chi tends to attract some people who desperately want to believe in supernatural powers. They want their teacher to have these powers so maybe they can learn them, too. And then, even just because they're studying with this teacher, their friends and the public will think they're learning these amazing abilities, too.

They belong to the club. And they desperately need to belong to the club.

Tai Chi Chuan -- Taijiquan -- is a great martial art whose reputation has been destroyed by the people I have mentioned here. If used in self-defense, it is violent. It is not gentle, pretty, or "soft."

Taiji requires specific body mechanics that give it relaxed power that is unleashed with fury, in an instant, and it's a whole-body, connected power.

I will give $5,000 in cash to anyone who can knock me down without touching me, make me hop or fall by lightly touching me, or connects with my fascia lightly in a way that makes me hop back.

When a grown man is motivated to knock you out, and he is relentless in his attack, your parlor tricks and fakery will have no effect on him. You will be hurt.

It's a lot harder to learn the correct body method than it is to pretend you have powers that you don't have. And that's why you see so many people doing the fake stuff. They figure they can put up a YouTube video and gain followers. And they do, but what type of people are they attracting? They're attacting students who are looking for fantasy and fairy dust, not fighting skill. They're looking for students without the critical thinking skills to understand that their money is being wasted on someone who doesn't respect them.

I encourage you to investigate and study the traditional methods, and help us call out the Con Artists who make the art look as bad as they are.

One thing in the video you should notice. At one point, I do the Bolo punch. Even in the heat of battle, I was trying to have fun. My opponent and I both smiled at each other when that happened. I got into martial arts because the arts are cool and they are fun. Don't let the con artists fool you, because when you find out you've given money to a scam, it ruins the fun, and it isn't cool.

--by Ken Gullette

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Why I'm Not Always Polite with Tai Chi Con Artists

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