Ken Gullette's Internal Fighting Arts Blog

Where Does Tai Chi Movement Begin? Geek Out with Me

internal body mechanics internal connections studying tai chi studying taiji Jul 10, 2025

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...

Throwing Yourself Off-Balance at the Beginning of a Tai Chi Form

internal body mechanics studying internal gongfu studying tai chi studying taiji Nov 13, 2024

I see it in maybe a majority of Tai Chi performances, even by people who are called "master."

At the very beginning of the form, they lose their balance, they throw off their center, by shifting their hips to the right as their left leg steps out to the left.

The purpose of Tai Chi is to maintain your balance and center at all times, both physically and mentally. When a teacher is instructing a student, he first teaches the movements, then he or she should coach students when they are not in alignment. Take a look at this video, then look at your own opening movement. Watch yourself in a mirror, then record a video. Then watch your teacher, and if he is making this mistake, give him a roundhouse kick to the head.

Are You Leaking Energy in Your Tai Chi Movement and Breaking Structure

internal body mechanics leaking energy studying internal arts studying internal gongfu studying tai chi Mar 08, 2024

In my live online Taiji classes this week, I focused on the first two or three movements of the Laojia Yilu form and focused on what it takes to avoid "leaking energy."

You can leak energy throughout the form. When you step, or when you shift your weight, it's very common to see even people who call themselves "master" leaking energy and going "outside the frame."

When you leak energy during your movement, you have a break in your structure, and you put yourself in a vulnerable position, making it easier for an opponent to control your center.

Let's look at the very first movement in a form -- the Opening movement when you start with feet together, then you relax, sink, and step your left foot to the right. Then you shift your weight to the center before your hands rise.

Here is a Taiji instructor who will remain unidentified (this is about principle, not shaming). There are many instructors I could have chosen. In Image 1, he is preparing to step out. Notice the angle of his right...

Empty Force - A Trap Door that Collapses Beneath an Opponent

empty force internal body mechanics internal self-defense kong jin Mar 19, 2021

Fifty years ago this summer, in 1971, I was working for my dad as a laborer in his ornamental iron business. I was 18 years old, had just graduated from high school and was soon to start college. My dad was very mechanical and was an artist with ornamental iron, doing everything from columns and railings to stairways in apartment complexes. I did not inherit his mechanical gene, so I was relegated to painting and helping carry materials.

One day, we were working on the third story of a new apartment building in Elizabethtown, Kentucky. The third floor balcony had some kind of temporary sheet metal flooring, but on this day, I didn't realize the flooring did not have support under it.

I was daydreaming and not being mindful about what I was doing when I went up to the third floor and stepped out on the balcony.

As soon as I stepped on it, the flooring gave way beneath my feet -- three stories up. It was as if I had stepped onto a trap door that suddenly, without warning, ope...

How I Teach the Internal Arts with a Focus on Internal Body Mechanics

internal body mechanics studying internal arts teaching the internal arts Oct 27, 2020

Everything about martial arts changed for me the day I met my first Chen Taiji instructors, Jim and Angela Criscimagna.

On a Saturday morning in early 1998 I drove to their home in Rockford, Illinois, about two hours from my home, to find out what some of these "body mechanics" were that I had recently read about in an internet chat room -- terms like "ground path" and "peng jin."

Jim worked with me for an hour, explaining the difference between the Yang style Taiji I had studied up to that point and the Chen style that he was studying and teaching.

In one hour, I knew I had to start over. What I had been studying was empty. It was based on "chi cultivation" and not on body mechanics.

After 25 years in martial arts and more than a decade in the internal arts, I couldn't find my kua with both hands. This was a problem, considering I had a "black sash" and was already teaching. My students and I were already making a splash at area martial arts tournaments. Now, my style of Taiji had...

Say No to Noodle Legs -- Do Not Collapse Your Legs in Tai Chi

chen family taijiquan chen tai chi chen tai chi training internal body mechanics peng jin studying internal arts studying internal gongfu Jul 15, 2019

See the two images above?

The left image shows a mistake that I see a lot. In fact, there is a good chance you are making this mistake in your forms, especially Bagua and Taiji.

I spent several years making this mistake and I was never called on it.

Then, I was training with Chen Huixian and her husband, Michael, and they pointed it out. I was doing "Buddha's Warrior Attendant Pounds Mortar" and it was pointed out that my rear leg was collapsed.

In the left photo, my right leg is collapsing. I have lost my peng.

In the right image, I am maintaining peng through the legs.

As you can see in the image on the left, my stability and strength is far less with a collapsed leg. I cannot "defend from all directions."

It is a lot more difficult to maintain peng in the legs. It helps to relax and sit deeper into the kua, and it requires a lot of mental focus until you break the habit of collapsing.

That one bit of advice changed a lot of my stances. And now, I see...

The Ground Path is Step One in Building a Strong Internal Structure

ground path internal body mechanics studying internal gongfu studying tai chi studying taiji Jun 04, 2019

The first concept I introduce new students to is the ground path.

We do exercises with a partner to learn how to establish and maintain the ground path and combine it with peng jin.

But some people who see a photo like the one here make the mistake of thinking, "That's useless. You can't use that in a fight."

In this photo, my training partner Tom is pushing into my right elbow and I am grounding the push into the ground through my left foot.

Tom is not supposed to push with too much force, although as you can see in the picture, this particular drill is used to show that you can, in fact, set up a pretty strong structure using the ground.

The ground path is generally practiced without too much force because the idea is not to make you Superman, to meet force with force. Tai Chi doesn't fight force against force.

The idea is to provide internal strength to your body structure, but as you hold that strength in, for example, a self-defense situation, your goal will not be to meet f...

Turn the Waist More Than the Hips in Tai Chi, Xingyi and Bagua Movement

internal body mechanics Mar 12, 2019

In the first internal martial arts school I enrolled in, the Dantien was talked about a lot. It was often referred to as the "One-Point." In our movements, if we were throwing a punch or kick, the teacher would sometimes shout, "Snap your One-Point!!"

What he meant was, snap the hips; turn the hips sharply and fast so your Dantien snaps with it.

It was later, when I trained with members of the Chen family and their students, that I learned why it is wrong to turn the hips so much.

For one thing, it kinks up your structure and moves you out of a centered stance.

If you look at a new student, it doesn't matter what martial art they have studied -- karate, TKD, wrestling, tai chi -- if I ask them to turn their waist, they always turn the hips. They will do it every time.

The waist is NOT the hips.

Here is a little test you can do with nobody watching.

Keep your hips in place -- facing forward -- and without moving the hips, turn to reach something behind you. D...

A Review of my Internal Body Mechanics Book by Graham Barlow

book review internal body mechanics martial arts book review Aug 20, 2018

Graham Barlow practices Yang Tai Chi and BJJ. He also practices Xingyi and Choy Lee Fut.

Graham has written a review of my new paperback book, "Internal Body Mechanics for Tai Chi, Bagua and Xingyi." The review is on his blog, the Tai Chi Notebook.

I invite you to read it. Here is a link to the review:

https://taichinotebook.wordpress.com/2018/08/20/book-review-internal-body-mechanics-for-tai-chi-bagua-and-xingyi-by-ken-gullette/

The book is available on Amazon in the U.S., the UK and Europe. You can also order it through bookstores. One of my website members living in Shanghai ordered it through Barnes & Noble.

Find the links on ordering it in the U.S., Canada, the UK, Europe, and Australia by going to this page on my website.

New Book by Ken Gullette - Internal Body Mechanics for Tai Chi, Bagua and Xingyi

general internal body mechanics martial arts books Aug 07, 2018

I have read and collected a lot of Tai Chi, Xingyi and Bagua books since 1974. But most of them made the internal arts more abstract and difficult to understand.

So I decided to write a book that I wish I had read in 1987 -- a book that would organize and teach, step-by-step, the fundamental body mechanics that are required for high-quality Tai Chi, Bagua and Xingyi. After 31 years of studying and then teaching these arts, writing a book like this is the right thing to do.

In my opinion, these body mechanics -- ways of moving -- are necessary for beginners to know how to do internal movement for gongfu. There are more things you learn down the road, but I have seen Tai Chi teachers who have spent decades in the art and still don't know these body mechanics.

It involves much more than simple directions such as "turn your foot out 45 degrees and relax."

And it has NOTHING to do with "cultivating chi."

I have included 250 photos and clear, straightforward descriptions in this book. I...

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Ken Gullette's Internal Fighting Arts

Where Does Tai Chi Movement Begin? Geek Out with Me

Throwing Yourself Off-Balance at the Beginning of a Tai Chi Form

Are You Leaking Energy in Your Tai Chi Movement and Breaking Structure

Empty Force - A Trap Door that Collapses Beneath an Opponent

How I Teach the Internal Arts with a Focus on Internal Body Mechanics

Say No to Noodle Legs -- Do Not Collapse Your Legs in Tai Chi

The Ground Path is Step One in Building a Strong Internal Structure

Turn the Waist More Than the Hips in Tai Chi, Xingyi and Bagua Movement

A Review of my Internal Body Mechanics Book by Graham Barlow

New Book by Ken Gullette - Internal Body Mechanics for Tai Chi, Bagua and Xingyi

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