Ken Gullette's Internal Fighting Arts

The students filed in on the first day of my first class. I spent a LOT of time working on an entertaining and informative PowerPoint and lecture.

A couple of students looked at me, smiled and said hello as they found a seat. Most of them walked in without acknowledging me, found a seat, and began staring at the computer screen that they each had on their desk. There was no attempt to engage by most of the students.

I have always enjoyed kids, and young people, and have always found ways of making them laugh and have fun.

But a college setting was different.

It was fascina...

There is a popular saying that is very true -- "If you fail to plan, you plan to fail."

This means you can coast along, expecting good things to happen, but if you don't set serious goals and take the steps to meet those goals, then you get the same thing you have always gotten when you put no effort into it.

Nothing. Unless you are lucky, and most of us are not lucky very often.

2018 will come to a close in just three weeks. It is a great time to begin setting your goals for 2019.

I'm not talking about New Year's Resolutions, I'm talking about serious goals for your internal arts development.

It is very easy to talk about training in Tai Chi, Xingyi or Bagua. It is very easy to watch some YouTube videos and practice some moves.

It's a very different thing, and a lot more difficult, to actually build skill. It takes a step-by-step approach and it requires an instructor -- a coach -- to guide you and give you feedback and corrections.

Here are some goals you can reach through thi...

I am reading "Bruce Lee: A Life," by Matthew Polly. Bruce possessed one quality that he had in common with almost all successful people.

Bruce Lee believed in himself, had a goal, and worked hard to reach his goal.

Do you have a martial arts goal? Do you want to learn Bagua, or Taiji, or Xingyi? 

It is a good idea not to write down a goal that is overwhelming. Do you want to learn Chen Taiji? Then start with the silk-reeling exercises. Set a goal of learning one every two days, and set a time to study. It may only be ten or twenty minutes, but that is okay. 

Perhaps your goal is to learn a form. You can have a big goal such as "Learn Xingyi," but then have smaller goals that help you achieve the big goal. 

Do you want to learn the Five Fist Postures? Then write down your goal, set a day to complete it, and then plan out the time to study and practice and get feedback.

Maybe your next goal is the Bagua Swimming Body form. Set a time to complete it, then make a plan to take it move...

I taught a journalism course at a local university in 2016, both the spring and fall semesters. The picture above is when I arrived on campus at St. Ambrose University.

It was my first experience teaching. I do not have a Masters, but I had enough experience in journalism (I won a few Associated Press awards during 22 years in news) that the department chair thought I would do a good job.

The students filed in on the first day of my first class. I spent a LOT of time working on an entertaining and informative PowerPoint and lecture.

A couple of students looked at me, smiled and said hello as they found a seat. Most of them walked in without acknowledging me, found a seat, and began staring at the computer screen that they each had on their desk. There was no attempt to engage by most of the students.

I have always enjoyed kids, and young people, and have always found ways of making them laugh and have fun.

But a college setting was different.

It was fascinating, watching some s...

It is a B.S. argument, but it is the current fad in martial arts discussions.

"If you can't take on an MMA fighter, your martial art is useless."

Nonsense.

Being prepared to take on an MMA or a UFC fighter is NOT real-life self-defense.

That's like saying if you are into boxing, you have to be prepared to take on a Golden Gloves competitor.

The truth is, you don't.

Nobody trains all-out. Nobody trains realistically. It is mental masturbation to think that you do.

If you did train all-out, like a "real" fight, you and your partners would not train very long.

Unless you are in a full-contact fight with no rules at all, it is very difficult to defend the way you want to.

If a shooter comes in, I want to knee them in the face and strike down on the back of their neck with my elbow. If someone clinches, I want to bite a hole in their arm.

If anyone practiced realistically, in any martial art, we would all take turns going to the hospital.

We were practicing clinches last week, ...

If you have been reading this blog since I began writing it in 2006, you know that I do not put teachers on pedestals. Okay, at least I try not to.

I look at martial arts masters as people, not gods. I do not worship them. I do not want them to be a parental figure. All I want to do is learn from them and support their efforts.

And so I hope it means something to you when I tell you there is a jewel of Taijiquan that is shining here in the United States. For most of the people who have studied Chen Taiji in America, it is an undiscovered jewel.

This past weekend, I attended another workshop by Chen Huixian, who lives and teaches with her husband Michael Chritton in Overland Park, Kansas, which is part of the greater Kansas City area. Michael met her when he was training in the Chen Village under Grandmaster Chen Zhenglei. They eventually married and she moved with Michael back to Overland Park.

How lucky that was for Michael. And how lucky it was for us.

Michael was the very first...

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.

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...

I first launched the $5,000 Chi Challenge around 2002. It was published in Inside Kung-Fu magazine in 2003 (see the headline halfway down the left side of the magazine cover in the photo).

To date, no one has accepted the challenge. The most recent teacher to receive my challenge was Richard Clear, but after an initial acceptance in messages (he said he would be "happy" to take my money), when it was time to sign an agreement, it fell through. 

After it fell through, I began to receive messages and emails from his Business Manager with what I considered veiled threats to "visit" me.

Here is what happened, boiled down as simply and accurately as I can do it:

On the Fajin Project Facebook page -- I am a member of the page -- we look at videos by martial artists who appear, whether stated or not, that they possess "chi" powers that defy physics. Often, these are teachers who pretend to knock their students down without touching them, or they touch them lightly with push hands, for exa...

Grandmaster Chen Xiaowang was teaching us the proper way to do fajin ("issuing energy") with the Hidden Hand Punch movement from Laojia Yilu. He had each person stand in front of him and do the movement.

I had really been practicing, and I was particularly proud of the way I was able to close into the kua before firing the punch. I had been studying Chen Taiji for over five years, practicing and practicing. I knew I was going to get a "good" from the Grandmaster.

He stood and watched as I assumed the position, legs wide, and I closed into the kua.

He shook his head. "Too much," he said.

"Too much?" I asked.

There was a bit of a language barrier, but it was clear that he did not like what he saw.

"Too much."

He showed me, and he settled into the kua the way I had done. "Too much," he repeated. Then he did it again, closing into the kua in a much more subtle way.

"Just enough," he said.

Ahhh, just enough.

I tried to copy him, and closed much softer. Then I fired the punch.

He ...