Ken Gullette's Internal Fighting Arts

Last year, a student joined our tai chi class who has been involved in the art for decades. He even teaches now, even though he really shouldn't, based on his knowledge of body mechanics.

One night in class we had a discussion of chi, and I explained my views. I said that no one could use chi to make a person move without touching them.

"I can," he said.

"Really? You can make me move without touching me?" I asked.

"Yes, I've done it many times."

"Well, all I can tell you is one, no you haven't, and two, you certainly can't make me move without touching me," I said.

So, with several students watching, he walked up close to me. Very close. His face was inches away from mine, and he held his hands up just a centimeter or two from my face.

Now, the natural human reaction when someone moves so close is to back away, but that's what he expected me to do. Instead, I relaxed and decided that I wasn't going to let the fact that he had violated my space bother me. He kept his hands in fro...

I'm not sure where these tips came from, but I thought I'd pass them on because they're good ones for the practice of Baguazhang.

1. Keep the head upright and neck straight (but not tense) with spirit and intention.

2. Keep the back rounded, stretched and natural, not stiff.

3. Keep the shoulders relaxed and dropped (so power can reach the hands).

4. Keep the arms closed inward -- front arm bent and extended; rear arm protects the body.

5. Drop the elbows. The role of elbows is to protect within attack.

6. Palms - the thumb is spread outward, fingers extended and fanned as if holding a teacup. The tiger's mouth is round and separated.

7. Waist is like an axle - hardness and softness exist together. There is twisting and turning with strength and agility.

8. Keep the hips under the body - don't let them protrude. Relax the lower back.

9. The front thigh leads the way and the rear thigh supports. Knees are kept together and both thighs protect the crotch.

10. The inner foot (th...

"Standing stake" is one of the fundamental exercises in Chen tai chi, and it's also, in my humble opinion, the best chi kung exercise you can do. If you spend a few minutes a day doing this, you can begin the journey to use the internal arts to create a more healthy and positive life.

A centered life.

Here's a very basic guide -- stand with your feet shoulder-width apart. Your feet should be parallel. Relax the knees--don't lock them out. Keep the head up and the chin slightly tucked in (slightly). Relax the lower back by slightly tucking the hips under. Raise your hands so that it appears you're embracing a tree. Your palms should face your body, your fingers are pointing toward each other.

Relax your shoulders. Working your way down your body, focus on relaxing every muscle.

Calm your mind and place part of your awareness on your dan t'ien (the fist-sized area about 1.5 inches below the navel and an inch or two inside the body).

When I do this exercise, I use mental imagery. I ...

In class Wednesday night we did some "connecting" drills. 

Remaining centered and connected to the people and the world around you is a noble pursuit--one that we naturally fall short of at times because of human nature, but that's true with any philosophical or religious pursuit, isn't it? We can really try to live our philosophy, but there's always the occasional slip-up.

The practice of kung fu, at its core, is about mastering ourselves. Let's face it--I hope I'm never in another real fight. I haven't been in a real fight since high school. I've managed to calm down potentially violent situations several times as an adult, and I've always felt good about that. The reason we practice the martial art is to gain control over our minds and bodies.

But if we fail to control ourselves in daily life, our martial arts training isn't very effective.

I've told this story before, but the first time I realized I was incorporating the philosophy and the centering skills into my life was when...

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 ...