Ken Gullette's Internal Fighting Arts

Those of us who practice Tai Chi (Taiji) as a fighting art pursue concepts that represent a holy grail. They are written about in the classics, and spoken of in quotes by long-dead masters including Chen Wangting, who supposedly said:

"I know everyone, but no one knows me."

When I first became interested in the Kung Fu TV show back in the early Seventies, one of the interesting quotes from the show was:

"A Shaolin monk, when reached for, cannot be felt."

When I was 18 and watching that show, I thought that meant something mystical, as if a Shaolin monk vanished in front of you. But the quote resonated with me.

I have done push hands with some Chinese instructors, including Chen Bing and Chen Xiaoxing, who, when I pushed on them, they disappeared and very quickly I found myself off-balance (or on the floor). When I reached for them, they could not be felt.

In other words, I could not find their center, but they could find mine.

For a long time, I've been working to get better at ...

At one of the workshops I attended with Chen Xiaowang, he told the story of a taiji instructor who invited his young, eager students to have dinner with him.

They all sat around the table as spaghetti with meatballs was served.

The master took his fork and tried to spear a juicy meatball that was on his plate. He missed.

The master kept trying to spear the meatball and it kept slipping away from the fork, so he chased it around the plate, stabbing and missing.

After a moment, he looked up at his young students seated around the table. Each student was chasing a meatball around the plate just like the master was doing.

That is how the master does it, so that is how it must be done. The master is showing us the way! 

I am paraphrasing this story. In Chen Xiaowang's version, the master may have been using chopsticks - it has been a while, but the gist of the story is the same, and he laughs when he tells it, but as you look around at the students who are listening, you see them smil...

When I teach the internal arts - Xingyiquan, Chen Taiji and Baguazhang - I teach fighting applications with the movements.

It is very important to learn how to move from form to self-defense. A positive learning environment helps, where your partner is trying to help you internalize the meaning and the application of the movement.

My website - www.internalfightingarts.com - has more than 750 video lessons and downloadable pdf documents.

This is a short clip from some of the videos we are currently shooting and putting on the site. It shows a Pi Chuan cutting block and deflects and redirects your partner's energy, setting you up for a counter.

Steve said he could emit light from his hands and "lift" me spiritually if I would "receive the light." It is a practice called "Sukyo Mahikari."

"You emit light from your hands?" I asked.

"Yes, would you like to try it?" he replied.

I said sure. I sat down in a chair facing him. He sat across from me.

"Close your eyes," he said. "This will take about 10 minutes."

I closed my eyes and relaxed. Steve, a mild-mannered, soft-spoken man about my age began praying in a language I had never heard. After a moment of prayer, he held up his hands and began shooting light out of them, I suppose. At least that's what he thought he was doing.

I peeked once during the 10-minute session and there was no light coming out of his hands. Maybe it was beyond the visible spectrum. So I cooperated, relaxed, and tried to be receptive to whatever happened. Nothing happened.

At the end of 10 minutes, he prayed again in tongues and then told me to open my eyes.

"Did you feel anything?" he asked with ...

This isn't going to go down well with my friends who are acupuncturists, qigong instructors, and Christians.

I know a lot of very good people in all three groups. Hell, I used to be a Christian, and I have practiced qigong since 1987. I use qigong for stress management and to help maintain my center in a hectic, crazy world. I studied acupuncture for two years, had all the equipment, and even practiced on people. I don't do that anymore.

I am a skeptic.

That means I need evidence before I believe something, and I have not seen evidence that the medical claims made by proponents of alternative medicine and TCM work very often beyond what you would expect from a placebo.

I wasn't always a skeptic. My mom raised me to be a Christian, but I left the faith around age 20, when I discovered Eastern philosophy. I gave the concepts of chi and acupuncture a shot -- a very open-minded shot -- as I studied qigong and acupuncture. I wanted them to be true.

Being a skeptic means that I am not ...

Tai Chi (Taiji) is performed slowly so students can learn the internal body mechanics that make it a powerful fighting art.

Every movement in Taiji has several self-defense applications. In my DVDs on fighting applications, I show more than 400 strikes, kicks, joint locks, sweeps, and takedowns in the Laojia Yilu form.

Recently, I decided to go through the 75 movements of Laojia Yilu -- also known as "Old Frame First Form" -- and do as many board breaks as I could find, without repeating any of the movements (several movements are repeated in the form). This video focuses only on striking possibilities in the form -- not chin-na or sweeps or throws. Just strikes and some kicks.

I came up with 144 board breaks in a little over two hours, then, after first posting the video a week ago, I saw 29 breaks that I wanted to add, so we shot those yesterday. My thanks to Colin Frye for holding the boards and my wife, Nancy, for being the ace videographer.

Now for some Breaking News -- 173 bo...

Did you ever find yourself in a situation where a bigger bully attacked you and it was clear that you didn't have a chance? Have you ever been frightened and covered up to protect yourself?

Here is another question. Have you ever found yourself in a position when you had to defend yourself and you were determined to win?

There is a big difference between those two situations, and the difference is Spirit.

In the internal arts, Spirit is called "Shen." It is the "emotional mind."

The Three Internal Harmonies begin with Spirit. The state of your emotional mind combines with your Mind/Intent ("Yi" -- pronounced Yee). Shen is often called the "emotional mind" while Yi is sometimes called the "wisdom mind."

Think of one of the greatest fighters in history -- Muhammad Ali. Think of his attitude when he entered a fight. Confident, bold, smart, ready and willing to rumble.

Then think of a time when you were sparring -- or perhaps in a fight in school or on the street -- and you were not...

I recently shot applications for the entire Chen Tai Chi Straight Sword Form for my website. I've always believed that if a student is going to learn a weapons form, he should know how it is used in combat. For each of the weapons forms that I teach in Chen Taiji, Xingyiquan and Baguazhang, I teach the body mechanics and fighting applications, too.

This is a very short video showing two applications from two movements in the form -- "Ancient Tree Entwines its Roots" and "Hungry Tiger Searches for Food."

The straight sword was a popular weapon on the battlefields of ancient China. Fighting with a straight sword was a high-level skill. These two sword-fighting applications involve deflecting, sticking, following, controlling your opponent's blade and thrusting.

The video of all the sword applications is available only on my membership website, along with over 700 other video lessons covering the three internal arts and Qigong. There are also ebooks for members to download as part of t...

Fellow taiji instructor Kim Ivy of Seattle put an interesting post on Facebook last week and it triggered some thoughts that probably all instructors entertain from time to time.

It's a bit puzzling to us, and it actually sometimes hurts a little bit when we spend time with a student, coach them, laugh with them, give time and energy and care, only to have them suddenly vanish and we never hear from them again.

It has happened to me several times. I have had students who achieved rank, attended tournaments with me and we had a great time, developed a camaraderie, and suddenly they are gone and never communicate, as if I was just some passing acquaintance.

As a student, I left one or two teachers without saying anything, including my very first teacher, Sin The. But in all the time I was a student of Sin The's, rising to 3rd degree brown belt, I can't recall one conversation that he ever had with me. I'm not even sure he ever gave me any personal coaching at all. It was a very impers...

This video shows Grandmaster Chen Xiaoxing giving a private push hands lesson to my former teacher, the late Mark Wasson, in the early 2000s. 

Mark was on one of his many visits to train with the Chen family in Chenjiagou, but it was a cold winter day and in those days, the village was still without heat in most of its buildings. So Chen Xiaoxing graciously came to Mark's hotel room to train him.

Mark died in 2013 after a long battle with Crohn's Disease. He helped to popularize Chen Taiji in the United States, sponsoring or arranging sponsors for Chen Xiaoxing and others to visit the U.S. for workshops, and Mark also took several Americans to Chen Village to train.

When I studied with Mark, I sponsored Chen Xiaoxing's visa for his 2006 visit to the United States. In return, Chen Xiaoxing stayed in my home for a week and we practiced like this every day. I learned a lot and, after being thrown to the ground so many times, got a brand new perspective of my basement carpet.

This is p...