Ken Gullette's Internal Fighting Arts

My teacher stood in the middle of the kung-fu school, explaining how you can disrupt your opponent's chi during an attack by drawing a circle in the air as you drop to the ground.

Here is how he explained it to us. Your opponent is rushing at you to tackle you, and if you drop to the ground you can guide his chi over you with this half-circle you draw in the air as you drop. His chi will be disrupted and he will fall over you, unable to touch you.

My teacher said we would all try it, and he picked another student, a very nice and very loyal student, to go first.

The student ran across the floor, and just as he was about to reach him, my teacher dropped to the floor and drew and half circle with his hands in the air.

The student fell over him and did a breakfall on the other side. 

It worked! My teacher was untouched.

Except that I was standing there watching, my critical thinking skills firing on all cylinders, knowing that you can't control someone that way. It can't be done. An...

Can you punch through a sheet of newspaper?

Sounds easy, doesn't it?

Okay, smarty pants, have a partner hold a sheet of newspaper very lightly on the top corners. You stand in front of it and punch through it.

It's an eye-opening experience but it is a good test of your internal body mechanics. Are you able to maintain the mechanics as you "put on the gas?"

This is one of the videos on my membership website. It was shot around 2005 - maybe earlier. I was practicing with a student last night and he mentioned the video, so we got a sheet of newspaper out and tried this. He was not successful in breaking it, but I (fortunately) was able to do it with my first punch.

The secret is in applying all the internal mechanics -- ground path, peng jin, whole-body movement, silk-reeling, Dan T'ien rotation, and opening/closing the kua -- in a connected, relaxed way while speeding it up -- fajing.

Try it yourself. Let me know how it goes. And thanks to Nancy for being my partner, as usual. She...

Zhan Zhuang is also called "Standing Stake" or "Standing Like A Pole." It is the most important exercise in Tai Chi. It can be used for meditation and qigong, but it also will help improve your Tai Chi.

Here are the basics of getting into a Zhan Zhuang stance:

1. Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart.

2. Raise your arms as if hugging a tree with the palms facing you.

3. Relax the knees and let them flex a bit.

4. Relax every muscle in your body - neck, shoulders, chest, abdomen, hips and legs.

5. Keep the head up and the chin slightly tucked.

6. "Sink" your weight -- your "energy" -- and feel as if your weight is sinking into the ground or floor.

7. Calm the mind along with the body.

Here are important things you need to incorporate into your Zhan Zhuang practice:

8. Relax the lower back. We usually keep it tense when we are standing. When you relax the muscles in the lower back, you will feel your buttocks sink and "tuck" slightly. That is a good thing.

9. You should ...

Taiji and Bagua are especially dependent upon Silk-Reeling Energy (San ssu jin) but it is also present in Xingyi.

Silk-Reeling Energy provides “coiling leverage” to movement. Silk-Reeling is not a scientifically valid “energy” in our bodies and it is not related to an invisible energy called “chi.” It is just like every other “energy” in the internal arts – it is a method of moving in response to force. The body mechanics of Taiji, Bagua and Xingyi are physical skills that require a lot of mental focus so you can be prepared to respond like an echo to an opponent’s force.

Silk-Reeling energy gives more power to concepts such as “four ounces repels a thousand pounds,” or “four ounces deflects a thousand pounds” depending on who tells it.

One of many ways this can be demonstrated is with a wrist grab. 

Your opponent grabs and you try using normal muscular actions to pull away as he tries to hold on. It will be difficult to escape. You may be able to escape, but it will take a lot ...

Ken Gullette (right) practicing spear fighting techniques with Chris Miller.

I saw a cool video today that I'm not putting up because of the profanity involved. Two men on a commuter train begin punching and kicking another man repeatedly as other people in the train car look on, afraid to help. Except for one bystander who happened to be carrying a samurai sword. This young guy pulled out his sword and held it above his head in a good Samurai pose, ready to strike. He moved toward the attackers. They ran away and got off the train.

Apparently a sword can be an intimidating weapon in modern times.

I have some instructional weapons videos on YouTube, including one video on the fighting applications of the straight sword. Occasionally, an anonymous idiot will flame the video with a comment such as "That sword would be useless against a 9mm." 

Ken practicing the Chen Double Broadsword Form with Kim Kruse.

To an outside observer who has never studied traditional martial arts, ...

One of my favorite quotes from Bruce Lee was not completely original. The concept was already part of Taoism and Zen long before he said it, but Westerners had not heard it in the early Seventies.

"You must empty your mind," he said. "Be formless, shapeless, like water. You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. Put it in a teapot it becomes the teapot. Water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend."

My partner Colin aims a punch at my chest.

I think of this often when I work with my students on push hands and other close-up self-defense skills. I try to be water, and flow around resistance to find my way to my target.

What happens when you punch water? Bruce Lee talked about an inspiration he had when he was frustrated and punched water one day on a lake. Whether this story is true or not doesn't matter. Bruce said that when he punched into a lake, he was inspired because the water gave in to his punch and yet flowed around his fist.

Taoism says "the softes...

“How long does it take to get a black belt?” asked the prospective student.

“Five seconds,” said the teacher.

“Really?”

“Yes. All I have to do is hand it to you. But it takes much longer to earn one.”

"Maybe I can earn it faster than most people."

"Well, we don't do black belts. We do sashes, and a black sash doesn't mean very much, really. We only have those because in America, people seem to need it. A black sash doesn't really mean anything."

"It means you are deadly," the student said.

The teacher laughed. "No. It means you have just begun to learn. There are a lot of black belts who know very little and can do even less."

“Oh. Well, I want to be able to use Taiji to fight.”

“Why?”

The student asked, “If I am in a bar and get attacked, will I be able to use Taiji to fight?”

“You can use Taiji to stay away from a bar where fighting may occur,” said the teacher.

“Have you ever had to use Taiji in a fight?”

“No.”

“How about Bagua or Xingyi?”

“No. I have not been in a re...

There are many "energies" (Jin) in Taijiquan. The term "energy" has been misinterpreted by some people who take the translation too literally. The word "energy" when applied to Taiji simply means a physical method of sensing and dealing with your opponent's force in a way that follows core internal strength principles.

The most important energy in Taiji is Peng Jin. That is the expansive feeling that fills the body and pushes outward. When you touch an opponent, Peng Jin is necessary to test your opponent, "feel" and respond to your opponent's force and the direction that force is going. But the ability to be sensitive to your opponent's force and direction is Listening Energy, or "Ting Jin."

I once belonged to a school where we were taught that if we stood in front of our opponent, if we just worked hard and gained a high level of skill, we could actually "read" his chi -- we could read his mind and know that he was going to attack us even before he made a physical move.

Well, bull...

There are many different "energies" in Tai Chi and the internal arts. Cai energy is also called "Pluck." It is a sudden pulling action that can take your opponent off-balance.

Pluck can be done in a subtle way in push hands but in real self-defense, when your life can be in danger, it is not subtle and not especially pretty -- but it is definitely effective and it can be used against all kinds of attacks. 

Ken Gullette covers protectively against a sudden attack by Colin Frye.

Here is how to begin practicing this particular method of Tai Chi Pluck energy. Have a partner attack you without warning. Your first goal is to cover and block the attack. Instinctively, you should drop your weight and avoid the lifting of the body. This takes a lot of practice and presence of mind. In fact, it is a very good idea simply to react to an initial attack by practicing -- over and over -- the dropping and covering technique to protect yourself in the event of a surprise attack. 

Despite what ...