Ken Gullette's Internal Fighting Arts

One of my teachers - Jim Criscimagna - coaches me on push hands around 2004.

When I worked in TV news, few veterans took the time to coach me. I had the good sense, however, to watch good people and take note of the way they were writing and delivering the news. I pushed myself to get better.  

I probably hit my peak just before I left the business when I did an award-winning series called Robb's Life, which is now on YouTube in about 36 episodes.

In 1989, I became a news director -- in charge of the entire newsroom. I decided that I would do for people what nobody had done for me -- give them real coaching so they could cut years off their development. I would regularly sit down with employees -- reporters, videographers, anchors, producers -- and I would look at their videos and give them tips on how to push the creative envelope, how to shoot better video and tell a story, how to write more clearly.

Once, I was coaching a sports veteran whose stories were tired and cliched -...

I was 20 years old on October 30, 1973, when I took my first promotion test in martial arts. I was tested by my teacher, Grandmaster Sin The in Lexington, Kentucky. I'm resisting the urge to put quotes around "Grandmaster." At the time, I really thought he was a Grandmaster.

I had enrolled in classes a little over a month earlier, on September 20th and I had trained my hiney off, punching and kicking up and down the hallways in Commonwealth Hall at Eastern Kentucky University. I practiced at least an hour a day. I was never very good at baseball or football. I high-jumped in high school but wasn't the fastest runner.

Martial arts clicked with me like nothing had before.

When the day of testing came, I was very nervous. But I got up with the other students and performed the following:

** 5 Short Kata

** 5 Sparring Techniques

** 10 Self-Defense Techniques

** 1 Long Kata: "Si Mu Tai Lai"

** One on One Sparring with another student

The short kata were pretty simple. Looking back, ...

I received an email from a guy in Kansas a couple of weeks ago. He had seen one of my videos and began asking questions about the internal arts. He had practiced several arts over the years and was now studying Wing Chun from a guy who also teaches Tai Chi but only for health purposes.

He wondered if he was getting the real deal.

I asked a few questions and told him some experiences I've had with instructors who taught Yang tai chi for meditation and health, versus the Chen style instructors I've had who teach body mechanics for internal power. This is not mystical -- it's physical.

Finally, I directed him to the school of Chen Huixian, a niece of Chen Zhenglei who teaches in Overland Park.

At the same time, he signed up for a free course I was offering. Here's what he wrote after seeing the second or third video, when I explain peng jin and clearly demonstrate the physical nature of this skill:

"Ken, you have no idea how much that has helped because I really did believe those va...

 A teacher I've never met started dissing me on an online martial arts forum a few days ago. One of the things he criticized was wearing a Tai Chi or Kung-Fu uniform in my videos -- Chinese pajamas I think he put it. That showed him I'm not serious about using Taiji, Hsing-I or Bagua for real self-defense. 

That was news to me, especially considering his own teacher wears the pajamas.

By the way -- I don't always wear a uniform for practice. Sometimes I wear a Bruce Lee t-shirt. Sometimes a "Chillin' With My Peeps" t-shirt. Sometimes I wear a sweatshirt if the weather is cold.

But if I'm doing a video I'll wear a uniform. 

For one thing, it looks more "professional." I don't want to appear like all the backyard masters who you see on YouTube. 

If people who wear uniforms are not serious martial artists, I shouldn't have let Chen Xiaoxing take me to the ground. He can't be serious!

For another thing, I've always thought a uniform is cool, and isn't that why a lot of us got int...

Don't take medical advice from someone who is not a doctor.

A martial artist in Europe contacted me recently and said that about two and a half years after he began practicing tai chi, hsing-i, bagua and qigong, he began feeling exhausted each time he practiced.

When he does other activities, the student feels good. But when he tries to do the internal arts, he is drained of energy and feels horrible.

His teacher told him that these arts "touch the soul and feelings." In short, the student must be doing something wrong.

There are a lot of quacks in the world of internal arts. "If you do this technique wrong, it will hurt your gall bladder, and if you don't do this movement correctly, it will harm your large intestine."

And people believe it. But, as we can see during this political season, or in churches throughout the world, people will believe just about anything. It doesn't have to make sense.

I advised this student to see a doctor. Have some tests run. Find out what's going o...

All teachers enjoy seeing new students come to a class or practice to check out the arts. For many of them, it's a new world -- mysterious and fascinating.

The first session with me is often a reality check for new students. They often have many tai chi misconceptions. Recently, a great young guy came to our practice -- tall, with his own tai chi uniform already, and moves suggesting some decent experience in other arts.

One of the first things he said was how excited he was to study with "a great master." 

Bubble Burst #1 -- There are very few masters in the United States. There are some very good teachers but I could probably count on one hand the people I would say are masters, and I might have a couple of fingers remaining after the count. So I corrected the new guy and told him I am farther along than he is and can teach him, but I don't have enough time in this lifetime to become what anyone would describe as a "master."

I've been lucky to study with teachers who are much far...

Is Tai Chi really "moving meditation?" This may be a controversial topic. Fasten your seat belts.

Is the purpose of Tai Chi Chuan to detach your mind, relax and become One with the Universe?

No. It isn't.

It can be used that way, and certainly millions of people do. But it was created as a martial art, and the "intent" of each movement is to develop body mechanics and structure that will help you break an opponent and put them on the ground.

Should you practice Tai Chi with "no mind?"

No way.

Each movement should be done with the body mechanics of the fighting applications in mind. That can be slowly as you work the body mechanics and try to get better at the flow of relaxed power through the body, and it can be done very fast, with strong fa-jing movements.

If you disengage the mind, you lose the intent of the movement.

Is Tai Chi good for exercise and health?

Of course it is. When done the way it was intended, Tai Chi is an amazing workout.

I've told the story before of th...

 I began studying Tai Chi in 1987. I loved my instructor and considered him a master. I became pretty good at the Yang 24 Simplified Form and even won a Gold Medal performing it at the 1990 AAU Kung-Fu National Championships.

Every day, I practiced chi kung. I studied acupuncture and worked hard to cultivate my chi. Eight Pieces of Brocade, Microcosmic Orbit, even Iron Palm.

Flash forward to 1997, when I began teaching a small group of students near the Quad Cities, where I relocated in 1993. I had a black sash and was teaching the system I had learned beginning in 1987.

The Internet was beginning to really take off, and I found a listserve about Neijia -- the internal arts. I started reading posts, arguments and discussions led primarily by Mike Sigman and some others. I read terms such as ground path and peng jin in ways I had never heard them discussed. I read about the "Teacher Test" and how a good tai chi teacher can perform it.

I had no idea what they were talking about, and ...

I have a good friend who found me online and called me up. We talked for a few minutes and decided to meet in a park and compare notes.

"I've studied and taught Tai Chi for 20 years," he said. I was impressed and thought that perhaps I could learn from him, too.

We met and talked for a few minutes, and the subject of silk-reeling energy came up. He said he had been taught silk-reeling and practiced it.

I asked him to show me. He stood up and did a silk-reeling exercise. His hips swung wildly and there wasn't much connection.

I was raised in the South, where we try to be polite. I didn't say much, but began showing one of the silk-reeling exercises I learned from Jim and Angela Criscimagna and some members of the Chen family, including Chen Xiaowang.

My new friend tried again and again, the connection wasn't there through the body. There was too much obvious arm movement and no whole-body power.

I asked him if he ever practiced fighting applications, and showed him the Chen moveme...

I am always broken-hearted to hear of the death of any kung-fu master, so I was very sorry to hear that Grandmaster Feng Zhiqiang passed away a few weeks ago. My condolences go out to his students and his family.

When great masters die, I check to see how long they have lived. Usually, it isn't a lot longer than the general population.

Grandmaster Feng was 83 or 84 - he was born in 1928.

And now comes the part of the post that some may find controversial but it is intended to carry the utmost respect for Grandmaster Feng.

He was a disciple of Hu Yaozhen, a Taoist qigong master. Grandmaster Feng studied with him and also with the great Taiji master Chen Fake. Feng eventually developed his own style of Chen Taiji that included qigong, silk-reeling exercises, etc.

I receive messages and scoldings occasionally from people who claim that qigong, and Taoist qigong, if done properly, will mean you will evade illness and disease, and will result in a very long life. I received some of the...