Ken Gullette's Internal Fighting Arts

 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...

You can practice techniques and forms for decades, but that doesn't mean you're ready to defend yourself if suddenly attacked.

I love to learn fighting applications. I love to look deep into a movement and unlock its potential. There are always fighting applications you don't see -- even in what might appear at first to be just a "transition" from one movement to the next.

Last night, we did some real-world drills, aimed at using two Hsing-I techniques -- peng chuan and pi chuan (crushing fist and splitting palm) against an attack.

Students strapped on their protective gear and paired off. One would throw an attack and I coached (along with black sash Chris Miller) them in an effective way to respond -- a flurry of peng chuan and pi chuan -- rapid fire -- at the stomach, ribs, solar plexus and face.

Students had to throw at least 5 strikes -- using peng and pi -- back to back -- FAST!!

Some students will hesitate after throwing one technique. I pushed them to respond faster and wi...

As I wandered through the Exhibit Hall at the Martial Arts Supershow 2010 in Las Vegas, I was disappointed that there was nothing that related to the internal arts.

Even the seminars were focused on kickboxing, karate (the modern version), TKD (the modern version) and MMA or MMA-related things (like "Cage Fitness").

Except for one booth, and it was completely embarrassing.

It was called Quantum Science -- BioTech Optimum Energy Program. The people at the booth should have been arrested for false advertising.

They were selling pendants. If you wear these pendants, they improve your chi and can even kill cancer cells -- that's exactly what a woman behind the booth told me.

It isn't just a pendant. They also will take your hard-earned cash for a bracelet or a watch that will do the same thing.

You see, their stuff "promotes positive flow of energy and helps to maintain energy balance. It helps to restore energy that has become weak in the body." That quote is from their brochure....

I attended the Martial Arts Supershow this week in Las Vegas. I would never have believed that I would completely feel like a fish out of water.

I believe every good martial arts teacher should make a profit. I believe in making money. Every good instructor should make enough money to live a good lifestyle and save for a secure future. I try to make money at my arts, and I do, but not enough.

It's sad to see good martial arts schools struggle. The image of the kung-fu or karate teacher living a meager existence, taking little for lessons but teaching a pure art is becoming a memory.

Even Chinese masters have learned that they can make big bucks, and they want the money. Chen Xiaowang, I heard, is a millionaire. He deserves it. He has worked hard and has a legacy.

And yet, it's disappointing to me to attend a Martial Arts Supershow like the one in Las Vegas this week and see that it's so geared to the business side of the arts. They taught things such as: How do you squeeze more ...

Bruce Lee said, "I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once. I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times."

This is a profound statement, but I don't know very many Americans who practice the principle behind it. I see it in my students, and I've seen it in myself -- the quest to learn more forms, thinking that it means we're good at what we do.

But learning more forms doesn't make you good.

Oh sure, we can win trophies at tournaments. We can put our art up against our peers and bring home some hardware. And tournaments are good for marketing, but you take a first place performance at most American tournaments to the Chen Village and you'd be considered a rank beginner. Let's not kid ourselves.

In the Chen Village, it is said that students may spend 10 years practicing only Laojia Yilu. Ten years before they are allowed to practice another empty hand or weapons form.

How well do you think they can perform Laojia Yilu at the end of that time?

A little over a ...

Like a lot of people, I used to think that if you had a black belt in a martial art, you were capable of killing people with your bare hands, a walking lethal weapon. It was a world shrouded in secrecy and mystery.

When I earned a black sash in 1997 and started teaching, I realized the holes that I still needed to fill in my knowledge and experience -- holes the size of the Grand Canyon. So I continued to study, learn, and through the miracle of videotape, I could watch my tournament performances and cringe at the improvements I needed to make in my own body mechanics and form.

I was only beginning to study.

Now, I've been teaching for 12 1/2 years and only two students have achieved a black sash. Yesterday, Chris Miller went through the test -- drilled through the basics of Hsing-I Chuan, Chen Tai Chi, Baguazhang, plus sparring in all three arts, sparring with straight sword, staff, broadsword and elk horn knives, plus chin-na, push hands, fighting applications -- all the material...

22 years ago I stood in a kung-fu school in Omaha as a black sash student (black belt) -- Bob -- was asked what a particular movement meant for self-defense. I was not a black sash at the time. Bob was a friendly person and was very helpful to lower-ranking students. When asked what a movement meant, he would demonstrate three or four powerful techniques that were hidden in the movement -- it wasn't just a block, for example, it was also an arm lock and a takedown.

I was amazed at the depth of his knowledge. How did he become so good that he could see so deeply into these flowery kung-fu movements?

The years passed and I continued to study. Sometimes, I would begin learning a long series of movements known as a "form" (often called "kata"). These forms could include up to 100 movements and take 12 or 13 minutes to perform. Each time I would begin on the first movement, it seemed that I would never get to the end.

But one step at a time -- one movement at a time -- suddenly the en...

MMA is mesmerizing, especially for guys. It gets our testosterone pumping. There is a part of us that wants to be inside the ring, mano-a-mano, toughing it out with minimal protection, and may the best man win.

I've watched MMA matches on TV and they hook me with raw brutality. Maybe it's the fights I got into while I was growing up. I never wanted to fight, but I was often picked on by older, bigger guys, and was forced into fighting. Once the fight began I loved it. I considered it the ultimate competition, and you have no excuses if you lose.

I never lost a fight. A few were draws, but I was never beaten up. 

So MMA appeals to me on one level. On another level, I've reached the conclusion that this type of fighting is ugly, and the fighters and hard-core fans may have a problem.

Maybe I've gotten older and wiser.

There's a reality show that follows ultimate fighters around through their lives, training and travel. I watched one show and it was obvious that some of the guys on t...

A lot of misinformation has spread about Tai Chi. The art is a very effective way to ease stress, improve health, and develop self-defense skills. So why am I asked so often if Christians can study Tai Chi?

I need to let you know that I grew up in Southern, conservative, fundamentalist Christian churches. I was baptized.

I can also tell you very clearly that there is nothing religious about Tai Chi or any other martial art, including boxing, wrestling, fencing, karate, or taekwondo.

Americans are not always well-informed about other cultures, and sometimes they jump to conclusions about things they don't understand. My daughter had a yin-yang sticker on her notebook in junior high school, and a couple of girls accused her of being Satanic.

My daughter, a very sweet girl, learned a lot during that time about how ignorant and narrow-minded some people can be. Often, however, these people are reflecting what they've heard elsewhere.

Naturally, not all Christians are this way -- I've ...