Ken Gullette's Internal Fighting Arts

Have you ever seen a dog shake water off itself? There is not one tense muscle in its body. The dog is totally relaxed and if you watch carefully, you'll see it grounding from its rear legs when it shakes the front half of it's body, and it will ground from the front legs when shaking the tail and rear half.

Without realizing it, the dog is practicing fajin.

Have you ever had something on your finger and tried to shake it off? Let's say....water. You have water on your hand and you give it a good flick -- a good shake. How tense are you? Not tense at all, are you? In fact, you relax it like a whip and snap it.

That same type of relaxation is needed for good fajin.

Good fajin is a matter of connecting all of the key internal body mechanics and taking full advantage of the relaxed power that can result from these mechanics.

--by Ken Gullette

I got a Google Alert on a blog post that I found interesting. The post sort of brushed aside people like me who are skeptical and require extraordinary proof of the existence of chi. When a "chi master" does a miraculous feat with his chi, I always want to find out how he cheated. In my opinion, too many in the world of tai chi turn their heads, or say "well maybe it's true because you can't explain everything that happens in nature," or "Western science is biased against chi," or things like that. A lot of folks say, "I've felt and seen strange things I can't explain, so maybe it's true."

Today, another tai chi teacher told me that I was too critical. I admit I'm critical of people who make extraordinary claims that crumble under a test from a skeptic. I'm guilty.

A couple of weeks ago, there was a biography about Houdini (photo at left) on a cable network. He was a magician and escape artist -- one of the fascinating people of history -- and in his final years, he exposed many f...

I'm often stunned by the literal-mindedness of some internal arts folks (that's no secret, is it?). The subject of fajin is one example of how a simple concept is misunderstood and misinterpreted.

Fajin means "issuing energy." Unfortunately, the people who desperately need to believe in the supernatural think that in doing fa-jing, you are shooting chi out of your hands or body. They take it literally.

It's not magical or mystical. It's a matter of physics. 

If you are a boxer, you're issuing energy when you deliver a jab, a cross, or a good left hook. If you're into kali, you're issuing energy when you hit someone with a stick (or even when you block another stick with yours), and if you're into karate, you issue energy when you break a board with your foot.

In the internal arts, fajin -- issuing energy -- is more complex, but the end result is the same. You knock the hell out of something or someone.

Grandmaster Chen Xiaowang (shown in the photo above working with students on fa...

Grandmaster Chen Xiaowang was teaching a workshop in the U.S. when one of the students commented about how difficult tai chi is.

If you've ever attended a workshop by a member of the Chen family, you understand why the comment would be made. Students hold postures while the instructor walks around the room, correcting each student individually. By the time he gets to you, your legs are often shaking with fatigue, and if he puts you into the correct posture, you may just collapse to the floor (photo at left shows Chen Xiaowang correcting me during a private lesson a few years ago).

This is one of the reasons I get annoyed when I see online ads that promise "easy tai chi." I'm sorry, my friends, there is no such thing. Fake tai chi might be easy. The health type of tai chi for "moving meditation" might be easy. Tai Chi for senior citizens might be easy.

Real tai chi is very difficult and takes years of practice to even begin to see proper body mechanics.

So when the comment was made ...

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...

This video was shot in 1987. It features a teacher in Chicago who is claiming to have chi powers that he does not have.

I would give him $5,000 to make me move around with his chi like the guy in the video.

I have seen this teacher on Facebook several years ago and he was combative and insulting. That is hardly what you would expect from someone who has tapped into secret universal energy.

Judge for yourselves.  

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 ...

A member of the online school asked a question on the discussion board and I thought it would also make for a good post here on the blog.

What are the Six Harmonies and what does it mean? Does it mean the hands move with the feet, the elbows move with the knees and the shoulders with the hips?

Some people say the Six Harmonies are:

1. Shoulders

2. Hips

3. Elbows

4. Knees

5. Hands

6. Feet

So the shoulders harmonize with the hips, the elbows with the knees, the hands with the feet.

That isn't the complete story, however. These three groups of two (hips/shoulders, elbows/knees, hands/feet) make up the THREE EXTERNAL HARMONIES.

The other three harmonies that make up the six harmonies would include Yi (Mind/Intent, which is frequently paired with "Shen" or Spirit), Chi (Energy), and Li (Strength, pronounced "Lee"). These are known as the Three Internal Harmonies.

The "Shen leads the Yi," the "Yi leads the Chi," and the "Chi leads the Li (strength)."

You must have a strong spiri...

Another member of my online internal arts school opted for personal coaching last week. He shot some video demonstrating a couple of silk-reeling movements and standing stake. In a move that I thought was very creative, he put the video clips on Facebook so that only I could see them.

I watched the video clips -- each one was between 3 and 5 minutes long -- and was able to make comments right there on his Facebook page. 

Whether we are enrolled in a regular school or the online school, most of us make the same mistakes when we're beginning. The most important thing for the student is to have a teacher who can identify errors and clearly explain them.

I shot a reply video for this person, showing him how he was turning his hips too much, and other tips just for him. Turning the hips is one of the most common mistakes people make early in their training. It's very hard for people to separate their waist/dan t'ien area and the hips. When you tell people to turn the waist, too often the...

I have lost the past two weeks in a sedated haze with tubes down my throat and doctors poking around inside my lungs and heart. 

Holy cow! I've achieved a new level of empathy for what people have to go through to try to regain their health, and in the process of lying flat on my back for 11 days, I now know what it's like to lose almost all of your muscular strength.

Yesterday, it took two guys to help me walk 3 feet to a chair. Today, I was able to walk by myself--shaky and unsteady as long as I had something to use as a "walker." Nancy walked with me up and down the hall and we both agreed we had never expected to see Kenny in this physical condition. 

I can't imagine how this impacts you when you're 85 years old. It's enough to take you out. In fact, more than one doctor has told me in the past 2 weeks that my high level of physical conditioning has helped me endure the problems that I've been aggressively trying to solve during the past year.

Teams of cardiologists and pulmono...