Ken Gullette's Internal Fighting Arts

Gary Liu asked this question:

"I have been learning Chen Taiji for just over 2 years. One of the things that frustrates me is the seemingly unrealistic techniques and chin-na that would be unrealistic for self-defence. Felt like a waste of time covering and learning them. I have always looked for simple techniques and doing them well for self-defence purposes.

After reading your post here about practicing the concepts behind them, things fall into perspective a lot more. Instead of a chore, chin-na becomes an opportunity to learn to send force into the opponent to control his body (as opposed to control of a local joint).

The Cannon Fist routine was a lot more direct and aligns more with what I am looking for (I have learned short yilu and erlu forms - now learning a long yilu form). Though looking at your Hsing-I instructions, I wonder if I should be giving Hsing-I a go due to more direct and simple movements.

If you have time, I would be very interested in hearing your view on Hs...

Last night at practice, some students and I went over basic ground strength exercises from the Internal Strength DVD. These are among the first things that my students learn, both in my classes and in the online school.

It was good to revisit these exercises. If you're doing the internal arts such as Tai Chi, Bagua, or Hsing-I, and you haven't been taught how to establish and maintain the ground path and peng jin throughout all of your movements--even while walking--then you're not really doing the internal arts, you're just moving in a way that looks like the internal arts. Unfortunately, most of the tai chi folks I meet around the country are just moving around. When you push on them they collapse. It's easy to see that there is no peng, no ground, no silk-reeling going on in their movement.

The development of internal strength gives you the iron inside the cotton, but it takes practice and someone to show you how it's done.

In the photos here, I show one of the exercises that we ...

On Saturday, Alex drove three hours from Milwaukee for a private lesson (pictured above). We worked in my basement for three hours and then he drove home. A 9-hour day for Alex. In the photo at left, I'm working with him on establishing and maintaining the ground connection--step one in learning the internal arts. We went through several of these exercises, plus peng jin, silk-reeling and whole-body movement. It was a lot of fun and I could tell he learned a lot.

I admire someone who does this. Alex has been a member of the online school, and he had the Internal Strength DVD, but he wanted to understand it better so he spent a day traveling to my home for some hands-on training and correction.

This is what it takes to succeed, and I admire someone who goes to that kind of time and effort.

It isn't easy finding good teachers to study Tai Chi with, and that's why--in 1998--I began making a 4-hour round trip to study on a regular basis (sometimes twice a week) ...

On Saturday, we practiced various techniques for unbalancing an attacker. Some were very subtle and will be covered in future posts and videos.

Here's the concept -- you take your opponent in the direction he wants to go. You can help the process along by making slight adjustments and adapting to the way he moves so that you can take advantage of they way he is moving.

Sometimes it only takes a push on his calf with your shin to make his rear shoulder turn every so slightly -- but enough for you to grab and help  the shoulder continue moving in that direction, causing your attacker to lose balance even more and hit the ground.

In the photos here, Leander Mohs is attacking Chris Miller. You see him step in with a punch. Chris deflects the punch and puts his right foot behind Leander's left foot and slides it back toward him. This unexpected move causes Leander to lose balance and he turns, trying not to fall on his back. The result puts him in a vulnerable position and Chris c...

Congratulations to Chris Miller and Kim Kruse on successfully promoting to the next level in our kung-fu system of internal arts.

Chris Miller has studied for more than three years and is now second degree brown sash. He is two tests away from black sash. During the brown sash levels, he is studying the basics of baguazhang.

Kim Kruse was promoted to blue sash, in the intermediate studies that focus on the basics of Chen tai chi. She has learned the Chen 19 form and is currently working on the Chen 38, push hands, and other parts of the curriculum. After this level, she will reach purple sash and study the Chen broadsword form and other material.

In the system I teach, students learn the basics of Hsing-I in the first three levels, Chen Tai Chi in the intermediate levels, and Bagua in the advanced levels. At black sash, you study more advanced forms and techniques in each of the three arts.

By the time a student reaches black sash, he or she has also learned forms and fighting w...

Most religions and philosophies teach harmony -- or, at least they pretend to teach it.

Finding your "center" is an important part of the internal arts. Some of the finest masters of Tai Chi, Bagua, and Hsing-I such as Chen Fake, Sun Lu Tang, Liu Bin and others were known not only for their martial skill, but also for their fine character. It's a trait of people who reach the highest level of the internal arts.

When you look at the people around you day-to-day, you can see that most people desperately want it--need it--and try to find it--but life's challenges, along with the attitudes of other people get in the way. Instead of balancing you, the events and news during a day can unbalance you mentally.

Look at what's happening in Washington these days. There is a complete lack of cooperation and goodwill between the two parties as the American people, other nations, and the environment are facing the most major challenges in our lifetimes. It seems that our politicians, particularly...

When Chen Xiaowang was a young man, he had game. My favorite Taiji performance of all time was a demo he did in Texas in 1988 during his first visit to the U.S. This is a demo he did three years earlier, in 1985 with the sword form.

A new friend who bought a DVD over the weekend asked a very interesting question in an email.

Can you achieve enlightenment by practicing Hsing-I?

I love the question. On one hand, I believe that if you expect to achieve enlightenment by practicing any art, you're placing too high of an expectation on that art.

On the other hand, I believe enlightenment can come at any time -- usually not when you're looking for it.

I've achieve what I thought was enlightenment by doing chi kung, particularly standing stake or the little cycle breathing exercises, sitting in a chair. A couple of times, when I did standing stake outdoors, I started by working on my posture and then I put part of my mind on my dan t'ien, while another part focused on breathing. I imagined energy coming in with the breath and collecting in the dan t'ien. From there, I imagined the energy circulating through the body.

After several minutes of this, I let my mind go and I let the sounds of the wind and the birds su...

Bagua is a fascinating martial art -- circling and changing, taking control of your opponent's center and countering.

A common movement in Bagua is sometimes called "switching," and it is part of the movement "Green Dragon Stretches its Claws."

It's an excellent fighting application for the street or even for tournament sparring.

Here's how it works: in Photo 1, the opponent's punch is met with a deflecting arm. This is easily done if you connect with your opponent and anticipate his attack.

In Photo 2, you turn the arm with the waist and with whole-body movement, starting with the ground. As you do this, your opponent's arm is flung into emptiness and often, his back is now turned.

In Photo 3, you take advantage of his vulnerability and deliver counter strikes, in this case a palm strike to the head.

Like any art, learning to use Bagua for self-defense takes a very long time. You must start with the basics and lay a good foundation by working on circle-walking, the mother p...

In 1991, I entered the Toughman Contest when I was living in Sioux City. Back then, it was all boxing, and at age 38, I was nearing the end of eligibility, so it was now or never. I entered the contest.

I was matched up against a guy who was 15 years younger, 3 or 4 inches taller, and 35 pounds heavier. In the third round, he hit me on the side of the head just right. My brain began vibrating like a tuning fork and I was numb. I covered up with my gloves and he pummeled me for a few shots. I was thinking, "This is what it's like to get knocked out in the ring. Here it comes." The first photo at left shows the punch that rang my bell (my body is hidden by the corner post but his glove is colliding with the side of my head.

Suddenly, he got tired and backed away. My head cleared instantly. I uncovered, walked a few feet across the ring and snapped his head back with a punch (the photo below shows his head snapping back). I ended up winning by unanimous decision. Physically, I had n...