Ken Gullette's Internal Fighting Arts

Before I moved back to the Quad Cities from Tampa a few weeks ago, I sent a message to my core group of students. I was signalling a new approach to training, or, if not completely new, a determination to take our practices up a notch.

When Nancy and I owned a "school" that we closed when we moved to Tampa, all types of people were students--older people who only wanted the exercise type of tai chi, younger people who missed classes and obviously didn't practice--and you had to accept everyone if you wanted to pay the school's bills.

The effect was a watering down of practice. I wasn't happy about it, and the more I taught, the less satisfied I was as a martial artist.

My intent upon returning was to maintain a small group of core students who could step up and tolerate more physically demanding workouts. Although I made good friends among other students, including the older ones, my main goal has always been to be the best martial artist that I can be. I'm no longer interested in ...

One of my favorite internal arts principles is "leading into emptiness." It's a good concept not only for physical self-defense but also for emotional and verbal self-defense.

In push hands practice, one of your primary goals is to soften, change, and counter when force is coming at you. By leading the force into emptiness, you set up your opponent for a counter.

So when force is coming straight in toward you, roll it to the side. If the attack is low, keep it moving lower. If it's a high attack, move it higher. If it is aimed at your chest, "pocket" it. Lead it into emptiness. Move it to where it won't find a target.

Sometimes, someone pushes on you. Using "empty force," or "Kong Jin" in Chinese terminology, you would give your opponent's push some resistance, but then you suddenly release your tension and "empty." It's like pulling the floor out from under your opponent. By leading them into emptiness, they go totally off-balance, giving you a chance to counter.

Sometimes, leadin...

We had a great push hands workshop on Saturday in Davenport, Iowa. About 7 or 8 members of the online internal arts school were there. The workshop was videotaped for other members. I started putting it on the school's website today.

We went over 6 patterns of Chen tai chi push hands, starting with single hand push hands.

Push hands has several benefits; it helps develop sensitivity, it shows you the weaknesses in your form, and it teaches you to change in response to an opponent. It involves joint locks, strikes, and takedowns.

According to Grandmaster Chen Xiaowang, push hands can help you discover the weaknesses in your movement that put you in a vulnerable position. You learn how to soften and deflect and how to exert force at the right opportunity. You learn how to remain in a strong position relative to your opponent.

All of the internal strength skills apply to push hands -- using the ground path, maintaining peng jin, using whole-body movement and silk-reeling. Push hand...

I'm reading an interesting book, Chinese Martial Arts Training Manuals, by Brian Kennedy and Elizabeth Guo. One chapter discusses a martial arts historian named Matsuda Ryuchi. He once described the "thousands of books written on the Chinese martial arts" and said that "ninety percent of them are not accurate."

According to this book, Ryuchi learned karate and other Japanese arts when he was young, then later studied Chen tai chi, Baji, Mantis, Bagua, and Yen Ching Boxing. He became a Buddhist monk, doing research and writing about both Buddhism and martial arts. His books include An Illustrated History of Chinese Martial Arts, which was published in 1979.

According to Ryuchi, authors of martial arts books want to make their teacher and their style look good. Stories are embellished and even completely made up. Some authors created founders for their styles and made up fantastic tales of the founder's abilities. It's a practice that continues to this day.

When I hear of a master who...

On September 20, 1973, I took my first martial arts class. It was 35 years ago today. Grandmaster Sin The was teaching Shaolin Karate-Do (kung fu) out of a converted garage in the back of a shopping strip mall. Because of Bruce Lee's impact that year, the first class was overflowing with students, and some of us stood outside.

Out of all the students who took up martial arts because of Bruce Lee in Lexington, Kentucky at that time, I wonder how many are still at it? A handful maybe. The photo at left is the proud green belt several months later in 1974. I still use the staff I'm holding (it's moved with me everywhere). It was the old fashioned kind--much heavier than modern staffs. I call it the "Staff of Death."

I was drawn to the martial arts for the self-defense and the philosophy. I had to study philosophy on my own, since few teachers included it in their art. But with that first class I was hooked, and over time, kung-fu became part of my life.

This anniversary comes at an int...

Pete Rose was my hero. I began watching him play for the Reds when I was a kid. By the time I got to college in the early Seventies, he was at his peak. My buddies and I would gather at the TV, or we'd drive 90 minutes to Cincinnati from Lexington and watch a game in person. Anytime Pete came up to bat and the Reds desperately needed a hit, he got a hit. And he dove head first into second or third or home. He was the best player I've ever seen.

That doesn't mean Pete was the most gifted in the beginning. As a young man, no one would have guessed he would become the leading hitter in baseball history (I was there the night he broke Ty Cobb's record by the way).

What made him eventually the best was one quality: persistence.

He practiced when others didn't. He worked at hitting when others had gone home. He practiced fielding when others were done for the day. He kept at it with a passion that lifted him above most players.

I've seen a lot of kung-fu students begin classes with a pas...

The Noble Eightfold Path is a Buddhist concept that can be found in other religions as well, perhaps worded in different ways.

Isn't it a shame that so few of us practice these eight "golden rules?" When you think of the way martial artists treat each other, badmouth each other, when you see the way husbands and wives treat each other, when you look at the anger in drivers on the road, anger and lies on the campaign trail, attack ads on TV, it makes you wonder if anyone has ever heard of kindness, empathy or tolerance.

Try living all eight of these concepts for just one day and see what it does for you:

The Eightfold Path:

1.  Right View -- often called "right understanding." See life in its reality. Understand the nature of pain and sadness and their causes. Recognize how to prevent pain and sadness.

2. Right Intent -- Intend to do no harm to anyone, thus helping to prevent pain and sadness.

3. Right Speech -- Don't lie, don't be abusive, don't argue and don't chatter idly (sor...

Here are some oldies but goodies.

How many tai chi masters does it take to screw in a lightbulb?

Answer: Ten. One to screw it in and 9 to stand around and say his movements aren't right.

How many wing chun masters does it take to screw in a lightbulb?

Answer: Ten. One to screw it in and 9 to complain "that's not the way Yip Man would have done it."

My favorite:

How many zen masters does it take to screw in a lightbulb?

Answer: A green tree in a quiet forest.

This is a photo taken during a private lesson I had a few years ago with Grandmaster Chen Xiaowang. We did the lesson in the backyard of Jim and Angela Criscimagna in Rockford, Illinois.

I like to look over some of the notes I've taken over the years. It's hard to retain everything you're told during a martial arts lesson, so I try to write things down as soon as possible after leaving a class or workshop.

Chen Xiaowang says "natural is best." He also believes that until you learn proper structure, you shouldn't try to do tai chi movements in a very low stance. Form and balance are most important. Proper structure is more important than low stances. And it takes us years to get proper structure.

Good kung-fu, he says, is proper structure, not low stances.

There is one principle and three techniques involved in tai chi, according to Chen Xiaowang. He's worded it differently at different times, but the one principle boils down to "when one part moves, all parts move. When dan t'ien ...

Each time I've had the pleasure of learning from a teacher or a tai chi master, I've taken notes. It's hard to retain everything, so I try to write as much after each session or day as possible. I've been sorting through papers and tossing stuff, and I ran across a lot of notes that I hadn't seen in a while.

One of my favorite memories of Grandmaster Chen Xiaowang was at a workshop near Washington, D.C. sponsored by C.P. Ong. Nancy and I flew to D.C. so I could study at the workshop. The participants were doing standing stake and CXW was going around the room correcting everyone. When he came up to me I had my eyes closed and he moved my hands in just a little. I smiled, opened my eyes, and he was smiling at me, his face just inches away. He softly chuckled in a friendly way and went on to the next person.

CXW likes to compare tai chi to driving a car. He says if a wheel is broken you can't drive well. If your posture is broken, it's hard to do proper tai chi. That's why, when you be...