Ken Gullette's Internal Fighting Arts Blog

A Martial Arts Myth: If You Do Point Sparring You Won't Be Able to Use Power in a Self-Defense Situation

full contact vs point sparring point sparring pulling punches real life self defense self-defense Jan 29, 2025

In my opinion, a highly-skilled martial artist should be able to apply the right amount of force when needed, but in some situations, you should be able to apply no force at all. Being able to do both requires skill.

There is currently a "tough guy" attitude in martial arts, especially online. Here is one argument they make: If you spend a lot of time point-sparring, you won't be able to apply force when you need it in a self-defense situation. Instead, you will pull your punches.

I call malarkey, and I know it's malarkey because of my personal experience.

Skill Development and Control

Pulling punches and using light contact in sparring teaches fine motor control and precision. This enables you to "choose" between delivering light or heavy contact, depending on the situation, which is crucial in real-life self-defense to avoid unnecessary harm or legal consequences. It is also important to be able to spar without hurting your training partners.

In 51 years of sparring, I have nev...

The Only Thing a Bully Really Understands

real-life self-defense self-defense Jul 08, 2022

I went to Southland Christian Church in Lexington, Kentucky when I was a child. My mother made us attend on Sunday mornings, Sunday evenings and sometimes on Wednesday evening.

There was a bully in my Sunday School class when I was around 12 years old. John made my life a living hell for several weeks, calling me names and hurling insults at me in his loud voice, causing other kids to laugh at my expense. I guess I looked a little geeky. I was scrawny and wore glasses. Sometimes the glasses had tape on them.

After several weeks of taking his loud abuse and being humiliated in front of the other kids who I had grown up with, I told him to leave me alone.

"If you wanna do something about it, meet me behind Stonewall Elementary today after church," he snarled.

"Okay," I agreed. "I'll meet you at Stonewall at 12:30.

He laughed as if he knew something I didn't. "I'm gonna kill you," John said.

Maybe he would, but the abuse had to stop.

After church, I arrived home, changed out of t...

Escaping from Joint Locks Using Tai Chi Energy Concepts

chin-na internal self-defense joint locks self-defense May 05, 2022

There are valuable concepts in Taijiquan that make it a powerful art for self-defense. One of the interesting ideas is "taking the energy where it wants to go."

Last week, Colin and Justin and I recorded several escapes from Chin-Na joint locks. A longer version with more techniques and explanations is on my website for members, but I put together a shorter version for YouTube.

We are very serious about the internal arts but we have a lot of fun when we practice. I think it shows a bit on the videos we do. Please watch this and you'll learn something about how to escape from a joint lock. Silk-Reeling energy is very helpful against joint locks, and silk-reeling relies on other internal body mechanics, too. This is a narrowly focused video. It doesn't necessarily show how to "soften someone up" before escaping, or what to do as a follow-up, but the information here will be helpful in the real world.

Four Takedowns from Four Tai Chi Movements

self-defense tai chi self-defense tai chi takedowns taiji self-defense taiji takedowns Apr 28, 2022

Here is a short video showing and explaining some of the body mechanics to four takedowns in four different movements from Chen style Taijiquan.

I am fascinated at all the self-defense applications in movements that often appear slow and gentle. Taiji (Tai Chi) is practiced slowly to develop proper internal body mechanics. There is a method of developing skill that later involves push hands, then flowing with a partner in unscripted ways, and then incorporating joint locks, sweeps, takedowns, elbow and shoulder strikes and other fighting techniques.

The takedowns come from these four movements:

Lazy About Tying the Coat
Walking Obliquely
Punch the Ground
Single Whip

Enjoy this video. We shot in on Sunday and I edited it today. Let me know if you have questions.

Dial Down the Paranoia about Defending Yourself "On the Street"

real life self-defense self-defense Mar 21, 2022

Have you been in a physical fight with anyone since you turned 18 years old?

Here's another question: In your adult life, have you ever been in a "street fight?"

Have you ever been in a situation when another grown-up was trying to damage you physically?

The truth about most adults is that they have never been in a real fight at all. But self-defense instructors and MMA enthusiasts are obsessed with the need to protect yourself "on the street."

When I hear the term "defending yourself on the street" I think of two gangs colliding for a brawl with sticks, chains and brass knuckles. Like "West Side Story" without all the dancing and singing. Let's face it, if your gang runs around singing and dancing, you might deserve to be beaten up.

I saw an interesting graphic online recently and it showed the main martial art practiced by UFC champions who fought matches in the ring.

The top martial art for ring fighting was wrestling. That's right. A college wrestling champ would have a good...

I Want to Throw Roundhouse Kicks on Muhammad Ali's Birthday

philosophy remain centered self-defense Jan 17, 2021

I want to throw roundhouse kicks. I have been very angry during the past week-and-a-half. I am working very hard to center myself. Let me tell you why.

Muhammad Ali would have celebrated his 79th birthday today if he had lived, but unfortunately, he died of complications of Parkinson's Disease in 2016.

The night he defeated George Foreman (picture at left) to regain the heavyweight title was the night I realized I needed to stop being a racist. It was October 30, 1974. Muhammad Ali was fighting George Foreman in a fight that was held in Zaire and called the "Rumble in the Jungle."

Foreman was so strong it was scary. He was knocking other heavyweights out cold. Most people expected Ali to be killed that night.

I grew up in the American South in the 1950s and Sixties. I saw "White Only" signs on drinking fountains and bathrooms. I remember when blacks were not allowed to sit with us in the movie theaters. They had to sit in the balcony.

...

What Sean Connery and James Bond Taught Me About Fighting

self-defense Oct 31, 2020

Sean Connery passed away at age 90. The news swept across the world today, and if you are a man in my generation, it's a sad day.

My mother would not let me see a James Bond movie until the fourth Bond film "Thunderball" came out in late 1965. We were very conservative Christians, and she thought the movies were sinful because they showed drinking and (gasp!) sex between men and women who were NOT MARRIED!

She thought I would burn in Hell if I ever saw a James Bond movie.

But by the time "Thunderball" came out and I was nearly 13, she relented. My buddy Ed McCaw and I went to see it at a theater in downtown Lexington. We walked in during the long scene when the atomic bomb was stolen from the downed plane. We stayed all the way through the movie the second time through. I couldn't believe what I was seeing.

I thought Connery was the coolest man who ever lived. The way he walked, the way he talked, and the slightly sarcastic, confident sense of humor had a big impact on me.

But the...

Real Self-Defense Requires Fire and Fury, Not Punch and Stop

internal self-defense martial arts training self-defense Jan 03, 2020

Have you ever done any point-sparring with partners or in a tournament?

You score a point and the action stops while judges decide who wins the point. Then the action resumes.

When you think about real self-defense on the street, how do you think that will go? Do you think you will just throw a punch or a kick and it will be over?

Do you think your opponent will be four or five feet away, in punching or kicking range?

Probably not. You might not even know he is going to attack until he is on top of you.

And that's why your mindset, and some of your training, needs to prepare yourself for "shock and awe."

Instead of looking at self-defense applications as this technique or that technique, part of your training really must focus on going a little crazy.

I do this on my Bob training dummy. I just start raining strikes on him, flowing as fast as I can from a punch to an elbow to a palm strike to a forearm strike to another punch.

BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM!...

Keep it Simple for Ultimate Success in Self-Defense

bagua self-defense martial arts training self-defense Dec 14, 2019

Leonardo da Vinci was not a fighter, but he knew something that can help you if or when self-defense techniques are needed.

There is a well-known Chen-style Taiji instructor who put a video on YouTube recently showing some fighting applications.

The applications looked really cool, but something did not seem right, so I decided to test them with students at the next couple of practices.

I very quickly discovered what was wrong with the applications. They did not work if the opponent did not cooperate completely.

If my student gave me the slightest resistance, or continued to fight as he would in a real-life situation, the application fell apart instantly.

My students and I watched the video together. We were quickly disgusted at how the student in the videos was just standing there limply even when "locked" and then allowing himself to be thrown to the ground.

That is not the way a real-life fight happens.

No wonder the internal arts have such a bad reputati...

A True Story about the Ultimate Self-Defense Skill

awareness chen xiaowang self-defense zhan zhuang Jan 27, 2019

In March, 2013, Chen Xiaoxing came to Chicago to do a workshop on Xinjia Yilu. Nancy and I stayed for the weekend in a hotel downtown.

After the first day of the workshop, we took a walk from the hotel onto Michigan Avenue. We wanted to do some shopping along the Magnificent Mile and enjoy dinner at the Cheesecake Factory.

March in Chicago can be very cold, but we got lucky. This was the warmest day of the year in Chicago after a cold winter.

The photo above shows Nancy as we are beginning our walk. The Magnificent Mile is behind her down the street.

As we got into the shopping area, the sidewalks became more crowded. I was enjoying the people but I noticed there were a lot of young people in their teens to around 20, maybe 21 or 22. We kept walking and there were more people. The young people were scattered through the crowd, in groups of two or more.

As we got deeper into the area, the crowds got a little heavier. I have been in crowds before. New York City is one...

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Ken Gullette's Internal Fighting Arts

A Martial Arts Myth: If You Do Point Sparring You Won't Be Able to Use Power in a Self-Defense Situation

The Only Thing a Bully Really Understands

Escaping from Joint Locks Using Tai Chi Energy Concepts

Four Takedowns from Four Tai Chi Movements

Dial Down the Paranoia about Defending Yourself "On the Street"

I Want to Throw Roundhouse Kicks on Muhammad Ali's Birthday

What Sean Connery and James Bond Taught Me About Fighting

Real Self-Defense Requires Fire and Fury, Not Punch and Stop

Keep it Simple for Ultimate Success in Self-Defense

A True Story about the Ultimate Self-Defense Skill

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