I see it in maybe a majority of Tai Chi performances, even by people who are called "master."

At the very beginning of the form, they lose their balance, they throw off their center, by shifting their hips to the right as their left leg steps out to the left.

The purpose of Tai Chi is to maintain your balance and center at all times, both physically and mentally. When a teacher is instructing a student, he first teaches the movements, then he or she should coach students when they are not in alignment. Take a look at this video, then look at your own opening movement. Watch yourself in a mirror, then record a video. Then watch your teacher, and if he is making this mistake, give him a roundhouse kick to the head.

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I sat down at my computer on October 15, 2006 to create a blog about the internal arts of Taijiquan, Xingyiquan Baguazhang, Qigong, and philosophy. Today, my Internal Fighting Arts blog is old enough to vote -- 18 years old -- legally an adult. 

I am writing this at home after spending the past two nights at a hospital across the river in Davenport, Iowa. My oxygen levels suddenly crashed on Saturday morning, leaving me gasping for each breath like a catfish that has been thrown into a boat. Between gasps, I told Nancy, "I'm in trouble." Off to the hospital we went. Apparently, chest congestion last week triggered deep coughing for days, and finally the lungs said, "We're dealing with this by throwing a severe asthma tantrum." 

What a journey the past 18 years has been in my life, going from a strong 53-year-old to a 71-year-old martial artist who is still studying, practicing, learning and teaching, but not physically as strong as I was the day this blog was born, and with fewer lungs.

If you scroll back through the archives, you'll see some useful and educational posts. Along the way, I have shared my philosophy of life, and many people have read the posts as I have gone through my health struggles and test what aging does to a guy with a warrior spirit. When you are young and healthy, you assume you will always be that way. But life teaches us one thing -- always expect the unexpected, and try to remain centered when the unexpected happens. It is not an easy thing to do, but when a blog turns 18 years old, another lesson is involved. That lesson is the value of persistence. Those two concepts -- persisting through the unexpected, is the key of life and the key to making progress in martial arts.

On the day this blog was born, I had a bricks-and-mortar school. Four years later, I began teaching online, at a time when a lot of Taiji folks said, "You can't teach that way." But I eventually created nearly one thousand video lessons, taking students step-by-step from basic to more advanced learning in the internal arts.

Then 2020 came along and Covid gave everyone a lesson in the unexpected. Suddenly, everyone learned that actually, you can teach online, and you can learn online, especially when you include live Zoom classes that enable you to see and coach your students. The main thing that's missing is the hands-on element, and the ability to do applications together, push hands, sparring, etc. That's very important, but you can still learn, and you can improve your internal mechanics.

In 2014, I launched my Internal Fighting Arts podcast, interviewing great English-speaking martial arts instructors. My aim was to promote good teachers, help them receive publicity, and also to further my own reputation as a provider of good information. It has been downloaded or listened to nearly 700,000 times. And I'm very proud that it inspired several other internal arts teachers to do their own podcasts.

I don't think a blog or a podcast should be about me. I see myself as a teacher and a student, and if you see my experience and knowledge through the stories I tell, the philosophy I share, the journey I am taking, and the educational videos and photos I post, my goal is for you to walk away with information you didn't know, or an idea of something to work on in your own training. Perhaps, you'll also see a new way of looking at the world, and a better way of connecting to others.

Last month, I celebrated my 51st anniversary in martial arts. One lesson I have learned in that time is to not wall yourself off and become trapped inside ONE way of doing things. Open yourself up to other information, because it just might be the key to unlock a higher-level gongfu.

And, of course, that thing about being persistent. Keep walking, keep learning and practicing.

There's a third lesson, too. Never check your brains at the door of a martial arts school. Now, more than ever, con artists are flooding the internet and social media with videos showing students hopping and falling at the slightest touch. In reality, it requires real force to deal with a motivated adult who wants to attack you. You can neutralize an opponent's force to put him off-balance, and at that point, it doesn't take as much power to deal with him, but it still takes power and leverage and strength. When you see fake videos by these "masters" whose students hop and drop with a slight touch, please just have pity on their lack of integrity (the teacher and the student) and just scroll on.

Just like in our politics, if you can't tell the difference between the people telling the truth and the people telling you lies, shame on you. The ones telling you the lies have no shame. You have to be able to educate yourself and see through the bullshit. If you can't, no one can help you, and the "no-touch" or "slight touch" knockdown con artists will continue to thrive. The people who want you to believe it's all about mysticism and mysterious energy flow will continue to thrive. They will anyway, I suppose. There are always people willing to pay money to someone who makes them believe they can gain special powers.  

You learn a lot of things by the time you pass the age of 70, but this age thing can play with your head. Within three months, I'll be turning 72. At this point, all the training and learning seems to have new meaning. You start looking down the road and realize there isn't as much time to live as there used to be. I've already been persisting for 15 years with only one lung and with atrial fibrillation. Now, it seems that 80 is not that far away. Should I slow down? Should I ease up a bit more?

Oh, screw it. I have more videos to make, and more books to write. There is more to learn, and even if I can't breathe as well as I did 18 years ago, I'm still learning. And even if I can't do the same things physically that I could do 18 years ago, like doing a flying sidekick against a six-feet-tall opponent, my insights into these arts and the philosophy have grown and developed. I have more to teach. Maybe it's true -- you might lose a bit of strength as you get older, but what you lose in strength you gain in wisdom. You hope. That's one reason I wrote my most recent book, "A Handful of Nothing."

Even if it all ended tomorrow, and I became One with the Tao, I would want you to know that I love you for reading this blog and for caring about the internal arts. 

But it's not going to end tomorrow. I don't think.

It's kind of funny now, but around 2012, my cardiologist said, "Ken, your heart is so weak right now, you could literally drop dead with no warning."

Talk about something that plays with your head. I went home and walked down the hall, looking at photos on the wall and thinking, "Is this the last thing I'm going to see? Am I just going to keel over, lights out, end of story?"

I decided to practice. If everything ended suddenly, I would be the last to know, so I decided not to worry about it.

My heart got stronger again during the next year or two, and here I am. 

And I have to throw out a huge "thank you" to my wife and devoted supporter, Nancy. She has been at my side the entire way. I started the blog three years after we were married. I couldn't have accomplished any of this without her support and encouragement.

So let's keep going and see if this blog can add another 18 years to it's life. I hope you'll stay along for the ride.

If you have any questions about topics you'd like to see me write about, email them to me at [email protected]. 

The most important thing I've learned during the past 51 years, and I've written about it on this blog many times, is this:

Remain centered at all times.

And don't forget to have fun while you're learning, training, practicing, and teaching. 

Happy birthday, Internal Fighting Arts Blog. And many more!

--by Ken Gullette  

51 years ago this evening, I walked into my first martial arts class. I was 20 years old.

The teacher, "Grandmaster" Sin The, led us through high blocks, low blocks, stepping and punching. The room was bursting at the seams with young people inspired by the Bruce Lee craze. In fact, the class spilled outside of the dojo, which had a garage door for the side wall. They opened the door to accomodate all the new students and I stood with a group out in the parking lot.

Bruce had died one month before. I was inspired by his beautiful movement. Having defended myself successfully against bullies all my life, at age 20, kung-fu was very appealing. I wanted to learn how to fight better. I just had no idea how long I would keep practicing.

I have learned from several teachers since I left Sin The's school. When I discovered Chen style Taijiquan in 1998, it was what I had been searching for, and I am still studying, practicing, and teaching it.

This week I have practiced with students, I have taken two classes because I'm still studying, I held a live online class, and today I'm doing a private online class with a member of my website. 

Fifty-one years after I began, I still think kung-fu is cool and I want to learn more and keep improving. My goal is to help my students save time. It took me a couple of decades or more to find high-quality instruction. My students get the internal information I wish I had received 51 years ago. 

The real satisfaction of studying martial arts is not in reaching a destination, it's in enjoying every step of the learning process along the path. I'm still enjoying it more than five decades later. 

--by Ken Gullette

I've always been an advocate of an important concept in the internal Chinese martial arts. That concept is simple:

Keep it real.

The first thing you might think of are the fraudulent claims about "qi powers" that some teachers claim to possess. That actually is a bunch of malarkey, but I'm talking about a different issue this time.

I've read it in books. I've heard it said in podcasts. I heard someone say it again just today when I listened to a podcast. You've probably read it or heard it, too. It goes something like this:

"This master (insert the name here) did push hands with a student (or hit the student) and sent him flying back THROUGH THE AIR TEN FEET!"

I have a simple answer for this claim: "No, he didn't."

We need to stop saying it. Why should we stop? Because it isn't true.

We tend to exaggerate. But our martial arts are pretty good. We don't need to exaggerate to make our art, our teacher, or ourselves look good.

Ten feet doesn't sound like much. Hell, I'm six feet tall myself. Ten feet is as tall as a basketball hoop. Measure it out on the floor, then try to generate the force to push a 175-pound person through the air that far.

After 51 years in martial arts (as of next month) I have never seen anyone knocked ten feet through the air. Nobody has ever done it to me, even members of the Chen family. Not even members of the Iowa State Boxing Team.

I have never seen it done, either. Do you have video of someone being knocked back ten feet through the air? I'll save you some time searching through your DVDs and VHS tapes. No, you don't.

Is there a video on YouTube of someone being knocked in the air ten feet back? No, because even the frauds who make their students hop with just a touch don't have the magical power to send their students hopping ten feet back through the air.

Do you see the photo here above? We actually measured out ten feet on the training floor. From the edge of that red section back to the blue mat is ten feet.

The world record for the standing long jump -- jumping for distance from a standing position -- is 12 feet two inches. It takes a lot of exploding energy from a person's legs and body to jump 10 feet from a standing position, or even if they take a running start. When they jump from a standing position, they have to crouch down and explode with every bit of force they can use.

So that brings up a great question about a man who, in push hands or in hitting someone, knocks the person ten feet through the air. Here's the question:

Exactly where is the force being generated, and how is it being used, for someone doing push hands or hitting someone to send an adult man flying through the air ten feet?

What is the technique being used and how much force is being used?

Look at that distance. You think someone could knock a 175-pound man through the air ten feet? You can't even lift an adult with both arms and throw him that far. You can't pick up a 150-pound barbell and throw it that far. How do you expect to hit or push a man and cause him to fly back that far?

You say YOU have done it to someone? You say someone did it to you? You are either deceiving yourself or you are not telling the truth. Okay, I'll be generous. You're simply exaggerating. One of those three things is true. If you say you can do it, show us the video. We will make you famous.

In the meantime, let's stop exaggerating, okay? Nobody you know has knocked an adult human being through the air 10 feet and you haven't, either. Maybe you're using a "guy's measurement," but if you are, I have another news flash for you. What you have down there isn't really six inches, either. Your wife told me.

Don't check your brains at the door of a martial arts school. Don't believe what an instructor tells you on blind faith. And in the way you talk about and practice the internal arts -- keep it real, y'all.

--by Ken Gullette

Dan Miller

From 1990 to early 1997, Dan Miller published the Pa Kua Chang Journal. In my opinion, it provided the best information on Ba Gua Zhang of any martial arts publication. In the 76th edition of the Internal Fighting Arts Podcast, I interview Dan about publishing the Journal. We also talk about other issues related to Bagua, including the moving root, why Bagua practitioners walk the circle, the training concept of practicing techniques, why he likes Sun style Bagua and Taiji, created by Sun LuTang. I enjoy the story Dan tells about one of his favorite memories, meeting one of the old traditional Bagua teachers by knocking on the master's door, carrying a letter from a childhood friend.

Dan attended the United States Naval Academy and served 10 years as an officer in the Marine Corps. Besides teaching martial arts, Dan is a musician. He lives in the Columbia, Missouri area and holds workshops hosting various martial artists including Tom Bisio, Tim Cartmell and others.

The podcast runs one hour and 12 minutes. You can listen here or download the file.

Tim Cartmell

I've known of Tim Cartmell since the 1990s, when he wrote some articles for the Pa Kua Chang Journal. I've never talked with him until now.

Tim moved to Taiwan at the age of 22 to search for internal arts masters. He found some. He didn't just train in Xingyi and Bagua, he fought in a full-contact tournament (his Xingyi teacher signed him up for it). Later, he got into Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and now, he teaches BJJ and is a coach to MMA fighters.

This is the 75th edition of my Internal Fighting Arts podcast. One of the things we talk about in this interview is the subject of Qi, and how much his teachers in Taiwan and China talked about "cultivating Qi" or using it to give you special abilities. Tim says "people who talk about it in a mysterious way -- the less martial ability they have, the more they talk like that. The guys who could actually fight, hardly ever mentioned anything like that."

Tim teaches at Ace Jiu Jitsu in Fountain Valley, California. His martial arts website is www.shenwu.com. 

Listen to the interview here, or you can download the file. 

Leading a workshop on body mechanics.

When I teach, I try to give a lot of detail, especially about the body mechanics that make the internal arts so powerful. Sometimes, however, it's not good to overwhelm students who are just learning a form. We all occasionally need to take it one layer at a time when it comes to complexity.

I spent many years studying Taiji, Xingyi and Bagua without being taught some crucial details. The reason I wasn't taught it? Because my teacher didn't know the details. A lot of times, we think our teachers are masters because they say they are. Especially before the internet, there was no real way to know for sure. We just took a teacher at his word. That's not enough anymore.

The truth is, the internal arts can be as simple or as complex as you want them. If you want to do them for health and fitness, you can just learn the choreography and that might be enough for you.

I try to start every student's learning with the six key body mechanics that I identified after studying Yang style for more than a decade and then studying Chen style. In Yang style, there is a famous list of ten requirements for tai chi, but in my opinion, they are not the most important things at all. Let's face it, does it really matter if your head feels as if it is suspended on a string if you have no ground path or peng jin? It might be important in the overall scheme of things, but in my opinion, if you don't have ground and peng working together, it doesn't matter at all. But the ground path and peng jin are not included in the list of top ten things that are taught most often in Tai Chi.

I think at the bare minimum you need to know how these mechanics and principles are used in each movement:

1. The ground path
2. Peng jin
3. Opening and closing the kua
4. Dan T'ien rotation
5. Whole-body movement
6. Silk-reeling.

If you understand these six, you can begin doing quality internal arts. And you can step into any teacher's Taiji class and you might even know more than the teacher. But these six concepts are just part of the big picture. When you keep learning, you keep peeling back more layers of the onion. You learn how to be in a relaxed state of readiness. You learn to sink your "chi." You learn how to close the legs. You can also get deeper into the kua, and learn the subtleties of shifting weight. You learn how to lift the energy to the crown of the head.

Something might seem like a "small detail," but it could have a big difference on quality. For example, when you see someone shift their weight from one leg to the next, are their hips moving a lot in space, or are they using the kua to shift weight? The difference between those two concepts just might be a big difference between "external" and "internal" movement. Look at YouTube taiji videos and you see a lot of hips moving in space. You see hips turning in ways that throw you off-center. You see knees swimming in space, too, and knees collapsing during movements. You see stress being put into the knees when the person is stepping or shifting weight forward.

If you want to get deeper still, you can start thinking of the jin that is in each movement -- the "energy" and the intent that particular movement has. Within one movement, such as "Buddha's Warrior Attendant Pounds Mortar," many different "jin" can manifest from one part of the movement to the next.

That's one of the reasons I think it's important to learn the self-defense applications of movements. It's a great way to learn the true intent of a movement, and the energy and body method used.

"Flash the Back" from the Chen 19 is a movement we worked on in class yesterday. Now, if you just learn the choreography, you step the left foot back and chop the right hand down between your legs. But if you go a bit deeper, you feel the movement in the body, including the closing of the torso and ribs, that you would feel if you were doing a hip throw on an opponent.

Go a little deeper and you feel the legs closing and you connect the movement of the hand with the turning of the Dan T'ien with the closing of the torso and the spiraling/closing through to the foot.

So I tend to teach the movements first in a simple way, but soon I fill in details. I do this for two reasons. For one thing, I am interested in the detail, and when I teach, I'm also practicing.

Reason number two is because maybe a few months from now, you'll be working on a movement and suddenly "DING!" -- the lightbulb will turn on in your mind, and you'll think, "Oh, THAT's what he meant." And you will take another step forward in your insight. This has happened to me many times. The steps forward often happen when I am alone, practicing a movement and "feeling" through the body mechanics.

Actually, there is a third reason I teach the details: because it took so long for me to find teachers that knew those details. I want to save my students a little time and a lot of money.

But it doesn't matter what depth you learn if you don't practice. All these mechanics are difficult because they disrupt the way we have learned to move. Of course it's difficult. As Chen Xiaowang says, "If Taiji were easy, everyone be master!"

It doesn't really matter why you study these arts. Fitness, self-defense, self-discipline, goal-setting, health -- there are plenty of reasons. And sometimes your reasons might change. I didn't realize Taiji was such a great fighting art when I first began studying. The more I learned, the more fascinated I was at the self-defense applications of these gentle movements.

But step one was simply learning the movements -- one by one, in order, and knowing where my hands go and where my feet go without messing up. Just practicing the movements can be good for your health, flexibility, leg strength and concentration.

And if you want to go forward after learning the basic movements, this is a pool that gets deeper the farther you dive down. I have been practicing Taiji, Xingyi and Bagua for 37 years and I'm still working, trying to learn more, and trying to improve as I practice and teach. And sometimes, when I learn something of higher quality, I change the way I have been doing things. It's what you have to do if you are going to develop your skills. It's all part of the process of peeling back the layers of this internal onion.

Contact me if you have any questions about practicing or about what you should study next.

--by Ken Gullette

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I received an email from one of my online members who said he hasn't been practicing much lately because of a busy work schedule. He felt like a failure as a martial artist.

The truth is, you should never feel like a failure at martial arts. Sometimes, life, work, family, and other important activities can get in the way of a regular practice schedule. It happens to all of us occasionally. It's okay.

I don't know why you got into martial arts, but I got into it for three reasons:

Reason 1 -- I wanted to learn how to fight more effectively, like Bruce Lee and Kwai Chang Caine.

Reason 2 -- I kung-fu is cool.

Reason 3 -- To impress women. Of course, this is why some of us guys do anything.

I might be in my 70s now, but I still like to impress Nancy. That's why every now and then, I whip out my broadsword. 

As Joe Biden would say, here's the deal. Don't get suckered by the tough keyboard warriors online who pretend you're not worthy if you aren't ready to enter an MMA ring. That isn't real life self-defense. I'm not ready to do an MMA match, but I'm also not ready to play an NBA game or play for the Chicago Cubs. I'm not a professional athlete. That is not real life for most of us.

Here's something else to think about: we all get busy. We all have responsibilities. And sometimes, we get tired.

Give yourself a break. Be good to yourself. 

Last week, I took a week off. Nancy and I flew to St. Petersburg, Florida on Sunday and flew back the next Sunday. For a week, I didn't practice, I didn't scribble ideas or plans, I didn't teach and I didn't study. I tried not to think of martial arts. It was wonderful to spend a week slacking off with the woman I love. The photo above was taken at John's Pass in St. Pete.

And guess what? I took a week off and nobody died.

To me, martial arts is fun. I love making progress, even taking a baby step forward. After 50 years, I still make progress in my understanding and my movement. That's exciting.

So here's my advice if you feel like a failure for not taking the time to practice as much as you want.

To be honest, you are a failure if you DON'T spend time with your family, your partner, your kids, instead of working out. On your death bed, you will not be saying, "Damn, I wish I could run through Laojia Yilu one more time." No, you'll be thinking, "I wish I had another day with my family."

Now, how do we strike a balance and work our way back to a more regular practice schedule?

If you have just five minutes a day to focus, practice a silk-reeling exercise, or one of the Xingyi fist postures, or the Bagua Basic Palms form; just five minutes a day and you can make progress.

If you have ten minutes, that may be all you have today, but you can make progress.

If you're a member of my website, log onto the site and practice to one of the videos that breaks down a movement in one of the forms. Whichever form you are working on, it doesn't matter. Take 10 minutes and try to gain a new insight into one movement.

If you do this each day, it might spark the excitement again and before long, you'll start finding the time.

Remember, you are not in a competition. Take the pressure off yourself. Very few of us are going to be Bruce Lee, or Chen Xiaowang, or even Jean-Claude Wham Bam Van Damme.

So train when you can, but don't think of yourself as a failure if you don't.

Life is busy. Go with the flow. Thinking of yourself as a failure isn't fun. Don't forget to have fun.

--by Ken Gullette 

I met Bill Bentley when he hosted me on the DAOI Talks podcast. He is involved with the Daoist Arts Organization International (hence the name DAOI Talks). Bill is a good man who teaches Xingyi through daoistgatecenter.org, and privately he teaches Xingyi, Bagua, Wudang style sword, and self-defense. He began his martial arts training at the age of 10 in a Shaolin-based family style of kung-fu (the same school I started in way back in 1973), and since then, Bill has studied Wing Chun, Jeet Kune Do concepts (including Filipino martial arts), and the Kendo and Aikido. Later, after a serious injury, Bill practiced qigong and developed an interest in the Wudang arts. He now studies with Master Zhou Xuan Yun, training with him in the arts of Xingyi Quan and Taiyi Xuan Men Jian sword practice, as well as Taiji and Bagua. He has also studied the Wudang Taiji 108 with Rosie Segil and Qigong with Anita Eredics. He also lives in my hometown, Lexington, Kentucky. The podcast runs an hour and four minutes. You can listen through the player below or you can download the podcast. Enjoy!