Bruce Lee and Dan Inosanto while filming "Game of Death" in 1972.

This weekend I will meet Dan Inosanto and study for the first time with someone who trained with Bruce Lee. It has been a 41-year old wish that will finally happen.

Dan studied with Bruce and also taught Bruce a few things about Kali. He appeared in Bruce's film "Game of Death," and he has the reputation of being a very nice man and a great teacher.

All the people who once trained with Bruce Lee are getting older now. Most are in their Seventies. Some have passed away. Bruce Lee would have turned 75 later this year. I can't imagine having the experience of actually training with Bruce as part of my martial background.

I also can't imagine having complete access to all of Bruce's notes, letters, photos and drawings.

This week's Internal Fighting Arts podcast features an interview with John Little, who took Bruce's personal papers and photos and created some of the best books that document Bruce's legacy. His books include:

• Jeet Kune Do
• Letters of the Dragon
• The Art of Expressing the Human Body
• Words of the Dragon
• Artist of Life
• The Warrior Within
• Bruce Lee: The Celebrated Life of the Golden Dragon
• Striking Thoughts: Bruce Lee's Wisdom for Daily Living

In 2011, John Little heard an interview I did on The Infidel Guy podcast and he sent me an email, telling me how refreshing it was to hear an internal artist who applied critical thinking skills to the subject of "chi powers." We struck up an email conversation and I asked him if I could do an interview.

Since my trip to the Inosanto workshop has backed me up this week, I am running that 2011 interview with John Little as the latest edition of the Internal Fighting Arts podcast.

Follow this link to listen or download the podcast with John Little.

Silk-Reeling Energy, also called Chan Ssu Jin, is one of the key physical skills you need for quality internal arts. It is important especially in Tai Chi and Bagua, but it is also used in Hsing-I.

Silk-Reeling energy provides your techniques with "coiling leverage," adding more power to your martial techniques and allowing you to deliver relaxed strength.

It is a key skill for Internal Strength.

Join me on Saturday, March 7, 2015 from 1:00 to 5:00 p.m. for a Silk-Reeling Energy Workshop at Morrow's Academy of Martial Arts in downtown Moline, Illinois. The workshop will be recorded for a DVD and all attendees will receive a copy when it is produced.

We will work on exercises that I learned from Grandmaster Chen Xiaowang, direct descendant of the creator of Tai Chi Chuan, Chen Wangting, and from his disciples.

You will learn:

1. 18 Silk-Reeling Exercises that teach you the spiraling movement required for high quality Tai Chi and Bagua.

2. How other internal body mechanics -- the ground path and peng jin, whole-body movement, Dan T'ien rotation and opening/closing the kua -- are used in these spiraling movements.

3. How to apply the movements to real-world self-defense. This is not "make believe mystical woo-woo" that doesn't work against an attacker. We will practice solid principles for self-defense demonstrating how Silk-Reeling Energy is used.

You are guaranteed to have many "Aha!" moments during this 4-hour workshop when you see how Silk-Reeling is done and how it is applied to self-defense. You will find it interesting regardless of your style of martial art, and it will deepen your knowledge and appreciation of the internal arts.

The Silk-Reeling Workshop costs only $35 and all participants will receive a copy of the current Silk-Reeling DVD on the day of the workshop, and they will receive a copy of the new DVD when it is produced (hopefully within a month of the workshop). Morrow's Academy is located at 1319 5th Avenue in downtown Moline, IL. 

For more information, contact Mr. Morrow at (309) 764-1929.

There is a good chance that while you are reading this sentence, you have several other things on your mind.

Perhaps you are reading while at work, sneaking a quick peek between (or during) tasks. Perhaps you are also listening to music while you read, or watching TV.

If you are like me, you feel that your mind is more scattered than ever, constantly bombarded with information, texts, emails, and other media. When you are in a meeting your mind wanders and you are bored stiff. When your wife begins telling you about her day at work, your mind is everywhere but focused on what she is saying.

When something happens to us we instantly judge it. The foot of snow that fell on my home Sunday sucks! The person who put that up on Facebook is a moron! I'm really sick of this nagging lower back pain! And I hope all the players on the Duke basketball team rot in Hell. Okay, that's a little over the top, but I am a Lexington native and a true-blue Kentucky fan. Umm, I guess I am scattering my thoughts now. Back on track!

Mindlessness -- scattered attention and judgmental reaction -- saps us of focus, creativity, and productivity. It damages our relationships at work and at home. There is a reason why we don't accomplish as much as we used to or achieve the same intimacy as we did 30 years ago -- our attention is hijacked every few minutes by the need to check an email, a text, an app, or by the normal interruptions of the average day.

It's no wonder stress is killing us. But there is an answer, and it is the topic of this week's Internal Fighting Arts podcast. I interview Mark W. Muesse, Ph.D. and a professor at Rhodes College in Memphis. He is also the instructor of a brilliant course offered by The Teaching Company. The course is "Practicing Mindfulness: An Introduction to Meditation." Nancy and I bought the course and he was kind enough to grant a request to discuss Mindfulness on my program.

Click this link to listen or download the podcast from Audello.

Click this link to listen to, download, or subscribe to the podcast on iTunes.

A lot of people practice the internal arts for "meditation." But you don't need to imagine invisible energy or believe in pseudoscience to get the mental and health benefits from these arts. All you have to do is be mindful. Pay attention. Focus. Be here now, in this moment, and give it your full attention. There are real benefits to Mindfulness.

I think you will enjoy this podcast and can use the information not only in your practice, but also in....Go Wildcats!!.....I mean, also in your daily life.