Ken Gullette's Internal Martial Arts

Time 2020-12-08 03:03:12

Web Name: Ken Gullette's Internal Martial Arts

WebSite: http://internalarts.typepad.com

ID:127079

Keywords:

Gullette,Ken,Internal,taichi,chentaichi,taiji,taijiquan,hsingichuan,xingyiquan,h

Description:

I don t often read karate books. One of the first martial arts books I ever bought, in 1974, was a karate book, but it has mainly collected dust on the bookshelf for decades now. I have not found karate books very helpful for me, since I study and teach the internal Chinese martial arts. Most of them have been about technique, with dry information about stances, punches, blocks, and sequences of kata movements.My opinion changed when I read a new book by Giles Hopkins that is a great addition to my martial arts library: Wandering Along the Way of Okinawan Karate: Thinking About Goju-Ryu, published by Blue Snake Books.Hopkins is a dedicated martial artist and an outdoors enthusiast. He approaches nature and his martial art with a philosophical attitude that immediately appealed to me. He sees the connection between the art he practices and the natural wonders he encounters while hiking along a trail or walking in the woods. His intellectual approach to the movements of kata goes under the hood in a way that is more meaningful than simply describing technique.Why do we notice the leaves mainly when they burst into different colors shortly before they die? It is an observation Hopkins makes that easily translates into our approach to martial arts and to the people in our lives. We take many aspects of the arts for granted -- the rituals surrounding our practice; some of the movements that we have performed thousands of times. As I read this book, preparing to turn 68 years old in a couple of months, and having endured physical hardships the past decade, this passage also hit home with me as I thought about how we take our own youth, strength and health for granted, and the glorious ability to perform at our peak. When we get to the point where we understand that we can t practice these arts forever, or when our physical abilities begin to slip away, it is ironic that this stage of life causes us to understand the real beauty of the arts we have been practicing for so long, and the reasons they are so important to us, like a loved one who suddenly has a terminal illness and you become all too aware of the relentless ticking of the clock.When we are young, many of us take up martial arts so we can learn to fight better; to defend ourselves. As we get older, those of us who remain in the arts look deeper, and some of us carry the arts into our daily life in ways that make life and the arts more fulfilling.Like me, Hopkins is no spring chicken. One of his chapters is titled, Ah, He s Just Old, What Does He Know Anyway? Perhaps you need to have some years under your black belt before you can write a book like this. He begins most chapters with something he has observed during one of his walks in nature, and he connects it with his karate. The book is divided into sections corresponding to the seasons. As he discusses something from nature, the transitions into karate are sometimes a bit clunky and repetitive. I grew a bit tired of passages that I slightly exaggerate when I describe this way: I saw this rock along the trail and it reminded me of (insert name of kata or movement here). There are more subtle ways of blending these concepts and messages, but if that is the worst criticism I have about the book, it is a very minor one. The only reason I mentioned this is because I was a journalist who hired and trained reporters and coached their writing. This is more a coaching comment than a criticism. It is an excellent book.Hopkins sees deeply into the movements of kata, uncovering fighting applications, or bunkai, that can turn on some lightbulbs for any martial artist of any style. One of the applications he discusses made me realize that a certain movement in a Tai Chi form that I have practiced thousands of times can not only be used as a joint lock against an elbow, as I always thought of it, but it can also be used to break an opponent s neck by twisting the head.Hopkins explores interesting topics along with his photos and descriptions of movement, technique and kata. He wonders how these arts can be useful in an era when most of us do not have to worry about fighting. He thinks about the usefulness of pushing the creative boundaries when looking for the fighting applications inside kata movements, and he is honest enough to suggest better ways of teaching than to hold your students to silence with counterproductive responses to a question such as, If you have to ask, you are not ready to learn. The very first class I taught when I earned my black sash and recruited my own students included young guys who wanted to see just how good I really was, so they asked questions that made me realize I needed to raise my game. I had to study harder, practice harder, and be as good as my sash indicated. When you have a black belt, you are considered an expert. I think some teachers discourage questions because the wrong one can expose the true lack of depth in the teacher s knowledge. A lot has been lost in the modern practice of martial arts. It is certainly true in much of the practice of Tai Chi, which has been watered down from a brutal martial art to an exercise for older people or moving meditation practiced by millions around the world. And when my granddaughter earned a black belt at a local taekwondo school and did not know how to throw a good punch, and I watched obese black belts strutting around her school who couldn t throw a good kick, I assumed that modern karate had gone the same way -- tense, muscular and simple.It is wonderful to read a book on karate that is intellectually stimulating and offers insights about Hopkins art, Goju-Ryu, that also informs my own practice. You don t have to study karate to appreciate it.I highly recommend Wandering Along the Way of Okinawan Karate. It is the first book by Giles Hopkins that I have read, but it will not be the last. I am ordering his earlier book today, and will keep an eye out for future books. It is obvious to me that Hopkins is an outstanding teacher and the type of martial artist I would enjoy talking with and comparing notes. May he enjoy many more hikes in the woods, many more books on the market and many more seasons of training.--by Ken Gullette Tags: giles hopkins, goju-ryu, karate books, okinawan karate, thinking about goju-ryu, wandering along the way of okinawan karate Ken high-jumping at Lafayette High School in Lexington, KY 1970.I was on the track team in high school. My specialty was the high jump.I was not a gifted jumper but I enjoyed pushing myself to see if I could improve, even a quarter-inch at a time. I was just shy of six feet tall, not a tall, lanky kind of athlete like the famous high-jumper Dick Fosbury.Paul Carter was a buddy of mine in school. His father attended the track meets and always came over to watch the high jump competition. He always spoke to me and watched me compete.I did not always win, but I enjoyed the competition. Months after our senior track season, I was talking to Paul and he mentioned his father. My dad really loves to watch you compete, he said. Do you know why? I told him I did not know. Because he says even when you don t win, you are still smiling, Paul said.Really? I did not know that I had that kind of impact on anyone.It was an enlightening moment.I did not enjoy losing, but I did not consider myself a loser. If you compete at anything, you run the risk of losing. If you enjoy it, does it matter?This was 25 years before I started teaching martial arts. By the time I began teaching in 1997, I was also competing regularly in martial arts tournaments, often in open tournaments, with competitors from all styles and judges from all styles. Very often, the judges did not really understand the internal arts.My students were good, but I noticed the impact that losing had on some of them. Some students could not handle losing in a tournament. Some of them quickly dropped out of martial arts if they walked away from a tournament or two without carrying a trophy. I felt the same about martial arts tournaments as I did about the high-jump. I was not a gifted athlete, but I enjoyed the arts and I enjoyed the competition. But there is one more important thing I got out of competing.I learned about myself. I learned how I reacted to pressure, how I responded when another black belt was trying to kick my ass. And I learned to analyze each victory and each defeat and look for lessons. I learned to walk away with information to improve my skills.One day, I was competing at a huge regional tournament in Dubuque, Iowa. The team of judges included mostly black belts from Karate, Taekwondo and other external arts. One of the judges was a woman who tended to score me lower than others.On this day, I did a strong Xingyiquan form and I did not place. She scored me low again.I approached her after the event and asked, I notice you scored me low. What advice would you give me? She seemed surprised, but she said, You run through your kata like a house on fire. There is no pacing. For a moment, I reacted as most people would react. I thought, Oh, she doesn t know what the hell she s talking about. But I thanked her, and as I walked away, I mentally ran through my form. As I did, I realize that I had a tendency to barrel through it hard and fast, with power and speed.She was right. There were little moments in the form when I should ease up, slow down, pause for effect -- add some pacing. I worked on it and I began winning more forms events after that day. This kind of attitude can help you in every aspect of life. In 2006, I began working on an idea for a Media Relations Coach website. I was the director of media relations for ACT, the company that makes the college admissions exam. My goal was to teach media relations to other people starting out in similar jobs around the country.I worked like crazy on this website, but when I launched it, there were crickets. Nobody seemed to be interested. It was a resounding defeat.In 2008, after taking a job in Tampa, Florida, the job did not work out and I suddenly found myself unemployed.I decided to use what I had learned in my failed Media Relations Coach website attempt, and I would create a website teaching the internal arts. Within three months, I launched www.InternalFightingArts.com, and people began signing up immediately. I am proud to say that it is still in business more than 12 years later as I write this post, and it is doing better than ever.Losing gracefully is very easy if you use each competitive situation as a learning moment. If you win, what do you learn? If you lose, can you use the information from that loss to propel you forward?You can t win them all. And maybe you don t want to win them all. You don t learn a lot in victory.It is in defeat where you can mine gold, not just about your technique, but also about yourself. And from there, you can work to get better. Go get em. And keep smiling.--by Ken Gullette 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 way James Bond fought in those early films also had an impact.When Sean Connery played 007, he often found himself against much stronger, tougher opponents, but his resourcefulness often helped him win the fight. Whether he was fighting Oddjob in the vault at Fort Knox, Red Grant on the train in From Russia, with Love, or the Japanese martial artist in You Only Live Twice, he found a way to win. One of the radio commercials used in the summer of 1967 to advertise You Only Live Twice went something like this: They rush him from all sides. FIFTY karate experts whose hands can slice through rock. The odds...FIFTY to one. THEY haven t got a CHANCE. Listen to the original radio ad here.Oh, man. I still get cold chills listening to that radio ad.As a kid, and as a young teenager, I was often the target of bullies. For some reason, they were attracted to me like fat to a mother-in-law, but they made a big mistake when they pushed me to the point when I could not walk away.They did not realize they were picking on a guy who enjoyed fighting. I always tried to avoid it, but if I could not avoid it, once the fight started I considered it the ultimate one-on-one competition. It was the ultimate sport. I never lost a fight in my life.And from watching James Bond movies in those days, I realized that the better, stronger fighter does not always win. Usually, the smarter fighter wins.The second-to-last real fight I had was when I was 17 years old in high school. A guy named Charlie wanted to fight. The disagreement started in Mr. Fife s geography class and we took it to the boy s restroom there in the Stone Building at Lafayette High School. It was a very small restroom and we faced off.Charlie hauled off and punched me in the jaw. My head exploded in pain, and sparks seemed to burst in front of my eyes like fireworks.It was clear that he was a much better puncher than I was.So I moved in, clenched with him, and slammed him into the side of a stall.How would Sean Connery handle this, I thought. Well, since he appeared to be a better boxer, I would stop him from being able to punch me.I threw him to the ground.He tried to get up, but before he could reach his feet, I slammed him to the ground again.Each time he tried to get up, I slammed him into the wall or back to the ground.Finally, exhausted, he gave up. We went back to our classes. I won the fight.The moment I walked out of the restroom, I thought, Sean Connery would be proud of that one. Self-defense is a lot more than physical strength or even technical skill. Often, it is about awareness, not being there, and if you can t escape the fight, it s also about how you can use your surroundings or items you can pick up.And it is about keeping your cool at all times. Or, as I learned in the internal arts, remaining centered at all times.Tonight, I will raise a glass to this fine actor. I have watched his Bond movies countless times. I have them all on Blu-Ray and catch them when they pop up on cable channels. He will always be an inspiration to me in many ways.I salute you, Sean Connery. The bullies who picked on me might have other feelings, however.--by Ken Gullette Tags: 007, James Bond, james bond and fighting, lafayette high school, Sean Connery, You Only Live Twice Everything about martial arts changed for me the day I met my first Chen Taiji instructors, Jim and Angela Criscimagna.On a Saturday morning in early 1998 I drove to their home in Rockford, Illinois, about two hours from my home, to find out what some of these body mechanics were that I had recently read about in an internet chat room -- terms like ground path and peng jin. Jim worked with me for an hour, explaining the difference between the Yang style Taiji I had studied up to that point and the Chen style that he was studying and teaching.In one hour, I knew I had to start over. What I had been studying was empty. It was based on chi cultivation and not on body mechanics.After 25 years in martial arts and more than a decade in the internal arts, I couldn t find my kua with both hands. This was a problem, considering I had a black sash and was already teaching. My students and I were already making a splash at area martial arts tournaments. Now, my style of Taiji had to change.For the next few years, I drove regularly to Rockford to study with Jim and Angela. They introduced me to Ren Guangyi and Grandmaster Chen Xiaowang, who they hosted for workshops. My career up to that point had been in the news industry as a reporter, news director, anchor and producer. Every day, I tried to explain news stories and events in an understandable way. A complex story had to be broken down so the general public could make sense of it. As the reporter or story writer, I had to understand it, too.That is how I approached my teaching of the internal arts. As I began learning the internal concepts, often in a roundabout way, I asked myself how I could explain it to my students and to myself in a way that made sense.Over time, I broke the body mechanics down into six main concepts that beginning students needed to at least know about:One -- The Ground Path -- If someone pushes against any part of your body, they must feel as if they are pushing into a steel rod that is connected to the ground. That needed to be maintained through all movements.Two -- Peng Jin -- An expansive quality in your body and limbs that works with the Ground Path to give your relaxed movements an internal strength that is not evident on the outside.Three -- Whole-Body Movement -- When one part moves, all parts move, and your internal strength unfolds like a ribbon from the ground through the body. All styles talk about this, but it is clear when watching even Taiji people that many do not achieve it.Four -- Opening and Closing the Kua -- The crease at the top of the legs, along the inguinal ligament, acts as a buoy in the ocean. Used properly, it helps you adjust to incoming force and rebalance yourself.Five -- Dantien rotation -- They say the Dantien (sometimes spelled Dan T ien) leads all movements, but I believe all movements start with the ground and the Dantien is part of what leads the internal strength along the ground path.Six -- Silk-Reeling Energy -- The word energy can be misleading. It means method in this context. Silk-Reeling energy is a method of spiraling the body, from the ground through the limbs, that helps provide additional power to your movements. I teach the Silk-Reeling exercises to guide my students on the proper way to combine all six of these concepts into their movements.When students begin learning from me, the first thing they learn are these six body mechanics, and from there, they study the art they want -- Chen style Taiji, Xingyiquan or Ba Gua Zhang. On my website, there is a section devoted to many videos breaking down these skills, and I also teach them in my Internal Strength DVD and Silk-Reeling Energy DVD.As you continue learning, there are many other concepts and skills to be learned, but in my experience, a lot of students are just kind of thrown into classes and simply follow the teacher for a long time, as they slowly develop a sense of what they are trying to achieve.I believe it is much more difficult to reach your destination without a road map. Understanding these six principles and how they factor into your movement and self-defense applications will be a revelation, like firing up a brand new updated GPS device. If you read this list and do not understand how to translate these into your internal movement, save some time and check out either the DVDs above or my membership website at www.InternalFightingArts.com. Here is a true fact about many internal arts teachers: It is a lot easier to pretend to be teaching something mystical than it is to put in the hard work required by the internal body mechanics that produce real quality.My goal in teaching is to cut years off the time it takes someone to go from novice to skilled by providing information that I did not have for decades as I tried to feel my way through the thick jungle of misinformation, hacking through the tall weeds of mysticism and magical chi powers in search of something true. I am still learning.Internal energy, and the relaxed power of Taiji, Xingyi and Bagua comes from good body mechanics, not mysticism. If you don t fully understand the principles you should be working on, the road ahead is much longer and much more expensive.-- by Ken Gullette James Randi has passed away. He was a magician and a critical thinker who inspired many of us as he debunked supernatural BS, including chi powers. He had one million dollars in escrow that he offered to anyone who could prove, in a double-blind setting, that they could perform any supernatural acts that they claimed to do.Richard Mooney was one of the martial artists who claimed to knock people down without touching them. He was featured in a martial arts magazine many years ago now, with photos showing his students falling to the ground without being touched.Mooney tried to claim Randi s million dollars, but it was a double-blind test. Around 18 people were chosen, and none of them knew what Richard was going to do. One by one, they stood behind a screen as Mooney tried to knock them down without touching them. None of them even flinched.In a double-blind trial, video of the event was given to judges who also did not know what Mooney was attempting to do. The judges decided that nothing really happened. Mooney did not get the money.Randi inspired me to offer $5,000 to any chi master who could knock me down without touching me. I have challenged several of these people, and even though they willingly take the money of students, and they charge money to give workshops, they refuse to accept my challenge. Ironic, isn t it?I challenged Mooney before I knew he had failed at the Randi Challenge. I told him I did not believe he could knock people down without touching them, and I would drive down to his school to see if he could do it to me. He replied with some rude emails. That isn t what you would expect from someone who had tapped into the secret of the Universe, is it?Mooney s failure at the Randi Challenge was supposed to be kept quiet, according to an arrangement with the Randi Foundation, but word leaked out a long time ago.Mooney isn t the only one who failed James Randi s Million Dollar Challenge, and he is not the only one of these martial arts masters who has turned me down. He was just one of the first. Many of the people I challenged sent rude or insulting replies. The business manager of one master said he was coming to test my skills. He said he wanted to do push hands. I told him it would be no-holds-barred fighting. He didn t show up. Imagine that.Nancy and I wanted to meet Randi, but ran out of time. He inspired many people to think more critically, and to not believe everything someone in authority tells you, ESPECIALLY if he is a martial arts master. Tags: $5000 chi challenge, chi powers, critical thinker, critical thinking skills and martial arts, james randi, james randi dies, ken gullette chi challenge, no touch knockdown When I was growing up and got a little rowdy at the dinner table, my mother would bark, Kenny! Mind your manners! I grew up in the South back in the 1950s and Sixties. We were raised to be polite and have good manners.I have found that manners in martial arts can be a bit tricky. And depending on who you study with, you need to think from a different cultural perspective.In a recent podcast interview, Chen Taiji instructor Nabil Ranne of Germany explained how he violated martial arts etiquette during an early conversation he had with his teacher, Chen Yu.He asked Chen Yu how many times each day should he practice the form that some of us call Laojia Yilu but is also known as Old Frame First Form, or First Road. Chen Yu replied, Five times a day. Nabil says he responded to Chen Yu by saying something like, But your grandfather said you should do thirty routines per day. Later, when Nabil understood more about martial etiquette, he realized and regretted his mistake.By responding to Chen Yu as he did, in Chinese culture he was telling Chen Yu that either Chen Yu was wrong, or that his grandfather was wrong.Listen to the interview with Nabil by following this link.Nabil realized, as he became more aware of Chinese customs, that this was very impolite. Chen Yu took it well, but not all Chinese masters would. Sometimes, they give Westerners some slack because they realize Westerners do not know their culture.Americans Are Often UnawareWe have a tradition in the United States; we think we can ask anything of anyone.If the President of the United States stood before us, our culture says you can ask him just about anything you want to ask.I have personally interviewed Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and more than one governor and congressman. I have interviewed celebrities such as Michael J. Fox, Barry Manilow, Pete Rose and Rick Nelson, among others.We ask about their personal lives and their public lives. That expectation, of having free speech and asking pointed questions, and also asking about discrepancies in things they have said in the past, is part of our culture.We have to suppress this urge when we deal with Chinese masters.Your Teacher at the Moment is Your Only TeacherI study with two or three different teachers currently. I recently joined a Zoom class, said good morning to the teacher on gallery view, and one of the other students said, Ken Gullette! I m going to buy a couple of your DVDs this week! My first reaction was surprise and pleasure. My second reaction was embarrassment.When I show up to someone else s class, I am a student. I am there only to learn and improve my skills. I am there to support the teacher, not to promote myself.The teacher was very gracious and said, Ken does good work! But I was mortified.I am not there to talk about my teaching or to compare what I do to what the teacher does. I am not there to discuss the differences in what this teacher shows compared to what I have learned from someone else. I am there to absorb knowledge and improve my skills.After the class, I sent the teacher an email and apologized, and the teacher reacted very graciously.My Teacher Says......If you are a teacher, you inevitably will have a new student who has studied other arts.Often, the student will begin by explaining the different arts he has studied and the teachers he has studied with. Some people call me about my membership website and they spend 15 minutes right off the bat telling me about their other arts and other teachers.Perhaps they do this because they don t feel worthy. Perhaps they are trying to convince me that they will be a good student.The best thing they can do, however, is just to begin studying and learn. It is usually true that when someone begins listing all the arts they have studied, the longer the list, the more likely it is that they have no skills at all. I have seen it over and over during the past 23 years of teaching.They don t realize how, in their first lesson with me, their minds are going to be blown.Empty Your CupI have had students who enroll in face-to-face classes, and in their first lesson, they go on and on about how their school did it. Or you will show a principle or technique, and they will talk about how their teacher showed it.Sometimes, I will stop them and say, Okay now, it s time to empty your cup. You know that old Zen parable, don t you? A student wanted to learn Zen and approached a Zen master. The student talked on and on about what he knew about Zen.The master calmly listened, then, as the student kept talking, the master gave him a teacup and began pouring some tea. As the student continued talking, the master kept filling the cup until the hot tea flowed out and spilled onto the floor. The master continued to pour until the student realized it. What are you doing? the student asked. Can t you see that my cup is full? The master replied, Exactly. You must first empty your cup in order to taste MY cup of tea. Most teachers will cut you some slack, but if you are a student, it is something you should remember.If you tell any teacher, But my teacher taught me to do it another way, that teacher would be forgiven if they responded with, Well, then go study with your other teacher, because you obviously don t need what I am teaching. Martial arts etiquette would suggest you approach your question another way. I have studied with teachers who do movements differently than I see their teachers performing it. I don t generally ask them why they do the move differently than their teacher does, but I do try to understand what the intent of the movement is. As long as the explanation is good, and the application makes sense, differences are fine.The beauty of the Chinese internal arts is that students very often look different than their teachers. Most people add their own artistic flair to movements as they progress and get older.I recommend that you definitely remember two things:Do not compare your teacher at that moment with another teacher;Do not say, My teacher told me..... Rather than talking about how your other teacher taught, just talk about the movement. Ask your question. Leave other teachers out of it.And if you see me on another teacher s Zoom class, and you want to talk about my DVDs or website, just send me a private message or email. It will save face for everyone.We all have more to learn. I have made mistakes with Chinese culture, too. I have a lot to learn about it.But we learn and grow. As I tell my wife Nancy, who happens to be my third wife, I only make the same mistake twice. Mind your manners.---by Ken Gullette Can Traditional Chinese Medicine help patients who test positive for Covid-19?Dr. Stephen Jackowicz, the chair of the doctoral program at the University of Bridgeport s Acupuncture Institute has treated more than 90 patients in the early stages of Covid-19, all of them testing positive and some of them very ill.None of the patients progressed to the point of hospitalization. It is important to note that Dr. Jackowicz does NOT claim a cure. Using over-the-counter products that anyone fighting virus symptoms needs (Tylenol, Kaopectate, Ensure or Glucerna, etc.) and courses of herbal medicine using TCM practices, he says patients recover faster than without this treatment.He is the interview in my latest Internal Fighting Arts podcast. It will be of interest to other TCM providers, regular medical doctors and nurses, and anyone concerned about the virus that has changed all of our lives in 2020.I am a skeptic when it comes to TCM. I think a lot of claims are made that cannot be supported with solid medical evidence. Dr. Jackowicz does not make those claims. I would not have done this interview if he did.This is episode 52 of the podcast. Listen or download through the player below, or find it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or other podcast distributors.I think you will find this interesting and informative. Tags: can tcm help covid patients, can traditional chinese medicine help covid-19, dr. stephen jackowicz, herbal medicine and covid, internal fighting arts podcast, tcm and covid, tcm and covid-19 Nabil Ranne, instructor of Chen Style Taiji in Berlin and a disciple of Chen Yu.The latest guest on my Internal Fighting Arts podcast is Nabil Ranne, a Chen Taijiquan instructor based in Berlin. He is a disciple of Chen Yu, the son of Chen Zhaokui who lives in Beijing.Nabil is a co-founder of the Chen Style Taijiquan Network Germany. His website is www.ctnd.de.We talk about the differences between Chen Yu s taiji and the taiji taught in the Chen Village, among other topics. You can listen online below or download the audio to play later. You can also subscribe and share this podcast (and I hope you will). Total running time is one hour 22 minutes. Tags: chen style in berlin, chen style taijiquan network germany, chen yu, ctnd, disciple of chen yu, internal fighting arts, ken gullette, nabil ranne, tai chi in berlin, tai chi in germany Two amazing people with beautiful hearts left the world during the past two weeks.I learned about the passing of Laralyn Yee the day before I watched the service for Congressman John Lewis.Both of these people had beautiful hearts and they both lost brave struggles with cancer.President Obama presented John Lewis with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011.A lot has been written about John Lewis, so I will not focus on him very much, except to mention how people remember him as always being kind.And Lewis fought all his life for the rights of others. He put himself in harm s way on that bridge to Selma, knowing he was going to be hurt by the racist officers waiting for the marchers. Later in life, he put his beliefs into action, and he put his heart into the task of helping others through legislation.Lara Yee joined my website a few years ago and sent me a couple of emails on different topics. I did not realize she had been diagnosed with cancer. Her messages were always kind. She lived in California and had studied with some good teachers. She asked questions about the internal arts and I tried to answer them. She seemed genuinely pleased that I took the time to reply to her questions.Then, last year, she contacted me to let me know that she only had five more months to live.Laralyn Yee being instructed by Tony Wong.Before she died, she wanted to express to me her gratitude for my teaching. Her email was so wonderful that it filled my heart. The first paragraph of her message said: I ve admired you so much, ever since I came across your online school a while back. Following a second cancer diagnosis in 2017, I became fascinated by and driven to study Chen style taijiquan, and was astonished by the depth and breadth of material available on your membership site! Your video lessons are incredible resources. Additionally, I was inspired from the beginning to model my practice on your example of overcoming tremendous health challenges in pursuit of kung fu excellence. Then she told me she was dying, but was determined to continue studying as much as she could.We exchanged several emails, discussing life, death, and our approach to our health challenges. I assured her there was absolutely nothing to fear about death.But it struck me as the act of a beautiful heart for her to reach out to compliment me at a time when she was facing such a profound diagnosis.With each message, her kindness and gentle spirit was evident. I discovered that I knew a couple of people who knew Lara, and they confirmed that she was, indeed, a compassionate and wonderful person.After receiving her email, the kindness of her intent was in my own heart for days, and when I heard this week of her death, it sat heavy within me, and before I realized it, tears were in my eyes and rolling down my face.An example of the joy Lara brought to her taiji practice.Someone I had never met in person had touched me, and I felt their loss deeply. One of the other students in one of her California classes said that Lara was truly a good person, and brought a joy and insatiable curiosity to taiji class.One of Lara s taiji sisters, Angela Ng-Quinn, says that Lara asked her to come up with a Chinese name for her. Angela chose a name that means an intelligent and beautiful lotus. Isn t that nice?The day after learning of her death, I watched some of the service for John Lewis. I listened as former president Barack Obama said that Lewis reminded us that, In every one of us, there is the potential for courage. We lost two courageous and kind people during the past two weeks. As I contemplated this loss, it made me realize that I still have work to do on myself. How will I be remembered? Will people mourn a little and then move on with their lives, or will my loss leave a void that is difficult to fill in their own hearts?Everything we do each day, and every encounter we have with other people, builds this legacy. Isn t this what the internal arts should help us do? Isn t a connection to all things one of our goals?It should be. We all fall short of our goals, but it s the attempt that counts.John and Lara have found perfect peace now, and they have left behind feelings of warmth and kindness. John also leaves behind a legacy of someone who would put his life on the line for justice.Is this the meaning of life? Did John and Lara live successful lives, even though one was famous and one was not?I think they both definitely lived successful lives. I would write that we should all be so lucky, but luck has nothing to do with it. It is the way we treat others that builds that legacy. It is the actions we take on behalf of others, and the acts of reaching out to let others know they are valued.In 2020, with so much negativity in the world, with our own friends fighting each other with words on social media over politics and race as we all try to survive a pandemic, there has never been a better time to learn from people like John and Lara.Their courageous and kind lights have been extinguished, but we can be better people and carry the light forward. We can live successful lives, too.If only we will.-- by Ken Gullette All of us think we look like Chen Xiaowang or Jet Li when we are doing forms and martial arts movements.Often, we look like Charlie Chaplin instead.When I started my online internal arts school in 2008, I thought certification would be part of the package. If you could show that you have learned the internal principles and movement, and do the forms and techniques well, you could receive certifications.It turned out to be a lot harder than I expected.It is really difficult to learn through video only, because most people do not have enough body awareness to translate what they are seeing on a screen into what their body should be doing.Everyone needs a teacher to correct them, over and over again, until their muscle memory takes over.For 12 years, I tried to solve this problem by having members do videos and either put them up privately on YouTube or send them to me. I would watch and I would shoot videos correcting their mistakes. I could see some progress in some people, but it was a labor-intensive process and it took a long time.And then online video progressed, and Zoom, Skype and FaceTime got better and better as computer and phone speeds progressed.And then Covid-19 hit, forcing a lot of us to do classes on Zoom.I do a Xingyi class on Monday, a Taiji class on Wednesday and a Bagua class on Friday -- all live on Zoom, with website members from California to Texas to Sweden, Germany and Romania.Coaching a member of the website in a one-on-one Skype video session.Besides the live Zoom classes, I also do live one-on-one coaching sessions with members of my website.We have fun, we learn, and I see more improvement in members than I have since I began teaching online.I am starting to send out certifications, and I am learning that this type of environment can produce quality results.Achieving quality still takes a lot of work. I don t give certifications lightly. You don t buy a certificate just by joining. You must show you have achieved what you are after at that level, whether it is the five fist postures and Linking form of Xingyi, the Chen 19 form in Taiji, the Eight Main Palms form of Bagua., or whatever you are working on.But I have seen that it can be done by people like Nikolaus in Sweden, Michael in Germany, Amir in Canada, Robert in Romania, or Michael in New Jersey.A certificate of completion does not mean mastery. It is like a belt promotion in any martial arts school. It signifies that you have worked hard and shown basic competence. From there, it is the student s job to continue working to improve the form or technique, and it is the instructor s job to continue to guide the student toward improvement.By the way, there are no fees for certifications on my website. And no additional cost for the live classes or one-on-one sessions. It is all included in the monthly website fee of $19.99 per month. Yes, I know, it seems very low. But my goal isn t to gouge anyone, it is to teach. I love it, and I am very happy that technology has finally allowed it to be a better opportunity for everyone, regardless of where they live on the planet.--by Ken GulletteTry Two Weeks Free of my website -- More than 900 Video Lessons PLUS Live Classes -- Cancel Anytime -- Click Here for More Info Tags: learn ba gua zhang online, learn bagua online, learn chen tai chi online, learn hsing-i online, learn tai chi online, learn taiji online, learn xingyiquan online

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Sifu Ken Gullette offers instruction and insights into the Chinese internal fighting arts of Chen tai chi, Hsingichuan, and Baguazhang.

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