Master Bob Klein

[stonecrusher69]

Has anyone heard of Master Bob Klein? He has a school of Tai Chi in Long Island NY.

I am interested in taking Tai Chi lessons. What does anyone think of the quality of his instruction, and does anyone know who he learned martial art systems from?

[beaudacious]

I am pretty sure he is a William CC Chen student. Never heard much about his teaching or skill level

[cerebus]

I don't think he's a student of William C.C. Chen. Klein's Tai Chi looks rather poor to me, but hey, I'm a Hsing-I & Bagua guy, so what do I know...

[stonecrusher69]

thx for the info.I have read your sifu book a while ago.I enjoyed the read.Its to bad he does not teach Tai Chi as a M.A. it's really hard to find a competent teacher.Sam Chin I have met a few years ago,and crossed hands with his students and him.I was not overly impressed.

[Three Harmonies]

I have always wondered about Kleins stuff myself. He supposedly does Northern Mantis, but I have never heard anything about him. Anymore info on him guys??

Cheers
Jake :cool:

[Repulsive Monkey]

Bob Klein was a student of William C.C. Chen's.

I don't K. Frantzis for his Tai Chi at all, however his Bagua maybe good.

[stonecrusher69]

I saw a video of Bob Klein teaching Tai chi using boxing gloves and hopping around like a monkey.What's that all about? Is that something he learned fom William C C Chen of something he made up himself? Has anyone seen this?

[kung fu fighter]

Hi Mike,
If you are looking for combative tai chi, I suggest that you look into the chen style tai chi because it retained alot more martial art applications. It's a very complete art if you find a good teacher. I suggest you check out master Ren Guang Yi school. He is a student of grandmaster Chen Xiao Wang from chen village. I have most of his videos.

Later
Navin

[Three Harmonies]

If you are looking for combative tai chi, I suggest that you look into the chen style tai chi because it retained alot more martial art applications.

Now that is just a silly remark! ALL Taiji, ALL Martial arts for that matter have martial applications, hence the name "Martial" art. Now a days it depends on the teacher. Tim can teach you Yang/Chen/Sun all with wicked kick ass apps. If your teacher does not know/won't show apps, he has no clue. Period.
Cheers
Jake :cool:

[stonecrusher69]

I agree Three Harmonies all tai chi has combat applications and is a martial art and it really depends on the teacher totransmit the art.I think what Kung fu fighter was getting at is that it appears the chen style in general has been practiced and pass on more as a fighting art and has retained it's fighting essence then the other styles.Most of the other styles just paractice it for health not for fighting.the yang style is a good examble.It has been modified so many times and has lost a lot of its combat essence.

[bodhitree]

You call him a master, he's like the 'happy little trees' guy of gongfu. He even looks like him. Thats like calling Bob Ross a master when M.C. Escher is around.

[K.Brazier]

Hi Jake,
He put out a vid on Gao Dao Sheng's Tang Lang Hands form a while ago.
It included "applications"
I think he made them up and maybe learned from someone who learned from Gao, or a student of a student.

The motion is not mantis nor is the appz. I felt jipped seeing that tape.

[kungfu cowboy]

I understand that some of those applications were gleaned during his stint as a very in-demand Chippendale's dancer.

[GeneChing]

Check out our new e-zine article: Animal Fighting and Animal Chi-Gung (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/ezine/article.php?article=787) by Bob Klein

[TenTigers]

no.

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[Crushing Step]

Bob Klein received his Tai-chi-Chuan teaching certificate from Grandmaster William C. C. Chen in 1975. He has taught thousands of students at his school in Sound Beach, Long Island, N. Y. and at other Tai-chi schools, universities and hospitals.

I wonder what makes him qualified to teach other styles of kung fu? Or for that matter, if master Chen talks to animals with his chi?

[wiz cool c]

I second that Ren Guang Yi school. They do an aggrsive type of moving push hands allows sweeps and sometimes Qina. Mark Sabin I know is very good,but I wouldn't recomend his teachings for self defence. He is more about health and spiritual stuff. And and H.Won TCC I think this is the Korean guy who does the dynamic push hands stuff on 34th street? If that's him,his school is interesting but for realistic self defense ,that is a stretch.

Frank Allen and Tina are great. They teach application and have a sparring program that can fit anyones ablity.

[lkfmdc]

How can you possibly take this guy seriously? He claims to teach a billion styles (with no discussion of even how he learned them), his movement is, well, WACK :rolleyes: and now he's taling about animal chi kung he made up :rolleyes:

[Crushing Step]

Anyone want to let these guys in on the fun?

www.bullshido.com

All smack talking aside, they seem to take fraud investigation very seriously. Just a disclaimer, I'm not laying down the accusation, so don't flame me. But I am raising the question. With an obvious certification in William CC Chen's 60 Movement Tai Chi, how then does one obtain the title of master or grandmaster, and then teach all these other styles?

As a side note, I've never heard anyone within the mantis community speak positive about his "Mayflower Mantis" video. I've seen it, and it hurt my eyes. I'm just sayin.

[Xiao3 Meng4]

Whenever I see Bob Klein I think "man, Will Farell could turn this into comedy gold."

[cjurakpt]

the article contained every kung-fu cliche in the book: it's embarrassing that people still write this kind of stuff, and IMHO is way below the bar of what KFM usually publishes;

in many respects, he has no clue what he is talking about: for example, differentiating between ligaments, tendons and connective tissue: last time I checked, the first two are specifics types of the latter - don't use anatomical terms unless you actually know what they mean; furthermore, like most internal-stylist zombies, he says nothing about what actually moves the body, which is, hello, muscular power; I don't care what you think, if you are moving, muscles are firing; now, the way in which they fire might be very different between a newb and a long-time taiji player, but that is because from training, you become more efficient and instinctively time the contractions such that they work in conjunction with the elastic recoil of the tendons, the transfer of ground reaction force, and the respiratory mechanism, and also without antagonists impeding the function of agonists; also, what he calls "chi" vis a vis training blindfolded, the rest of the world calls proprioception and kinesthetic awareness, which are neurological capabilities that can be trained to be exceedingly sensitive and fast over time - no magic there, just adaptation of the nervous system to the context within which it is being asked to function - which, to me, is inherently "miraculous" in and of itself, no need to make hoo-doo voo-doo of it;

now granted, some of what he says has merit: for example, observing yourself chewing food without helping or hindering, is a very Ch'an practice: in fact, when I used to do monastic retreats, mealtime was really just another opportunity to practice awareness of suchness: one of the best teachings the abbot gave (this was at Chuang Yen monastery in upstate NY - Taiwanese Ch'an Buddhists, the real deal, not some hippy-dippy group) was eating his meal - when he ate, he simply ate, nothing more, nothing less; unfortunately, he violates this principle with an intricate and esoteric description of fighting (a description which suggests he hasn't had much experience with trained fighters used to training under pressured, live conditions...)

in summary, an excellent example of why TCMA tends to attract people looking for the magical way to mastery...

[cjurakpt]

Whenever I see Bob Klein I think "man, Will Farell could turn this into comedy gold."

LOL - yeah, he already skewered the TKD world - maybe he's working his way into that of CMA and "internal" practice...

[Three Harmonies]

What amazes me more is people publish this ****. Not surprised knuckleheads write it, but when we publish something like this we give credit to it. It hurts the community, and the arts even more!
Too bad. Very sad!
Jake

[Crushing Step]

Hey, I agree with something you posted. The world may be getting better after all.

[TenTigers]

if you get a chance, steal a copy of his Tai-Chi tape. he has many good people,John Painter, Yang Jwing-Ming and others....and then some really far out hippy folks doing some of the weirdest stuff you have ever laid eyes on. Klien also does a cool Mayflower sword form, some really interesting push hands, and some interesting interpetations of Yang and Chen style. A must have for your library. Great for parties!
The guy he has on his tapes doing the snake form and other stuff is now wearing Taoist robes and is a Wudang Monk.
America-land of opportunity.

[Three Harmonies]

JJ
Troll elsewhere bro.

[GeneChing]

It's been a while since an e-zine drew so much reaction and I'm happy to see it, even if it's negative. Now you're all probably wondering why we published this piece. My honest answer - $. Bob Klein's videos are top sellers. They have been for as long as I've worked here. Riddle me that.

[Xiao3 Meng4]

...must be the 70's doo and 'stache.

[sanjuro_ronin]

It's been a while since an e-zine drew so much reaction and I'm happy to see it, even if it's negative. Now you're all probably wondering why we published this piece. My honest answer - $. Bob Klein's videos are top sellers. They have been for as long as I've worked here. Riddle me that.

Crap always sells better than quality, its a fact of life ie: Reality TV Shows.

[bodhitree]

Check out our new e-zine article: Animal Fighting and Animal Chi-Gung (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/ezine/article.php?article=787) by Bob Klein

Digging up the oldies buddy. I saw the Putin one. Teddy Rosevelt boxed and wrestled, but no vids!

[sanjuro_ronin]

Digging up the oldies buddy. I saw the Putin one. Teddy Rosevelt boxed and wrestled, but no vids!

Rosevelt did jujutsu too.

[cjurakpt]

Bob Klein's videos are top sellers. They have been for as long as I've worked here. Riddle me that.

one of the seven signs of the Apocalypse; Rapture should be any day now...

[sanjuro_ronin]

one of the seven signs of the Apocalypse; Rapture should be any day now...

Its been delayed, it seems to have stopped by Burger King and died of food poisoning.

[cjurakpt]

Its been delayed, it seems to have stopped by Burger King and died of food poisoning.

or drank some Sanlu products...

[Crushing Step]

JJ
Troll elsewhere bro.

haha, I knew it was too good to be true.

Yep, I'm a troll because I disagree with you, good call.

[golden arhat]

"It is usually hard for to anyone to understand this subject until they actually work with animals. At first you learn to allow the attention of an animal inside of you. I worked largely with snakes. As they rear up and stare, I would sit right in front of them and stare back. My body would relax and allow their attention inside of me. At the same time I released my attention into the snake. The mutual attention connected us and the snake remained motionless. If my attention wavered even slightly, the snake would strike and I would have to duck. (This trained me to duck). I used snakes up to around twelve feet long."



if you sit still and stare at snakes, is it not true that they just cant see you because your not moving?



i think the guy reads a bit too far into what he's doing.

[GreenCloudCLF]

"It is usually hard for to anyone to understand this subject until they actually work with animals. At first you learn to allow the attention of an animal inside of you. I worked largely with snakes. As they rear up and stare, I would sit right in front of them and stare back. My body would relax and allow their attention inside of me. At the same time I released my attention into the snake. The mutual attention connected us and the snake remained motionless. If my attention wavered even slightly, the snake would strike and I would have to duck. (This trained me to duck). I used snakes up to around twelve feet long."



if you sit still and stare at snakes, is it not true that they just cant see you because your not moving?



i think the guy reads a bit too far into what he's doing.


I believe snakes "sight" is based on vibration, but i also believe it can pick up the smallest vibrations (slight twitches, even, possibly, the vibration of a heartbeat).

But that quote (admittedly may be taken out of context) is a little of the top for my taste. "If you can dodege a snake, you can dodge a ball"

[bakxierboxer]

"It is usually hard for to anyone to understand this subject until they actually work with animals. At first you learn to allow the attention of an animal inside of you....."

if you sit still and stare at snakes, is it not true that they just cant see you because your not moving?

i think the guy reads a bit too far into what he's doing.

Actually that was a quote from Bob(?) Klein.
It's better not to pay any attention to him at all.
Gene "likes the guy" because his crap sells lots of books for them.... but it is crap.

[GreenCloudCLF]

Actually that was a quote from Bob(?) Klein.
It's better not to pay any attention to him at all.
Gene "likes the guy" because his crap sells lots of books for them.... but it is crap.

But the crap is what brings us quality videos like Iron Crotch!!!