Master Bob Klein

[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 and now he's taling about animal chi kung he made up

[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 by Bob Klein

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