"Simplified Tai Chi for Beginners - Learn the 48 Form" by Helen Liang. A Review.


Simplified Tai Chi for Beginners – Learn the 48 Form (DVD)
Helen Liang
YMAA Publication Center, Inc.
PO Box 480
Wolfeboro, NH 03894
www.ymaa.com
ISBN: 978-1-59439-289-4; March 2016; $29.95

5 stars of 5

The graceful, flowing, effortless moves in tai chi are beginning to attract American attentions. Schools promising to teach tai chi are cropping up throughout the nation, showing up even in adult living centers. Helen Liang, eldest daughter of Grandmaster Liang, vice-president of the the Shou-Yu Liang Wushu Taiji Qigong Institute in Canada, and cancer survivor, has recently teamed up with Yang’s Martial Arts Association to produce a 180 minute DVD for level 1 students, “Simplified Tai Chi for Beginners: Learn the 48 Form.”

In this DVD, Liang introduces this tai chi form, describing how it is mainly drawn from the Yang style, while including steps from Chin, Wu, Hao and Sun. Most Americans are unfamiliar with the Taoist and Buddhist aspects of Kung Fu and Tai Chi, the place of yin, yang and the chi; but these are brought out in this introduction. Then she demonstrates the complete form with elegant ease and supple simplicity. Next she does a walk-through of the 48 positions and covers some basic guidelines. After this she delicately and descriptively takes the tai chi learner through six instructions that cover all 48 positions.  Afterwards she completes the form again showing how it looks from behind her back. Finally, she concludes the video with some words of encouragement.

Beyond the thoroughness of Liang’s presentation, there are two other items that stood out. First, as she walks the student through each section of the form, she regularly brings out their martial application; how this move is a punch, that one is a block, why this fist is hidden before it strikes, and so forth. Second, is the intensity of the form. It becomes quickly obvious to the astute viewer that this simplified tai chi – 48 form has so many moving parts that it will take weeks and months to learn it, and come to practice it well. And in the concluding remarks Liang makes sure to mention that it will likely take nine to 12 months to get this form down.

“Simplified Tai Chi for Beginners: Learn the 48 Form” is an easy-to-follow DVD. Liang’s patient teaching manner will make this video accessible to most pupils. The martial applications will thrill martial arts enthusiasts, while the discipline and fitness aspects will please those desiring its health benefits. If you’re ready to move up from the 24 position form of tai chi, this is the video to get.

Thanks to YMAA for providing, upon my request, the free copy of “Simplified Tai Chi for Beginners – Learn the 48 Form” used for this review. The assessments are mine given without restrictions or requirements (as per Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255).

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

"Was America Founded as a Christian Nation?" (Rev. Ed.) by John Fea. A Review

Image
  John Fea is a professor of history at Messiah University in Mechanicsburg, PA. A university founded in 1909 by the Brethren in Christ Church. He originally published "Was America Founded as a Christian Nation? A Historical Introduction" in 2011, and it was revised in 2016. This 328-page paperback is packed full with Colonial and American history, drawing from original sources to answer that question. It is a book written "for the historically minded and thoughtful reader who is looking for help in sorting" out this question, avoiding polemics (xix). Since we live in a sound-bite culture, Fea recognizes that it is difficult to have a sustained dialogue on this topic, but he makes a valiant effort toward having that sustained dialogue. The book reads fairly straightforward, and doesn't seem to get bogged down in the contentious mudpuddles or bogs. In the end, Fea seems to get his point across. To answer the reigning question if America was founded as a Christian...
Read more

Union with Christ - An Application

Image
  (This was my weekly letter to my congregation on Wednesday, 21 February 2024) This morning in my devotional reading, I was working through 1 Corinthians 8. Though I’ve read these words a huge number of times over the years, today one verse caused me to stop and take stock.  Paul wrote, “ Thus, sinning against your brothers and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ ” (1 Corinthians 8:12). What struck me is a couple of things. First, in God’s saving work, we are – by grace alone – united (hitched, bonded, ingrafted) to Christ so much so, that what happens to us happens to him, and what is his becomes ours (think of Galatians 2:20, for example). As Sinclair Ferguson put it, “through union with Christ all that is his by incarnation becomes ours through faith” (“The Christian Life,” 110). Let that percolate in your heart for a while. Your fear, anxiety, tears, and so forth, he feels. And his “ Peace, be still ” is yours. Second, the way we treat one an...
Read more

"Ah, Lord! We are Animated by Anger and Anxiety, Fear and Fury..."

Image
I hesitate to put this out there because of the combative environment we are in at present. But I think some souls will take courage from this, and some will also join with me as we get to the end of this little composition. I am struck by the words of God in Zechariah 8. As he rehearses the waywardness and faithlessness of his people in the past, he clearly declares that he " set every man against his neighbor " (8:10). That got me thinking long ago. I started putting the pieces together and realized that one of God's acts of judgment is division, setting a man against his neighbor. That's what happened when he divided his people into the northern tribes and southern tribes (see 1 Kings 11:26-40). Because of Solomon's turning aside, allowing his wives to turn his heart away from the God of his father, David, the Lord brings about a rift in God's people. And this pattern of divisive judgment runs throughout Scripture. On the other hand, truthful unity is the g...
Read more