T'ai Chi for Health: Yang Short Form 37 Form

I really liked the way he described everything. His warmth and gentleness was very pleasant and did not get old, on the contrary became more endearing with use. I am not an expert on ability, so I can say only that he seems to be very, very good at both doing and teaching this art.

Now I must say why I had to stop using his videotape (yes, it's that old). There is a synthesized soundtrack that slowly became unbearable to me. I really tried to do what he was saying, and this meant that I rewound the tape over and over again as I attempted to follow his instructions. Let me stop right here to state that I did not find his mixing up of left and right to be a problem: one viewing...yes; two viewings...a little clearer; three, four and five viewings...come on people, it's not an issue. Now back to what I was relating. The soundtrack: I am a musician, very sensitive to such things, so perhaps this will not be an issue with most of you--and I know the producers thought this would be a relaxing addition to the overall effect. However, in my case (and perhaps in the case of a small minority of you all) it ultimately became unbearable. I would like to go back to this recording if I could obtain a version without the pervasive, synthesized, 1970's "feel-good" sounds filling up the spaces between the instructions. Terry, can you help me on this?

Sorry, very hard to use as a work out guide. The various exercises do not follow one another smoothly, but each one loops until you click Next. Having done that, the next exercise does not pick up where the other one left you so you have to scramble to get into the position being shown. The guide mixes up his left and right, putting his weight on his right leg and telling you to put it on the left, for example. The darned FBI warning and a cute Panda bear can't be fast forwarded through so you are left to do warmups waiting, with the clicker in your hand. A new production would be very welcome as he obviously knows his stuff, but we want to follow and imitate, not just watch!

I studied this form in the early 1990's but got out of practice and can't find a good teacher of this form. This DVD is the next best thing to having my early teachers with me. It has a few minor production issues but is generally excellent.

I very much enjoy the DVD and I enjoyed learning about and doing T'ai Chi. However, the instructor in the video confused his right and left foot completely twice in the instructional part. Not just saying right foot and then correcting himself and then saying left, he actually calls his right foot his left and doesn't realize it, twice. There are also a number of times when he does realize it and corrects himself midword and even midsentence. It sounds like it's not a problem but it is because he's doing everything opposite of you as far as point of view goes, so you end up depending on his referrences to which leg, hand, or foot you should be moving. "Slowly roll all of your weight onto your right leg. Now slide your right leg forward." These are things that should've been picked up and fixed in post production, or even gaffed on location during the shoot. It's hard enough to properly learn techniques such as these without being instructed with the wrong foot, hand, or leg.

This video has taught me more than the classes I am taking at the gym. I am a beginner at T'ai Chi and this video helps to establish the moves for the Yang short form. However, like the classes, it fails to address the psychological aspect as I expected it would. T'ai Chi still feels like I am shifting my weight back and forth and waving my hands in the air instead of reaching some inner peace.