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

The video is fairly useful. However, Terry Dunn frequently mixes up left and right in his oral description of what to do. This means you can never rely on what he's saying and have to keep looking at the video (which can be inconvenient for several of the positions). This compounds the problem of having to do the "opposite" of what you're looking at. The scences where he says "left" where he should have said "right" should have been redone. The more times you play the tape the more the left/right problem gets annoying!

This video gives philosophy, history, warm-ups, basic postures and then goes through the instruction of the form step by step. Terry goes through this process properly and masterfully. Any person with some background in Tai Chi will have no problem understanding this tape. Such a person will also know how to implement other Tai Chi concepts that the tape does not obviously bring out but which Terry aludes to. What this means however is that the total beginner will have a challenge grasping some of the unseen fundamentals that can't be taught on any tape, but which Terry has applied throughout the tape...

This is my first Tai Chi tape. I learned the whole 37 postures and flow from this tape, great for beginners. It is very basic but good production, no fancy props. Terrance is an excellent instructor giving clear explanation.
For people with normal knees, I think the long warm up with half squat position may hurt their knees. I kind of cheated with short warm up and go to learn the postures directly. When your knees get stronger, you will feel more comfortable.

There is actually a book 'Master Cheng's New Method of Taichi Chuan Self-Cultivation' translated by Mark Hennessy (ISBN 1-883319-92-7) that writes out this exact short form in details. The book really helps me to understand the foot positon and to remember the sequence.

I recommend this tape for Tai chi beginners.

This video has very very poor production values in comaprison to the Living Arts Series. The lighting in the warm up is not good, and creates strange shadows. The warm up itself is quite long and repetitive, and drained my enthusiasm for the exercises to come. It is very difficult to follow a video where one must move in a very exact fashion, but do the exact opposite of what is being shown on the screen. I lost interest and could not integrate this video into my daily practice.

Mr Dunn has avoided the pitfalls inherent to Tai Chi instruction. The secret to Tai Chi is simple grandmotherly motion. It is as soft as a baby's breath. Imagine a soft cat that curls ridiculously benign upon your lap. A limp torso, CATegorically alive. Mr Dunn achieves this state, or close enough.