Where can you learn Tai Chi on your own?

Answer 1

I recommend Terence Dunn's DVD "Tai Chi for Health; The Yang Long Form." It has a very basic package regarding the rudimentary basics of Tai Chi Chuan, and a moderately comprehensive instructional section on the Yang Long Form itself. Here are tips to learn the yang long form;

1) Be PATIENT.

2) Do not skimp on the details, and constantly "rotate" Mr. Dunn so that, in your mind, he is facing the same direction as you. It is really confusing, if you try to follow his movements, before you follow any movements, in your imagination, "rotate" Mr. Dunn, so that in your living room or T.V. room, he faces the same direction as you, and THEN follow his movements.

3) Follow his movements, all the while making a mental tape reccording, don't just watch and follow, memorize. I recommend, two to three steps at a time.

4) With every session you spend with the DVD, memorize a total of 5 steps per session, and keep a strict limit of 5 steps, and only 5 steps, until you practice those 5 steps 10 times. Memorize 5 steps, and practice them 10 times, to memorize them well. Then, memorize 5 more; within a day, you may end up memorizing a total of 15 steps. Practice those 15 steps for the duration of the week, setting aside one hour for practice, just one hour, as you only need one.

5) At the end of the week, set aside the weekend, Saturday and Sunday, to learn more steps. The Yang Long Form is divided into three sections; the 24 step beginer's form, the 56 step intermediate form, and finally the 108 step "master's" form, which in fact is just all the moves you've learned connected together. That is, you move 24 steps, and then you cross your hands. You move a few more steps reaching 56 steps, and then you cross your hands again in front of your chest, the movement is called "as if closing." You do a few more steps and then you cross your hands yet again, having done a total of 108 steps, but this time, you actually bring the form to a conclusion, you "close it." Because there is a total of 108 steps to learn....

6) Practice the first 24 steps for at least a month, before you move on to the second set of steps. Again, patience is key here.

7) Now, to help with the raw volume, with the next set of steps after the first 24, learn 10, and practice them on their own. Here's what I'm talking about; first, memorize steps 1 through 24, and practice hard, 1 to 2 hours a day, for a month, so you know steps 1 through 24 REALLY well, so that there is absolutely zero doubt that you know what you know, so that you do not constantly have to consult Mr. Dunn's DVD. Okay, once you know you have learned steps 1 through 24 really well, move on to steps 25 through 56, repeating the same process that you used to learn steps 1 through 24. Sorry for not being clear. That is, every weekend, you impose upon yourself a limit of only 10 steps, and only 10 steps because trust me, learning only 5 steps will be difficult enough, as they are stringed together. When you practice...

8) Practice first, the most recent set of steps you learned, 5 times, and then practice steps 1 through 24, one time. If you practiced steps 1 through 24 for a whole month, for an hour a day every day, as many repetitions as an hour will allow, you should know steps 1 through 24 so well, you only need to practice once to refresh your memory. It is more important, to practice the most recently learned steps first, and practice them at LEAST 5 times a day, 10 times if possible. Do this, for about two weeks or so. At the end of the two weeks, connect the most recently learned steps, with the first 24.

9) Now, practice, practice, practice, again for a whole month, to make absolutely sure, you know the steps well. Next, move on to the next set of 10 steps, practice the latest set 10 times a day for at least a week, the steps prior to that, the ones you know really well, only once. The "large well known chunk of steps," you only need to practice once, the "recently learned small chunk," you practice as much as possible, for at least a week. Before you know it, you will be doing steps 1 through 56. Practice those, once again, for at least a week, at least 5 times; by now, because you know steps 1 through 56, Tai Chi Chuan is consuming much time, and because there are more steps to practice you will need a total of 2 months before you move on to the next set.

10) Once again, for the final set of steps, keep repeating the same cycle; practice the steps you know very well only once, but the latest set of 10, at least 10 times, eveyr day for a week until the next weekend, and then teach yourself another 10, and another 10, and another 10 when finally, after a total of 4 months of hard training and practice, and a total of roughly 7 hours of DVD learning...

11) You know the entire Yang Long Form. Congratulations.

It takes roughly 7 hours of learning, but 4 months of PRACTICE, and repetitions for the sake of memorization, to learn the Yang Long Form of Tai Chi Chuan. It IS possible to learn it on your own, if you are patient. If you do not like my method of memorizing things, you can consult two different kinds of people, to help you memorize the Yang Long Form, as there IS quite a bit to memorize;

1) If you are still in high school or college, your Drama teacher or professor, ask them how actors memorize scripts, as the techniques used to memorize scripts may be applied towards learning from Terry Dunn's Tai Chi Chuan DVD.

2) A Muslim who knows large chunks of the Koran; Koran memorization, again, involves the same principles as memorizing the steps of a Tai Chi form.

To recap; you learn 10 steps every weekend, and practice them as often as you can, setting aside a solid hour, to practice them as many times as possible within the space of that hour. At this point don't worry about pace or speed; time is short, and you need to go through the motions as often as possible until they are very well memorized. At the end of the week, 10 more steps, and at the end of the week after that, you complete the first set of 24 steps. Twenty four steps may not seem like a lot, but timewise, if you are repeating the same sequence a lot, trust me it is, so, you have to practice it 5 times a day, every day for a month, before you move on to the next set of 10. After you have extensively practiced the first chunk for a month, from then on, you only have to do it once, as by then you should have it well memorized. Make it a point to practice the most recent set of steps first, while doing the "more established in memory" set of steps once. If you feel up for it, at the end of that week, go on ahead and connect the most recent steps, with the first chunk, and practice that 5 times a day for a week.

It sounds confusing I know, but when you take the time to actively memorize you'll know what I'm talking about. Again; patience. Let me warn you know, that in your endeavor to learn the Yang long form, frustration will always be a guest in your room, living room, or T.V. room. The only way to throw frustration out, the only way to deal with it, is to simply not think about how long the form is. The more you dwell on how much there is to memorize, the more disheartened you will become.

Mountain climbers have a rule; never look up, and never look down, always look at what is directly in front of you, and JUST above you, that is your next grip, but NEVER, EVER, look at how much there is left to climb. You do so, and you will panic and loose focus. The same principle applies, when learning the Yang Long Form of Tai Chi Chuan; learning the Yang Long Form, which is 108 steps long, is akin to climbing a mountain, the best way is to keep your sights directly in front, and just above, but NEVER looking at how much there is left, otherwise you become disheartened, loose focus, are unable to concentrate and with concentration lost, you can't memorize anything.

good luck.