Quiet effort will bring rewards,
so develop projects which will bring fruit later.
(I Ching)
Why watch videos?
Typically your weekly tuition lasts for 60-90 minutes and you
have a lot of unanswered questions.
Watching videos produced by tai chi tutors can provide a supplement between
lessons and add a valuable layer of background knowledge.
Just be wary of training anything that differs from what you are being taught in
class.
You are being taught certain things in a particular way for a reason, and if you
change the means, you change the end result too.
Learning to see
As you become more
skilled at tai chi, you become
aware of the detail within the practice.
In time, you can watch a practitioner and pick-out nuances that a less-skilled
student simply would not see.
The same video will yield different layers of information as your capacity to
see it improves.
Can you learn from a video?
If you asked "Can you learn from just a video?" then the answer would be
"No".
You need to attend classes.
Tai chi is far too complex to learn it through observation alone; you need
practice with somebody who can demonstrate their own body feel.
Yet, you can learn things from videos.
They represent a potential resource. Treat them as a
supplement.
Just make sure that you have realistic expectations concerning videos and what
you expect to
learn.
Remember - everyone's form is slightly different - the essential postures may be present, but
the sequence differs from
teacher to teacher.
Page created 25 November 2000