Gao Bagua Distance Learning

[kenneth fish]

I seem to remember that Mr. Yang Yusen had put in place a distance learning class to teach Gao style Bagua - anyone have any experience with it? Was it successful?

[TrainingDummy]

I was with the group for maybe 3 months or so.

Whilst the price was very cheap at US$15 per month, the video and sound quality was low, so for me it wasn't great value. The course is given away at a piecemeal rate, a few moves every 2 weeks. For hungry students like myself this rate of knowledge download drove me nuts.

Also Yang Yusen's bagua has a emphasized strong twisting quality to it, fine for experienced practitioners, but several students where getting joint injuries of the knees and lower back.

It's a good system, and it's clearly very "fighty", it's just one of those systems where you have to do a lot background work to get to the fighty bits, which I personally don't have the patience for any more.

So a success? Maybe, good points and bad. I think it's a great experiment and would like to see more of it by people who really have something to teach.

[matt]

I've been training with Laoshi Yang for a little over 3 years now, and I'm extremely happy with what I've learned. I have about 15 years of prior MA experience (mostly non-CMA).

Regarding TrainingDummy's comment about video quality, it's not really a commercial venture for Mr. Yang. Rather, he has an obligation to his teacher to pass on what he was taught and feels that the internet is a good way to expose more people to the system. The training is bitter, and the pace of 2 lessons per month is intended for one to intensively practice the movements in the lesson before receiving another.

I was rather skeptical about the long distance training but it's worked out well. The main details of each lesson are clearly laid out, but like any MA, there's no substitute for hands on corrections imo, so I've traveled to train with him multiple times. Under this model it's more like having a long-distance instructor that gives you things to work on via video between visits.

As for success? That depends on how far the group progresses over time and if some of the students can attain some real skill.

[kenneth fish]

I tried to contact Mr. yang at the email address on his website - it does not seem to be a current email - do you have a current one for him? I have questions about the format (i am more interested in how the courses are set up than the material).

[matt]

Dr. Fish, just sent you a PM.

[kenneth fish]

Thank you

[Storm]

Hello, does anyone know if the course is still running? The website is down and I could not find any new informations about them online.
Thank you.