How do you structure a class?

[Appledog]

Let's examine two common time formats; 1 hour and 1.5 hours.

How I structure my 24 Qigong class?

The 24 takes 45 minutes to do when doing 8 reps at the proper speed. This gives 5 minutes at the beginning of class for a short talk, and 10 minutes for focusing on one move and teaching it. Actually, if it is more of a teaching class then we can do 4 reps, or break the set into three sections and focus on one section per class (especially in the beginning). I think this is an easy kind of class to teach.

How to structure a beginner's Tai Chi class?

We have a short 5 posture "points awareness qigong", that takes about 10-15 minutes.
Then we have something called tension and lightness qigong, which contains many tai chi moves (such as brush knee or wave hands like clouds) done as standing qigong movements.
Thirdly we have "five short sets of tai chi", and all of the aforementioned takes less than 30-40 minutes to do. This leaves 20 to 30 minutes to work on the 24 Simplified Yang form. I think overall that makes a great beginner's class.

How to structure a beginner's Chen style class?

We can start with the first two postures of 5 points qigong, which is essentially 1 or 2 minutes of wuji standing and then 10-20 reps of hunyuan qigong #1.

Since Chen style is a bit more martial we start with ya tui gong. Then we have a short set called "six kicks". Which is line kicking, six different kinds of kicks. This is a good exercise to get the blood pumping.
Then I teach "nine important movements of Chen style" -- this is a set of moves from the form, nine standing versions of moves like buddha's warrior attendant, high pat on horse, single whip, and so forth. This gets the students into a "chen style mood" and familiarizes them with the body shape. If I feel it is necessary we can do some extra silk reeling. The aforementioned takes around 35 minutes to complete. Then we can work on a Chen short form, which is essentially up to single whip, then rub with heel, then a kick, then elbow strike, then wave hands, then into the ending sequence. It's a good feeling short form, I think about 24 or 28 moves. That whole class is about an hour.

If I have an hour and a half, we can often add single movement practice, or work on things like partner exercises, or push hands. But for beginner's classes, esp. 1 hour, the time is pretty tight and I stick to the above.

I am posting this in the hopes that other people can share some of the lesson plans they have come up with. Anything interesting? Any tricks you use as a teacher to keep the class fun and light?

[RobP3]

Fundamental point - what is the purpose of the class? To teach form as exercise? To teach form as martial art? Who are your students, young or in their 70s? So first step, what is the class for?

[origami_itto]

a bit more martial

This never fails to kill me, wtf is "more martial"?

On topic....

My current class is about 20 mins jibengong, 20 mins standing and qigong, 10 mins legs, 10 mins new material

Jibengong here meaning specific conditioning, opening, and loosening exercises, not "warm ups" as some folks like to practice. 5 mins light stretching and loosening is a warm up. We're talking getting into getting something done with the body.

Times are rough estimate depending on how much detail I put into it.

Nobody is ready for form yet, but basically I would want them to go to this class, then come to forms class with a body that's in a Taijiquan state of mind.

Currently, local guys who like to push are showing up so we push afterwards, but in a school/training day sort of view we'd do that hour, do an hour of empty hand form, an hour of weapons forms, an hour of push hands

A la carte, forms classes are light stretching/warmup, MAYBE some specific jibengong if appropriate for the section, a follow along/run through of the whole form, specific instruction on what we're working on, practice of that section, practice of the whole thing to that point, repeat.

Push hands, stretching/warmup/jibengong, warm up drills, instruction on new drills, practice new drills, free practice, as time makes sense.

"Fun and light" are generally a distraction in most of the classes. We're cultivating concentration, not distraction, so I limit my jokes, etc to appropriate places like "whiteboard instruction" time when I'm presenting new information. Otherwise, I always regret trying to get a laugh.

[Appledog]

Fundamental point - what is the purpose of the class? To teach form as exercise? To teach form as martial art? Who are your students, young or in their 70s? So first step, what is the class for?

Good idea. I was watching Michael Calandra's podcast #1 and he gave an example of a two person drill (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmos9Ii ... Zt&t=1066s). That's the kind of thing I am looking for I guess, interesting games and drills to bring into the class to further the idea of self-defense.

Origami; vs. tai chi for health.

[origami_itto]

Origami; vs. tai chi for health.

I mean, I guess I get it. I just don't get it, lol.

I don't want to derail this thread with a holy war.

I appreciate learning more about the different perspectives people have on and approaches people bring to, the arts.

[Appledog]

Origami; vs. tai chi for health.

I mean, I guess I get it. I just don't get it, lol.

I don't want to derail this thread with a holy war.

I appreciate learning more about the different perspectives people have on and approaches people bring to, the arts.

No, it's on topic. Barely, but it's on topic It has to do with the types of exercises and drills you do during the class. It's also not a holy war. The part of you that gets it is right, it's not a complex issue.

A few examples would be, Chen style has jumping kicks, as does Sun style. But Yang style in particular does not. And in that realm, Chen style has many more than Sun style. There are also far, far more fa-jing moves in Chen style. Second to that there is a well-defined second form which is full of attacking movements. Most people would say that tai chi is a defensive art; it can be taught that way, sure, but that is "less martial". It depends on the teacher I guess. Yang Cheng-Fu style has a bit of a bad rep for not being very martial as the purpose for it to be created was to focus on it's health aspects. And one of the reasons Dong style is considered a separate style today and not just someone who did Yang style is because of the martial reputation. They retained a lot of the martial training that is missing in many modern Yang schools.

As a result of this the training is very different. I do a lot of leg stretching and kick training in a Chen class. We don't do that in a Yang style class because it isn't as needed. I also tend not to teach standing or drilling single movements in a Yang class, but rather just work on correcting form. I am still somewhat debating whether or not Tantui should be taught as a foundation for Chen style. That just wouldn't fly in your average non-Chen class, but from what I heard this is done in some schools in Chen village.

[everything]

saying something has jumping kicks. ... we may as well say taekwondo is the "most martial" by that logic.

and anything that starts with "standing still" is "not martial"....

ok, no holy war ... back to your topic ...

[origami_itto]

I suppose it would do to understand what you consider to be the body of Yang vs Wu vs Chen.

Like you can do a couple warmups and a form and say you doing a style, then do a different form and say you're doing a different style, sure, I guess.

The classics speak of the martial and the civil, and that the art is not complete without attention being paid to both.

The civil being your health and meditation primarily.

So abstracting that out to "we do Yang for health and Chen for martial arts" I guess makes sense.

I prefer to just do Taijiquan. The different variants have their flavor to them, sure, but it's my body, right, that's the art I'm creating.

Point being, if I were to name it I practice Yang Taijiquan. It is a complete art for cultivating body, mind, and spirit for civil and martial purposes.

Within the sphere of that practice, forms are just another exercise. The same form can be played in different ways to move towards different goals. Different forms can have different primary emphasis, but they're all played by my particular embodiment of Yang.

Kind of like a musician. Listen to Jimi Hendrix play little wing then Stevie Ray Vaughan.

Now the final point and the ultimate irony is that when most people say "more martial" they mean more active, more muscle, more flash, and those things are actually more relevant for health than conflict.

[everything]

"more externally visible and 'athletic looking'"

[everything]

if we wanted to start from outside (external) in, we could do what a lot of arts do. problem/solution with a technique. cooperative. a little more resistance. sparring. "randori" or "rolling". probably 100% of people here got some skills from that.

if we wanted to start from inside, it's very, very difficult. the "best" classes i had in hindsight did really a lot of "standing". very, very, very, very boring. but far more productive, ultimately, for figuring out "internal". i don't think that would work well for your class. people want to "do something". this is probably a major reason the "real" art rarely exists.

[everything]

hendrix SRV

tomato tomato

[origami_itto]

hendrix SRV

tomato tomato

No, drastic changes in arrangement in places. Subtle changes everywhere, it's a beautiful example of bringing individual expression without destroying the integrity of the original

[everything]

just kidding just kidding. i am horrible at music and guitar. wish i could appreciate the subtle changes. love both their versions

[origami_itto]

I'm not offended lol. With music and movement a lot of the beauty is in the blue notes, what you don't play, the stuff between what you do on purpose, the spirit of it, the stuff you don't write down.

Or it can be, potentially, I guess.

[everything]

i'm sure there's some good tai chi analogy there yeah. economy of motion. economy of notes. blue notes. missing notes. idk.