Bao wrote:origami_itto wrote: he's watching my push hands videos and then in class or privates, he's offering suggestions about the specific problems he sees me having there.
Fair enough. Comparing zoom and live classes, don't you think, by your own experience, you get more, and more valuable, input when you meet him in private?
If you could meet him in person one or two days a week, or have a couple of zoom meetings per week, what would you prefer?
I don't know, honestly.
I get more than enough to work on with the Zoom lessons, I get access to the recordings so I can refer back to them if I have any questions. That also allows me to make up material if I have a commitment during class time. I have access to him for any questions and regular in person contact for the invisible details.
I mean I guess ideally EVERYBODY KNOWS that going in to a class several times a week is better. I don't know about that, all things considered. New York is expensive. I like my house.
That's why I bring it up here. People that are curious about the system have a way to start getting information. It's a good system, better than just relying on a local teacher.
If you can find a local teacher with real skills and study continuously with him, it would be a better option. What system you practice doesn’t matter, the skills do.
Those aren't mutually exclusive. I meet and work with people all over the place, constantly. How could you really consider yourself a martial artist any other way?
But the system does matter. They may all lead to the same place, but they take different routes. Taijiquan in particular they say has a path an inch wide and a mile deep with a bottomless pit of doom on either side. (That last part is mine)
There are a couple people in the state that I would like to spend more time with in person, but they don't have the videos, or books, or workshops, or zoom courses. I have to take a day off of work and drive for four hours or more. We meet up occasionally and push and talk and it's a good thing. Working on building a critical mass for regular local meetups and it's going well.
And of course, the kicker is he does workshops where there are existing students of his or his father who have students of their own. That's the key that folks are missing. The overarching plan is bringing up competent instructors in the basic method to keep local classes going. There's a whole group of us that he is working with as instructors to learn how to teach the forms and qi gong to better prep students for when he comes through.
I see... So Dong will come to local schools and correct the students'
basic method. So when and how does he plan to let the students pass the perpetual beginner's stage?
It's a buffet. Put whatever you think you can eat on your plate and he will show you how to use the chopsticks, so to speak. It's up to you to get it in your mouth.
Before we scheduled this winter's workshop we (the local instructors) got together with him to decide what would be the most appropriate things to cover for the students that were interested.
So, basically, early July I met with him in Orlando for a private lesson, we worked out the schedule for the workshop in December. DYJ Fast Form, Simplified Form, Long Form, Sabre, Jian, Push Hands.
I was finishing up the Simplified form Zoom course, started the Fast Form Zoom course. Both of them also cover the fundamental qi gong, and he's teaching the jian during the fast form.
I left my watch behind, a two hour drive from my place, so he just brought it home with him and I bought a fast form/fajin form dvd and he mailed it back with that.
In the back of Workshop Notes, he's got pictures of each of the postures in the fast form.
So... all told, fast form, I've got his book about how to do it, his pictures of him doing it, a DVD copy of the form, 12 hour long Zoom sessions going through the form step by step and six months of study time to prep for four hours of in person instruction over the weekend. Within the context of a growing teacher-student relationship and the common understanding of each other's knowledge and limitations.
It's coming along very well, and my simplified form is like butter, so smooth.
And I'm not unique or in any way one of the closest students. He's open to working with whoever is sincere and putting in the work.