Interesting discussion
Tend to look at what teachers or one can do as representative of the method they used to achieve them but not necessarily the historical method itself
Historically preservation of movement having merit in of itself, not so much of an interest for me in my own practice out side of what type of skill sets are
said to develop from the practices.
some thoughts from a noted teacher, on teaching
When one states that teachers have changed the way they do the form, it's sometimes due to faulty perception and limited understanding of the form.
This problem also occurs when teachers teach the form before they've mastered it themselves. Sometimes when a student observes others doing taiji and they notice postures seem different it's the student's fault.
Usually when a posture changed, it's because the student isn't doing the posture correctly; he isn't following the principles. Even now, when I ask students in my workshops
to do the postures, they can't do them; they can't maintain the taiji principles doing these postures.
If those students teach someday, their students will follow them in doing the postures incorrectly: Then the posture will
appear to be changed. The Professor's classmate, the famous taij master Chen Weiming, was asked by his students,
"Why does each teacher do the form differently?"
Chen
Answered,
"Students change the postures because they did not learn them correctly in the first place
*Also, in the old days teachers were very strict: a student wouldn't t dare ask a question it he didn't understand what the teacher taught him.'
https://drcaseycarter.net/wp-content/up ... rvator.pdfThis might seem strange at first reading,,,"not asking a question".
My teacher often would invite and encourage people to ask him questions...The answer was always by direct experience
As in good question "try it"
this tended to make the students a little reserved with their questions.
If one said they "understood" something
It was expected the understanding would be shown though usage
Which as commented on in some other threads on different teachers.
They might have the ability to do it, understand how to train it,
but not be able to explain it..