Watching video clips
   
     

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Why watch videos?

Typically your weekly tuition lasts for 120 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.


Demonstration or a lesson?

Tai chi videos can potentially be quite expensive.

(i) Demonstration

The teacher may be offering the video as an illustration of their system. This could be entertaining, illustrative, and worth watching... but are you likely to walk away with anything?


(ii) A lesson
 
Some instructors may actually be trying to teach you something. They pay considerable attention to detail, and earnestly seek to impart information to the audience.
A video like that is a lesson in itself. It can be watched repeatedly, over many years and will offer new insights as your own understanding grows.


YouTube

The main danger with watching on-line clips is that it is often in lieu of physical practice or reading/study.
 

Quiet effort will bring rewards,
so develop projects which will bring fruit later.

(I Ching)
 


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Page created 18 April 1995
Last updated 04 May 2023