Product Description

Probably the most thorough and comprehensive dvd on Tai Chi (Taiji) in the world. Quality is superb and every move is carefully filmed and described with clarity. This dvd is guaranteed to help anyone interested in Taijiquan to gain in ability and understanding.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #41189 in DVD
• Released on: 2004-05-10
• Rating: Exempt
• Formats: Full Screen, Subtitled, Colour, PAL
• Original language: English, French
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 240 minutes

DVD Description
This Special Edition DVD is over four hours long, with hours of additional content not available on VHS.

Discover Authentic Taijiquan. This comprehensive video is not only an instructional DVD, but a living document designed to preserve a cultural tradition from the original Yang Style lineage (Yang, Pan-Hou). Practice of this living, vital form will bring you a healthy and relaxed body, a clear mind, and a strong sense of martial intent. This Tai Chi Chuan program will offer you enough content to build a solid foundation for a lifetime of practice.

• Fundamental Stances • Instruction of the Thirteen Postures • Taiji Qigong Primary Set • Moving Qigong • The Complete Yang Style Taijiquan Long Form • Instructions on Breathing

This Enhanced DVD edition contains the following extra content: • Taijiquan Theory Lecture by Dr. Yang • Taiji Qigong & Fa Jin (Emitting Power) sections • Detailed Instruction & Analysis of Each Movement in the Form • Slideshow of the 113 Postures • Advanced DVD navigation to immediately access every single technique / posture.

240 minutes-color/ DVD9-NTSC / Plays on all DVD players worldwide.

Special Features
DVD SPECIAL FEATURES: Over 300 Scene Selections • Interactive Feature: Click the Yin/Yang Symbol to open up In-Depth Instruction of the Form • Over 2 hours of additional content • Language: English, French and Chinese • Subtitles: English, Spanish, French, Italian, Dutch, Polish, Portuguese • All Regions Encoding • Previews of all YMAA video titles • Interactive YMAA Product Catalog • "About YMAA" section, and more.

240 minutes-color/ DVD9-NTSC / Region 0

Synopsis
Demonstrating the practice of a cultural tradition for a healthy mind and body.

Customer Reviews

The Single Greatest Tai Chi Video Ever
The DVD edition of this Yang style Tai Chi video is so amazing. It is organized in a very simple and scholarly way, but the teaching inside is very deep and thorough.

It starts right at the very basics for beginners and gives you an excellent overview of the art of Tai Chi. The setting is a formal training studio. The video contains all the things you would learn in a Tai Chi Class from the basic stances and fundamental postures, to the entire form instructed and performed in complete detail by Dr. Yang.

There is an enhanced content button you can click on at any time to get the detailed analysis and instruction of every one of the movements. He even demonstrates some Chin Na grappling hidden in the postures of the form.

Not only is the entire thing subtitled, which is really helpful, but there are additional content subtitles, between the narration, in case you're interested in knowing more. It is over four hours long, including an excerpt of a Tai Chi Theory lecture by Dr. Yang, where he clearly explains the roots of Taiji Philosophy and Tai Chi as a martial art. This lecture alone makes the DVD worth getting.

There are also additional sections which explain Taiji Qigong (Chi Kung) internal energy training, and Taiji Fa Jin, which is the 'emission of internal power.'

The music is beautiful Classical Chinese and suits Master Yang nicely. I see this DVD as a very important document for transmitting the true essence of Taiji, both in its Classical form, and as a living, modern art.

Marvelous !! A true Classic !!
I began practicing T'ai Chi fifteen years ago. My first teacher was trained from childhood in China, then Taiwan, in the strict classical Yang Long Form. I began studying with him years later in a major U.S. city -- still Yang Long Form, still classical approach. That was a magical time, a magical experience that will be a part of me for the rest of my life.

Periodic long-distance moves have since interrupted my study several times, but these have also required me to study with teachers of quite a few T'ai Chi styles and levels of expertise. Some were more fun, some more "practical," some much more "martial" in approach, and some were sadly "lightweight."

Dr. Yang, Jwing-Ming's video is truly "the real deal." From the first frame of his performance of the entire Form, I was instantly transported back to my first Teacher's class: not only is the sequence of postures and connecting movements EXACTLY the same as where I began, but the "spirit" and "feel" of T'ai Chi is also the same as it was then. With the wide range of styles and emphases in my classes since, I'd nearly forgotten how "pure" and powerful the classical Yang form truly is!

Other reviews here have accurately described and appropriately praised the comprehensive contents and unsurpassed structure of this wonderful video that is at once a marvelous teaching tool and a true archival record of this ancient art.

I'll summarize my opinion this way:

If you EVER outgrow this DVD, please produce one of your own, so we can all study with you!

Extremely well done
I've seen a number of other videos offering instruction in various styles of martial arts and Tai Chi specifically. This one stands above them all for the quality of the production and the way the DVD is put together.

There is a great wealth of information on this DVD. There is a short lecture on theory, a number of loosening up and warming up exercises, Taiji Qigong exercises, and of course the full Yang style long form. Everything has chapter stops and you can skip to the section you want quickly and easily from the DVD menu.

The long form doesn't dwell excessively on any individual movement which allows you to practice along with it, but if you want more detail on how a movement is performed, you can hit 'Enter' on your DVD remote when the yin yang symbol is on the screen to get in depth instruction on the current movement being demonstrated. In that way it manages to offer the best of both worlds.

All in all this DVD stands well above any other Tai Chi instructional video I've seen.