Tai Chi - The 24 Forms [2001] 
Customer Ratings: - Terrible - content okay but so unwieldy!. Be warned - the format is not dvd, it has more in common with video. So the teaching part is a single section and you have to run through it again and again to find the form that you want to focus on.
Any benefit derived from the dvd will be outweighed by the frustration of trying to locate a particular section. - I should have known better!. I should have known better than to buy a How to DVD, they all tend not to live up to their claims: this is no different.
While Dr Paul Lam is clearly an expert exponent of Tai Chi, he is not a natural teacher and the DVD does not reflect what the instruction blurb on the cover stated and the process to follow.
Trying to follow the on screen movements was not easy, as Dr Paul Lam only gave some instruction in the middle of the exercise and it was not clear what the exercise was and it did not follow the advice on the pack.
However, the main problem for me, is the lack of functionality in the DVD, it appears clear that this was a video and just copied onto a DVD, with no menu skip facility to skip forward or back, to the section of the DVD you wish to get to, to follow the suggested approach of Dr Paul.
Disappointing, though expected. Don t waste your money on new copy of this DVD, as I suspect many people who purchased this DVD new, would be happy to sell on second hand - off to unload my copy on eBay - Very good DVD. Of course it would be much better to learn Tai Chi from an expert teacher. But this DVD makes its job very good. Forms are explained in details and its language is quite clear. Although my native language is not English, I can understand almost every sentence. I definitely recommend this DVD. Great work!
- best tai chi instructions ever!. very clear instructions. i ve gone from knowing nothing about tai chi to knowing a lot in a few weeks.
- In the style of the Yawning Mordecai. I have to say that i m tired of so many people expecting to know what-it-is when studying such subtle arts. Obviously the name of a style matters little - i have called this one the laughing banana, and have to say its made little difference. An important point is that the practice of silence, smoothness, or whatever you want to call it would produce the same results with or without the existence of media. To take up the study of any art is to begin a journey that you must navigate yourself, and there are not sign posts, no labels, and no way . There very first error in finding the way is looking for the way , particularly among the myriad disciplines available to our information society. All that you will learn will come from you. There is nothing and no one else. This is scary. I urge all seekers not to look for something to validate or justify, but to explore. In this exploration you will quickly find that no one dvd is better than another, but different, and so long as DILIGENCE is maintained one need not fall into the complacency of beleiving a practice to be right , which leads to an adoption of all the potential misdirections of the lesson followed. And here the lesson is not to follow, but to flow.
My only peace of advice is that one remains alert, above all persistent and determined, in which case anything personally unsuitable is glaringly obvious. What a shame it is that todays culture will abandon this flexibility in favour of the limitations imposed by is-it-a-good-deal syndrome. When we consider that the old masters had to give up their lives, trek indefinate miles and undertake enourmous challenges, a wasted £30 is nothing to gripe about. Just keep seekin . Seas however high, and a bountiful journey.
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