Sun Style 73 Forms DVD

[Dr. Paul Lam]

This tape contains step-by-step instruction of the entire 73 Forms set, Sun style is characterised by its powerful Qigong elements and agile steps and flowing movements.

Please share your experience with this tape, the link to the instructional DVD:
https://www.taichiproductions.com/sh...php?product=21

[drlip]

Have just started using the DVD version. Like other DVDs, it provides much easier movement among sections, and easy replay. The sections vary considerably in length and difficulty, but the demonstrations and views provide enough practice for most without rewind (except for the more difficult moves like the jump, for an older player like me). The extra demonstration by the professor is lagniappe--cajun for a nice extra goodie. Being able to go directly to the back-on demonstration in order to practice the whole routine is great. Maybe in future editions Paul could consider doing a back-on "mini-demo" of each section at the end of the section, so we can put the parts together more easily. 73 forms is a lot of pearls to string together all at once.

Richard Livingston, MD

[soraya]

Yes, the DVD is a lot more efficient. YOu can go straight to the demonstration and select whether you would like to see a front-on or back-on view. Of course the creator at the end is a true gem and I admire older people who can perform with such a posture, energy and athleticism.

After teaching TCA and TCD it is a lot easier to proceed with the tape. There are many familiar moves like cloud hands, brush knee, toe kicks and the four directions of fair lady works at shuttle. World champion Kam Lau Fung showing double jump kick in slow motion with Paul demonstrating an alternative for those who would not wish to double jump. "Leisurely tying coat", "brush knee"(repulse monkey) and "single whip" are multi-repeated core movements in this set

IN general the movements are so well-explained along with the assistant holding the posture, which makes it possible to practise without rewind. I needed 3 weeks until I could practice it by heart. Paul explained the spiral force in "fair lady", fa jing(fast delivery of force) in another movement while this is executed more subtle than Chen style.

Just as I began to work with this tape, I felt a warm tingling energy(qi?) between the vital acupuncture points on my hand palms(laogongs) every time after performing open/close hands. I had not finished three quarters of the tape yet as I experienced a warm movement from within, some kind of energy which is driving my movements throughout the set. My headache was cured every time after I worked with this DVD.

It also provides a thorough workout which is very often unnoticed due to the qi gong properties. Bent of the upper body to the ground and fa jing, lowering movements with straight back, 2 toe kicks, 2 heel kicks, 1 double-jump kick, 1 slapkick and 1 lotus kick. Turning on one foot before lotus kick is also very challenging and Sun style is certainly not that old people's form

[drlip]

Have just found Sun Lutang's book onTCC (translation by Cartmell). Great book, with bio and applications and many photos--goes wonderfully with Paul's video.

Richard Livingston, MD

[MariaSantomauro]

I have never seen such magnificent teaching as you do in this tape! I corrected so many of my mistakes.
Thank you.

[R.P.W.]

My brother bought this tape 4-5 years ago along with the Tai Chi for Arthritis tape. He taught me the 12 posture form then. In September of this year I took the TCA Workshop Part 1 and Part 2. I enjoyed it so much I borrowed the 73 form tape and finished it last month. It is so nice to be excited about Tai Chi again. I learned a 108 posture form about 20 years ago and for the last five years I was steadily losing interest in practicing. Now I'm back to practicing daily. Thanks Dr. Lam for the great instructional videos.

[Rita Brancheau]

Tai Chi Story

In May, 2006, three of us tai chi instructors from the Wolf Creek YMCA in Toledo, Ohio went to Lansing, Michigan for a Tai Chi for Diabetes instructors’ training and met Dr. Paul Lam for the first time after having watched and emulated him on DVD for over a year. We could not have been more excited about this opportunity.

After we arrived at the training site and met a number of the other participants we discovered that we had done a remarkable thing by having taught ourselves the Sun Style73 Forms solely from Dr. Lam’s DVD. We were thrilled when Dr. Lam voiced such surprise and praise when we told him that we had learned the forms and wanted to do them with him. We didn’t do the set with him but he did sit crossed-legged on a chair to watch a group of us do the set, led by master trainer, Dan Jones.

Dr. Lam asked us several times to please write the story of how we had taught ourselves the 73 Forms from his DVD. Here is that story.

Our journey began with our lead instructor Becky Rahe. Becky is a fitness instructor at the YMCA and several years ago was asked if she would like to take an instructors’ training for Tai Chi for Arthritis sponsored by the Arthritis Foundation. Becky loved teaching and although she was not familiar with tai chi she unhesitatingly seized the opportunity. She became certified and started TCA classes at the Y. She practiced daily to insure that she had the moves right and could teach them safely. This introduction to tai chi was radically and unawares changing her life. Becky found tai chi was becoming synonymous with inner peace. Some of the turmoil within her was dissipating, and she was loving it. She became passionate about tai chi. That passion showed through in her teaching and her conversations.

After almost a year of sessions with students coming and going she had influenced a small number of students to stay with the program. I was one of those who returned each session. I was fulfilling a childhood dream of learning a martial art and this style served my 60 year old body well. As the class learned the 31 moves of TCA we began to notice subtle changes. We could actually stand on one foot without losing our balance. We were turning our waists more and opening up our arms. We were able to maintain bent knees for longer periods. And, we were forming a camaraderie, striving for the same goal.
We learned all 31 movements of TCA in several eight-week sessions. “What’s next?”, we asked. I laugh now to think how naïve we were to suppose that just learning the 31 moves was all there was to tai chi!! Becky had been told that you could spend a lifetime just learning TCA, but she was not ready or able to teach the “more” that both she and we students wanted. So we turned to one of Dr. Lam’s brochures and noticed on the list of available DVD’s one designed for those who had learned TCA. We ordered the Sun Style 73 Competition Forms and started learning the movements. Luckily the first sections were very similar to TCA so we got into it quickly.

At this point I had started working more closely with Becky and she and I attacked this new challenge together. We learned each movement one at a time by viewing and re-viewing the DVD. We stayed just ahead of the class and whenever they had questions about a move we would go back to the source and study Dr. Lam’s directions and come back with clarifications. Luckily, most of the movements took more than one class period to teach and for the students to learn and remember. This gave us more time to prepare for the next move. The numbers in the class had started to grow. The students were excited about having kicks and jumps in the set.

Then the unforeseeable happened. I developed a spinal infection and was hospitalized for six weeks for back surgery and rehabilitation. Since I had to drop out of the class for about five months and since the numbers and levels in the classes had increased, Becky enlisted the help of Julie Oberhaus. Julie has a background in dance and enjoyed the grace and movement of tai chi. She quickly learned the moves of TCA and began the 73. So, looking back, this is one positive aspect of my hospitalization. Julie became a vibrant part of our threesome.

As an aside, Julie and I took the TCA instructor’s training together after I was able to return to class. This training was a real eye opener because we both went into it already knowing the movements. We were exposed to a whole new depth of tai chi. We began to realize that we had just barely scratched the surface of this fantastic internal martial art.

Meanwhile we pushed ourselves and the class to learn the complete Sun Style 73 Forms for the World Day of Tai Chi and Qigong in April, 2006. We wanted to demonstrate the set in hopes of drawing more people to our classes. All the students were enthusiastic about this goal and that motivated our practice. We succeeded in learning the whole set for Tai Chi Day but we immediately returned to the classroom to make the latter moves more a part of us. Today, after over a year of studying the set and after attending a workshop on the Depth of Sun 73 with Dan Jones, we are still improving – using the essential principles to guide our practice. Our “what’s next?” now involves looking at a different level instead of looking for a new form to learn. “ Keep practicing and it will come” has become our mantra.

In May, in Lansing, that workshop was one of the best that I have ever attended. Dr. Lam and Dan are phenomenal teachers. Their interest and attention were a magical motivating force that made us want to go even deeper into tai chi. We have grown. The more we learn, the more we know that there is so-o-o-o much more to learn. We can attest to the fact that you actually can spend a lifetime on TCA, or the 73 Forms. We never stop being students in tai chi. The journey is indeed the reward.

Written by Cathy Brancheau, Jan. ’07.