Well, my teacher Elizabeth Wenscott is a student of Hsu Fun Yuen, one of CMC's senior students in the 1950's.
I have trained, albeit on and off, since 1994, and had moved out of Chicago away from my teacher. I have been trying to become more regular in my study and to find some people to play push hands with. i have gotten somewhere with both, and now I am working on improving my form again (not merely getting back to a certain level, but surpassing it.)
As I have limited access to my teacher, and since one has to do the work oneself, i have been trying to deepen my grasp of the fundamentals and feel out different ways that the postures can be correctly expressed physically. Peter Lim's web site has been a profound stimulus for me because he took me into a wider world of Yang frames, training methods, etc. (
http://www.itcca.it/peterlim/index.htm)
So, I am experimenting with different ways of performing the postures, but with the same taiji principles, such as trying to understand different frames (High, Medium, Low and Fast/Slow), large circle/small circle, two-person, and if there really is a 'long boxing' form, i.e. a Yang form with fa jing. My teacher taught Hsu Fun Yuen's 64, CMCs 37, a two-person form, sword, staff, spear, broadsword, push hands, da lu, and free fighting, but I only learned the 64 form and push hands between 1994 and 1998, in part due to my own difficulties with time and money (the wonderful birth of my son in 1997 quickly took a high toll on my time for formal classes and new forms.) And even with what she taught, I feel that there is more quite often than any one teacher teaches, including mine.
I am also trying to find other methods of non-form training and i am looking for a decent neigong school in Baltimore as another supplement. I think that it would be unproductive at best and unwise at worst to attempt to learn meditation and neigong techniques from a book. Books I think are best when one has the base from which to comprehend them.
I have been drawn both to material outside of CMC and my immediate background, back into the Yang family, and also into further trying to understand the application of the main principles better within the form I learned.
Hsu Fun Yuen has his own 64 part form, but IMO all of it recognizable within the Traditional 103 posture form. Part of my study has been to try and see what my form has kept, what is has not kept and how it performs the postures and the applications compared to say traditional Yang Cheng Fu (through Fu Wong Zhen, Yang Zhen Duo, Yang Sau Chang, Tung Ying Jieh, Yang Ban Hou, et al). I am trying to understand the Yang style from some study of its many variations, to try and improve my own form. IMO Hsu Fun Yuen's form in some ways has elements of CMC and more traditional Yang Cheng Fu elements, and therefore i feel I would benefit from this cross-fertilization.
For example, right now i am simply working on 3 things, aside from daily practice: Single Whip, and differentiating between Lift Hands and Strum the Lute, which even though they end up in the same basic position in Hsu Fun Yuen's form, do not get there by the same means at all...
I am completely staying away from Wu and Chen styles, if only because i feel that they are too different and that I am not competent enough in Yang to maintain myself, but the writings of the principles i think from the traditional texts will still be very helpful.
Thank you for your suggestions as well, I will take them to heart.
Sorry to be so rambling. A lot in the head that is not completely worked out. I don't usually try to explain this all in writing
Cheers,
Chris