Yang Family Tai Chi Discussion Board

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-k07shYuCDw

tell me your critisim please.

Not bad!
I tend to look at function and structure and from that perspective "brush knee" the hands are too far extended forward and backward.
Your hand movements are too expansive without sufficient contractive power and I would assume that "repulse monkey" would have that same forearm quality of extension wthout contraction.

The hands should never be extended beyond 90-95%. a guestimate would be around 65-75%. Below 45% MAY be too contracted! These are not rules because health taijiquan tends towards the expansion and for baquazhang, it is acceptable. I am using tuishou parameter with the form complex because if you give up too much you can be pulled and if you are too contracted, you can be pushed!

A small observation is that knee extends too far forward but not a problem per se.

Keep in mind that I am just a regular practitioner and am not in secret scroll. Just calling it as I see it!
If that form expression is part of what you have been taught, then I am the one who is out of place so enjoy your practice and do so assiduously!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEll31fqj2M

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNtV4peQREc

If you take a look at the above clips, "full" extension of the forearm is "bad" so one would want to get rid of "bad" habits. This is the correlation between the actual form and tuishou basics regarding functiuon and utility.

If you can use taijiquan with the type of extension exhibited, then obviuously no change is needed! If you are doing health taijiquan, then a full extension is OK.

Good job!

There are many variations in the form, which can make it hard to give useful criticism. For me, the most useful critique would go to specific movement standards, but these can be difficult to recognize from one teacher to another. It might help if you could say which relative or student of Yang Chengfu you or your teacher might be trying most to emulate. Many people are familiar with those variations and may be able to offer more specific feedback.

In addition to what others have posted, I would also wonder about the following:

1. Your gaze is quite lively; however, is your spirit ever supposed to lead your gaze and the tilt of your head downward. In some postures, it seems that you are following the "dominant" hand so closely that your spirit is not completely raised.

2. At the end of some postures, it seems as if your body and legs may be arriving before your arms.

3. In some postures, when you reach back, it seems that your shoulder structure is compromised a little bit and you are no longer "containing the chest and plucking up the back."

4. The camera angle makes this difficult to judge, but at the end of all the postures, is your torso centered right and left between your feet? In some places, it seems that you have shifted so much weight forward that you might be drifting to the right a little bit. Again, it might be the camera.

5. I also wonder whether sometimes your arms could be more horizontally rounded, but this may come from your form. I particular wonder at the end of Lifting Hands and in the Single Whip transition.

6. You have a nice deep stance, but I am not sure that I can see your footwork showing an interplay of Jin between your legs. We have more of a flavor of "pusher and stopper" (deng cheng) that differentiates the power in the legs and defines the end point of a posture more obviously.

Keep up the good work!
Take care,
Audi

GZ,
If you believe that qi is the ability to know something then you have to test it!
Don't you think? How did I find this?
Can I resort to qi to explain the knowledge.
No. There is a base on which to see and be able to point.