Tai Chi/Health Yang Short: Amazon.ca: Video

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T'ai chi, the classic Chinese exercise for health, self-defense, and spiritual growth, is "meditation in movement." It emphasizes relaxation, breath control, visual and mental concentration, and slow, balanced movement, explains the voiceover in T'ai Chi for Health: Yang Short Form during a 10-minute explication of the qualities, philosophy, and health benefits of t'ai chi. Meanwhile the instructor, Terence Dunn, practices on a rocky cliff overlooking the ocean. Dunn teaches 10 minutes of breathing and warm-up exercises. Next is a 30-minute introduction to the basic postures, then a full hour of step-by-step instruction and practice of the 37 postures of the Yang Short Form. The video ends with an eight-minute demonstration of the complete Yang Short Form, showing how the postures flow together. Altogether, you get two full hours in this unusually complete training video. The beginner gets all the instruction needed to start practicing, and ongoing students get an ideal setting for practice and improvement. --Joan Price

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Customer Reviews

25 Reviews

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(5)
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Average Customer Review

3.9 out of 5 stars (25 customer reviews)

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Beginners beware!, Nov 21 2000

By

Sarah Glenn (Lexington, KY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tai Chi/Health Yang Short (VHS Tape)

While I found Mr. Dunn's presentation and instruction to be very pleasant and informative, I would warn beginners to take care with the exercises, even the warm-ups. This is especially true if you are new to exercise or have ANY problem with your knees or back.

The beginning of the video shows some larger & older people doing the exercises, but this doesn't mean the viewer should underestimate the strain on their own joints, especially if they are a novice to this sort of exercise. Mr. Dunn may be able to do these exercises without even breathing hard, but it took my partner and I weeks to even get through the warm-up portion of the tape, and we finally gave it up because it was too much for us.

The pain and strain on our joints overrode the advantages, and we feared injuring ourselves if we continued with the video before strengthening our bodies in other ways. If you are in relatively good shape or are young and resilient, this video could be very beneficial to you, but if you are not, please exercise caution with the tape.

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2.0 out of 5 stars Poor production quality, Feb 27 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Tai Chi/Health Yang Short (VHS Tape)

The video is fairly useful. However, Terry Dunn frequently mixes up left and right in his oral description of what to do. This means you can never rely on what he's saying and have to keep looking at the video (which can be inconvenient for several of the positions). This compounds the problem of having to do the "opposite" of what you're looking at. The scences where he says "left" where he should have said "right" should have been redone. The more times you play the tape the more the left/right problem gets annoying!

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2.0 out of 5 stars good - but think in reverse, Jan 18 2003

By

Bay Area Reader "BAR" (SF) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tai Chi/Health Yang Short (VHS Tape)

Terry demonstrates the taichi poses and form FACING you - leaving you to add in a factor of following in the opposite direction, which is confusing if you're new to the complex poses. Terry Dunn concludes this video showing the full form in in sihouette lighting making hand movements hard to see if following his movements is important to you (which I assume it is since you paid money for a video). Perhaps, as in other similar videos, students could have been placed in the film facing instructor per the VIEWER's perspective... which would have made this video much easier to follow (I've seen an easier to follow taichi video where the instructor faced a mirror with camera view behind him. I took off 3 stars per my above comments... I would actually like this video otherwise.

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Most recent customer reviews

2.0 out of 5 stars Very well done, HOWEVER...
Terry demonstrates the taichi poses and form FACING you - leaving you to add in a factor of following in the opposite direction, which is confusing if you're new to the complex... Read more

Published on Jan 10 2003 by Bay Area Reader

5.0 out of 5 stars EXCELLENT WORK, TERRY!
This video gives philosophy, history, warm-ups, basic postures and then goes through the instruction of the form step by step. Read more

Published on Oct 18 2002 by Lucretia Constantine