Yang Short Form (Professor Cheng Man-ch'ing)

This is a video of my "Yang Style" tai chi short form as taught to me by a direct linage holder of Professor Cheng Man-ch'ing in New York City over a 6 year period. Interestingly, we spent 3 of those 6 years just learning the basic 37 movements. It was an old school method of training, but the teachings go in deeply, especially in a culture where everything is about attaining knowledge with ease and quickness, I gained a subtle appreciation for taking the "long way around".

This video was taken in Kyoto, spring 2009. I see a couple of flourishes in my form here and there, but for the most part I am proud my progress with it over the years. I would also like to note that the camera was running out of memory and had to speed up my form to get it all recorded. Normally, the Yang short form is preformed a bit slower than you see here, but I'm splitting hairs.

The "Yang Style" form is named after it's creator, Yang Cheng Fu (Professor Cheng Man-ch'ing was a student of Yang Cheng Fu's) and the form emphasizes softness and yielding over strength and hardness (extreme yin overcoming yang). Professor Cheng Man-ch'ing was a great spirit and deeply affected the lives of everyone he taught, even generations after his death (1975) his love, kindness and compassion are legendary among his students. Professor Cheng Man-ch'ing was no ordinary martial artist and was a "Master of Five Excellences": Medicine, Calligraphy, Poetry, Tai Chi, and Painting and emphasized the unimpeded flow of chi as the common thread that leads to virtue and excellence.

More Here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheng_Man-ch'ing

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• Yang Cheng Fu
• cheng man ching
• tai chi
• Cheng Man-ch'ing
• Marcos R. Lara
• temple
• japan
• 2009
• kyoto

[sferemonk]

Thank you for the video. I wonder if you could tell me what the thinking is about doing the form on the left side.

You know, instead of beginning with ward off right, you do ward off left and continue with all the moves on the opposite side.

[rubyvrooom]

@sferemonk can you clarify? if you look closely i am going right at the beginning. are you sure it is not a point of view thing?

[ilyavishnyakov]

Great performance. I still learning his style, but believe that "Play Guitar" should be done a slightly differently, lower?, since you have to catch the opponent's hand.

[rubyvrooom]

@ilyavishnyakov i double checked & i have seen it done both at & below mid chest level. that said, the difference between form & application is night & day. the form gives your body the discipline to know how to respond. however, the application is preformed dynamically without thought to what posture you are doing. as such, the practitioner may do it low, med or high as required. while i try to maintain a high std to keep my form as traditional as possible. i allow room for my personality. =)

[supremefist]

You should focus on bringing in your coccyx and also sinking lower! Your movements are also way too elaborate! The Cheng Man Ching form is very subtle... I agree with milehigh as well. I guess this all depends on your where you learn, but it seems that your "lineage" has added a lot of extra stuff that shouldn't be there :) Remember the basics!

[milehigh61]

sorry but thats poor tai chi

speeds up and slows down

body is not connected

limbs move by themselves

no structure

too fast for someone of that skill level

[bobogazungaaa]

very good tai ji slightly to yang on the wave hands through clouds, but look great good timing even with doing the form fast... I like it thanks for shareing I learned under Dr. Tony Zayner thanks again for shareing