Customer Reviews

Step-By-Step Tai Chi

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I'll be brief. This is a great introductory book for us Westerners. This is 99% physical, and 1% metaphysical. It contains nothing about Chi/Qi or Qi Gong, and the motions are not from any of the major styles. Rather, the book presents a sort of "beginer's" form called Small Circle form. The book is a methodical and organized introduction to Tai Chi movements. The things you will learn in this book through its fantastic illustrations and explinations will give you the foundation you will need to tackle a class/style. The best part of this book is the way it focuses on posture, breathing, and warming up. Its self paced, but is designed to be done slowly and practiced daily, but thats up to your goals. Worth every dime. Start here before you get too crazy on spending.

I've been practicing various forms of martial skills for 20 years and I'm really not sure why everyone seems to give this book such high praise. Even for beginners its just not that good. Let's face it, alot of martial arts books have been written using a poor writing style accompanied by gritty black and white pictures the size of a postage stamp. Step-By-Step has nice large color drawings but unfortunately they don't begin to cover all the dimensions of a move. Its writing style is lucid unlike many such books whose original Chinese was translated into Japanese and then English. It's a fine book in these two areas but that is not enough to be helpful to the beginner.I would not recommend it to the beginner who is trying to figure out Tai Chi Chuan on their own, with minimum instruction. You might be able to figure out a move but I doubt if your interpretation would be correct.

A far better recommendation for beginners to intermediate is "Tai Chi Chuan" by Liang Sho-Yu offered at Amazon. It has the 24 move and 48 move postures as well as martial applications. I know, you're not interested in martial applications, but you should be because once you understand the real purpose of a move you can better understand how your body should be moving when you are practicing forms. Master Liang's explanations are clear and move by move along with good photo's of each move.

Easy to understand illustrations and clear writing make this a good book for beginners and the curious. It includes (but doesn't emphasize) the spiritual/ somatopsychic aspects, so it's good for those exploring the totality of the art, and for the merely curious looking for a low impact exercise. I think Tai Chi could be a great exercise for those with chronic illness or pain, because it targets the postural muscles (which are often lacking in those with prolonged illness or back injury/ surgery).

The book explains Tai Chi really step by step. It explains philosophy of Tai Chi, warming movements, working with a partner, and 24-Movements. The book explains each movement and what to do. (how to breathe, how to stand, how to relax, etc.)

I am too cheap to take lessons from a master. I tried using a video, but I found that I could not concentrate on the video and do the routines at the same time. "Step-By-Step" has clear descriptions and excellent drawings that I find very easy to follow. I can pause whenever I want and study the description or the drawing. I have set aside half an hour every morning to go through the routines and I have been able to persevere. I believe that "Step-By-Step" deserves the credit.

This is one of those cutesy looking tai chi picture books that most serious practitioners seem to hate. I agree with the one writer who said this wasn't a good book for a beginner, since the drawing sequences in books like these or even photos just don't do justice to the actual moves, and are just too hard to really learn from. But then that makes it no different from all the other hundreds of similar tai chi picture and photo books out there. A video on tai chi that you can buy used on e Bay or here for a reasonable price is better to see the actual techniques. Many teachers have made these videos and I have seen them in the video sections of large bookstores too.

Recently, for example, I saw Paul Lam's videos showing Sun style tai chi (which is a mixture of ba gua, hsing i, and yang style tai chi, along with some shaolin moves, too). I also have Terry Dunn's videos on the long and short Yang form, which are good too. I can recommend those also. And I'm sure there are dozens of other choices that I haven't seen. The problem for the beginner is that they won't be able to judge a really technically correct tai chi form, and be advised, not all of the teachers out there who are "famous teachers" are actually performing all the aspects of the form correctly, expecially in regard to the internal principles (such as keeping the qua open, or the area under the armpit, open, which is one internal principle that can be observed externally). If you get a video, however, you can still learn what's called the "outward shape," and then if you find a good teacher at some point, they can correct you.

But for a more experienced student, the book's main strength is the dozens of individual exercises, which are actually quite good. The author includes 48 of these, so there's a lot of them, and which fall into several categories, including basic ones, balance, strength and flexibility, and two-person types. This is far more basic exercises than you will get in most tai chi books. There is also an exercise in pushing and sinking on the rear leg to develop those skills, which are needed eventually for pushing hands practice.

Then the short form is presented at the end of the book. I do the long Yang form so I wasn't interested in that, but I knew fewer chi gung and basic exercises and I enjoyed that aspect of the book. The author even includes some martial chi gung exercises mixed in with the pure chi gung, which most people won't even recognize, but what the hell, they're there anyway. As the previous writer said, even if you're not interested in the martial applications, if you understand what the move is actually for, you can perform it better. Tai chi is really a combination of small circle and large circle martial chi gung, as opposed to purely health chi gung, and if you understand that, you know more than probably 95% of the tai chi practitioners out there.

I bought this book because of the reviews. And, this book is exactly what I WANT. There is a short introduction and rest of the book is full of movements with explanations. Each page has 3 figures and 4 movements. It is really step by step...

Beginner, Intermediate or Advanced - This book is the Thing! There are many aspects that render this book second to none. Some have been covered in other reviews, but let me stress one significant point - Forms. Most of the forms that we learn from Tai Chi academies all over the world contain many movements that seem to restrict the circular flow for a beginner. The small circle form is one form that is so circular that it is extremely easy to identify with. I have been teaching Tai Chi since about 3 Years, and every beginner or intermediate practitioner has trouble with being fluent with the form. It takes atleast a year to be free-flowing with the short version of Yang form. This is where Master Lam rises to the occasion. Using his "Lifetime of study" he has crystallized the essence of Tai Chi into this Small Circle form that is so simple that it takes only weeks to be free with this form since it has no sharp curves nor too much balancing but rather very simple circular movements. Also Master Lam also explains how we can use this simple form for Chi Kung. I have tried it, belive me it is extraordinarily powerful - just as Master Lam claimed. You may not find too much theory to show Master Lam's understanding of Tai Chi, but once you do the practices, you will come to know what a wise man it takes to write such a book. Even if you are an advanced practitioner, the Small Cirlce Form will surely help you tremendously. A book that would supplement the theoritical aspect would be "Embrace Tiger Return To Mountain" by Chungliang Al Huang.

This is a wonderful book for a beginner, I think. I am a beginner at T'ai Chi, never had a class, own 3 books--this is the best. I found the illustrations clear and they really showed you how to do the movements. (As opposed to some books such as Idiot's Guide To T"ai Chi and ZiGong, 2nd ed., by Marshall, whose illustrations I found confusing and frustrating.) Also, Step-by Step Tai Chi is a beautiful book, the pictures, the way the text is laid out, simple, clear and beautiful illustrations. The presentation and layout makes me feel the way T'ai Chi, when practiced, should: mentally clear and calm.

My personal exercise motto is: No pain - no pain. Tai Chi sounded like just the ticket, but because I travel I don't have time for a class. I looked at several books and chose this one because of the great illustrations accompanying the descriptions of the movements and the unhurried, easy progression the author provides. I think this is a great beginner's introduction to Tai Chi.