Demonstration Form vs Practice Form

I was first drawn to Shifu's class watching him perform on youtube. In the early going during my first few months of class, being able to watch and refer back to that youtube clip helped me learn and reinforce the form training for me. It wasn't long before I realized that the demonstration form was different than the way we practiced it in class.

I asked Shifu about the difference. He told me that when doing the form for a demonstration, we often work on flow and fluidity, and making it look good. The form we do for practice will go into much more specific details and the movements are done for practice of application process and training.

As time goes on, I've watched Shifu also demonstrate how we can progress certain movements and transitions, from the most basic of footwork, to a different emphasis on foot placement and timing of landing, up to a level of slight jumps and leaps.

Each progression is slightly more challenging and each variation is one that is always practical and functional in its purpose.

Truly, learning Chen Tai Chi is a process, the more time and more effort we put into learning and growing, the more the reward and the benefit of our training.
J