One of the things I love so much about Shifu's teaching methodology is that he is always concerned whether or not the students seem to understand the point of a given technique or motion. To achieve the goal of understanding, he is willing at times to change the way in which we perform our basic practice of Lao Jia Yi Lu, to make sure we are doing a basic technique correctly, and then he will show us the rationale and body mechanic to make something work right.
Today, in class, I noticed right away a couple of changes he was guiding us through during White Crane spreads its Wings. I asked him specifically about the changes and he told me that he had done that to make it more obvious to the beginners what he was hoping they would learn by doing the change.
I really admire that, Shifu is willing to make a momentary departure from the normal way we practice, in order that the students have an opportunity to learn the movement correctly. This way, all of us are not parroting the motions like zombies, but rather, we are moving with better intention. Later on, we can always easily 'fix' the form, when we understand the meaning and now we can better control and move as we see fit.
I think it sure beats going to those classes where the teacher stands in front of the room, everyone follows the same way over and over again, and the teacher doesn't bother ensuring quality control and understanding in all his students. Shifu always asks every student individually. Kudos and many thanks to Shifu!
J
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