Recently in Reference Category

Master Jesse Tsao has done a new DVD on Taiji fundamentals for beginners.  It discusses the Yin and Yang and how they manifest in different basic moves and postures of Taiji.  He also discusses the thirteen essential techniques of Taiji.  Here is a preview of the DVD.  The DVDs can be ordered directly from his web site, TaiChiHealthways.com:

Dr. Yang is probably the most prolific Taiji author of our time.  He has written many books on Taiji forms, applications, and fundamentals.  He has also translated many of the Taiji classics from Chinese to English.  Mostly focused on Yang style Taiji, he as done several videos showing forms, applications, exercises, push hands, etc.

Here is the complete list of Dr. Yang's books and videos.

I always like reference material like this - here's a posture by posture drawing of the simplified 24-step Taiji form.  The page includes the names both in English and in Chinese, so if you're doing the 24-step form you might find it useful.  Another good resource on this is the description of the postures, with links to the drawings.

Also, speaking of references and resources, I ran across this Taiji Links page which contains many many links.  It's good to have a one-in-all reference but then it's hard finding material in it.  Nevertheless I'm putting it here so that I review it later and see if I can find anything specific on it to review more and write about.

While there are many books out there about Taiji in general and the simplified forms in particular, one cannot easily find books on older and longer forms such as Chen style old form.  I ran across Old Frame Chen Family Taijiquan at a local bookstore, and found it pretty interesting.

The book has some good introductory material about the history and foundations, and then describes the form posture by posture.  Again, like DVDs, it's not supposed to be used as a self-teaching tool - one needs a a good teacher to work with.  But it's a good reference when you're trying to figure out the details of a certain move you saw in the class.

The typesetting of the book told me that it was done by a TEX-like software, which brings out some nostalgic feelings in me being a computer geek and all.  So that made me like the book even more :-)

The author, Mark Chen, seems to have a Taiji school in San Mateo area.  Hopefully one of these days I should pay him and his school a visit, both to see how the school looks like, and also thank him for the book.  Writing a book on a subject like this is not an easy task, and I'l sure it's taken him quite a lot of time and energy to get it done.