Short Form/ Long Form and learning tai-chi

Both the short form and the long form are valid tai-chi forms. Since the short form is shorter it is generally taught first so that students are able to learn a complete form in a shorter time-span. Both are good for health promotion but the long form is better so students generally move onto the long form when they feel it appropriate.

Valley Tai Chi Club practise the Wu style form. Although tai chi goes back many centuries all tai chi forms, world-wide, stem from the three instructors who were licensed to teach to the public after the Boxer rebellion in China in 1911. For many years before the Boxer rebellion tai chi had only been allowed to be taught to the Imperial bodyguard. Wu Chian-chuan was one of those three and we follow the form as taught by his daughter, her husband (who was Wu Chian-chuan's senior student) and her grand-daughter. A YouTube video of Wu Chian-chuan's daughter performing the long form is available here »

Drawings of Wu Chian-chuan's daughter, Wu Ying-hua, performing the short form are available here »

The slow forms arose as teaching and health forms from the fast form, which only Wu style tai chi has retained with integity. A YouTube video of Wu Chian-Chuan's son-in-law, Ma Yueh-liang, performing the fast form is available here » To show the consistency of Wu style training a YouTube video of Michael Acton performing the fast form is available here » Michael is a student of a student of Ma Yueh-Liang's.