Customer Reviews: Read 14 more reviews...
 Great instructional book May 12, 2008
Ginger1
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I received this book along with the DVD "Simplified Taci Chi Chuan" 24 & 48 postures and would definitely recommend purchasing both. This book talks about the history of tai chi, guideline for body movements and breathing, warm-up exercises, a VERY helpful diagram that shows you exactly how you will be moving, and then throughly goes through all the postures. Great for anyone, but definitely recommended for the beginner. Very interesting and helpful. Thank you.
Excellent book March 5, 2008
Cai Tian Yi
It is a very good book for individual to learn and for coach to refer.
 Nicely written December 12, 2007
Michael J. Wetherby (VT, USA)
Good overview of the practice. Explains why each movement is relevant and how it is effective. Pretty good overall.
Way better than most ... December 7, 2007
ShortDog
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
No book can be everything to everyone. That said, this book is far more informative and useful than many of the 20 or 30 Tai Chi books I own. For the beginner or intermediate student, this will be very useful. For someone interested in the martial aspects of Tai Chi, this will be a good introduction. It is, after all, only a 150 page book ! It's not a 20 volume Tai Chi encyclopedia.
Great for Beginners March 28, 2007
John T. McCabe (Sioux Falls, SD USA)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
This book is a concise introduction to Tai Chi Chuan. It details two Yang-style forms: 24 and 48 postures and includes martial art applications for the movements.
An impressive array of short biographies is presented at the beginning of this YMAA publication, providing the reader with a sense of well-founded authority.
An excellent summary of the written and oral histories of Tai Chi is given, including a chart showing the origins of the five major styles of Tai Chi.
The book is aimed at beginners and students with intermediate skills, so in the 2nd chapter guidelines for practicing are suggested. Warm-up techniques are clearly presented with sharp photographic images, a quality that is maintained throughout the book. Considerable space in
Chapter 3 is devoted to the details of stances, basic movements and postures.
Chapter 4, the core of the book, contains the 24 posture form which includes martial arts applications. The authors listed the movements and provided an excellently coded chart that shows the foot positions, the head positions, toe and heel positions, the direction of movement and the width of the stance. Each movement is described with text and images, including arrows showing the direction of movement and one or more examples of how the movement could be used against an attack Combined with an instructor, the movement description in this book would serve to help keep beginners from falling into bad habits.
Chapter 5 presents the 48 posture form in same manner as was used in the 24 posture form, except the movement diagram is omitted as are the martial arts applications.
At the back of the book, the authors include a list of the movement names in Chinese and English, a translation of the Chinese terms used in the book, a bibliography and an index.
I would have like to have seen captions for each photographic image and martial arts applications for the new movements included in the 48 posture form. There are a few places where additional images would help clarify the meaning of directional arrows.
The book is a good manual for beginners learning the 24 posture form, but it falls short of being a great manual
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