Welcome to Introduction to (Chen Style) Taijiquan! The following instructions and information are aimed to orient you to the course materials and help you plan your learning.

Communication:

1. To ensure you receive important course announcements via email, make sure you:

• check the notification preferences in your profile settings to make sure you "agree to receive instructional and promotional emails from Moving Stillness" -- I don't send marketing emails, only those relevant to this course;
• check your email spam folder and unblock emails coming from "Moving Stillness" or "....teachable.com".

2. I can be reached directly via email at [email protected].

How you will proceed through the course contents: 

Course contents are released one week at a time to help you pace your learning.

• you will have access to the Welcome module and Session 1 immediately after enrollment;
• you will have access to each subsequent session one week after the prior one; you will receive an email notifications when a new session becomes available.

Each session contains about 75 minutes of total video lengths on average. You can watch and learn in one setting (it's a good idea to budget some break time) or on multiple days/settings. Repetitions are built into the instructions, so you should be able to complete one week's recordings and feel good about your grasp of the contents. Of course, you are welcome to watch any parts of the lesson again for reinforcement.

Structure of lessons:

Each week's 2-hour session typically includes the following sections, with some variation:

• warmup exercises
• review of previous week's lessons
• fundamental drills (body alignment, footwork, handwork) that are relevant for the new postures in the Lao Jia Yi Lu form sequence
• Lao Jia Yi Lu posture of the week

In additional to recordings of class instructions, most week's module also includes a Lao Jia Yi Lu demo in mirrored view, to assist self-practice after class.

How you will be supported through the course:

I have designed this course to allow you to learn and practice Taijiquan safely on your own. In addition, I am available throughout your 14-week journey to provide support in the following ways:

1. Weekly Q&A board

Use each week’s Q&A board to ask questions as they come up. I can typically get to it within 1 day, 2 days at the most.

2. Pre-course survey and mid-course check-in

You will be asked to fill in a pre-course survey before you start the learning modules. This is to help me get to know each of you a little bit and understand your individual goals and needs.

At the end of Session 4 and Session 9, you will be asked to fill out a short check-in form, to keep me informed of your progress, challenges, and any additional support you might need. These check-ins are optional, but they could help you consolidate your learning (and can often spark insights), and they help me design/modify the course to server you better.

3. One free 1:1 coaching session

Each participant can schedule a free 30-minute 1:1 Coaching session with me. In the coaching session, I can answer your questions or help you design a practice schedule that works best for your goals, watch your perform (you may also send me a video clip in advance to save time during coaching session), and provide suggestions for adjustments or improvement. You can use this free session anytime you want, but I recommend using it well before the last weeks of the course so any feedback you get can be incorporated in your subsequent practice.

Additional coaching sessions can be booked with a fee.

Contact me directly ([email protected]) to set up your free coaching session - it can be online or in person in an outdoor space if you can travel to San Jose, CA.

Useful Tools and Tips:

This course can be viewed in Teachable's iOS app, which allows you to watch the instruction videos and view most other contents on the go. Note that some contents (e.g., Q&A/comments) are not visible in the iOS app and you would need to access those on a computer.

That’s it for now! Enjoy the journey!