Hello Tim and all,

Does anyone have an opinion on the products from Dr. Yang? I own several of his books, and find them quite informative. I know that some people in the Taiji community do not like the fact that he has "reverse engineered" some of his taiji from his more extensive White Crane training.

Recently I have been thinking about buying his DVD "Taijiquan, Classical Yang Style" on the Yang Pan-Hou form. Does anyone own it? Opinions?

Dr. Yang has produced many videos and his real skills -- particularly with the taiji sword -- come through in many of these. His Yang-style form is excellent as are his martial and push-hands skills.

Be advised though that his videos are not cheap and are best thought of as demonstrations of the forms and methods being taught which would benefit most those who are studying his stuff with one of his network of teachers. I would not call them "instructional" tapes but that is a common problem with videos and dvds produced by Chinese martial artists.

Hi Michael,

Thanks for the opinion. I guess no one has anything to add. I just received the "Taijiquan, Classical Yang Style" DVD in the mail. Good quality, 4hrs of info, and I bought it from a different seller and got it for $27 instead of $40. My only serious training in Yang Taiji is in the 24 posture Peiking form and stationary push hands, so I can only guess at how "authentic/accurate" his long form is. I really like the Taiji Qigong section of the DVD.

I would agree his Taiji is "White Crane-engineered".

Never read his books, but read some of his articles. Seems like a gentle person who respects the healing part of training. And think he is very dedicated to his work.

His taiji qinna book is great. I was really surprised at the amount and quality of info that he put in there. PLus, he states outright that his understanding of other arts helped shape some of his taiji applications.

But that is VERY common and in no way should put people off from learning his material in my opinion. Plenty of people seem to practice bagua-flavored xingyi (including myself) or xingyi-flavored bagua with no problems.

Also agreed that his vids aren't really instructional. They are more like review tools for his extension students. But if you have prior training in taiji, you may be able to pick up some things, especially from his push hands DVDs.

In fact, historically speaking this is how systems get rejuvenated -- somebody brings in something from the outside that was lost.