Tai Chi form practice: Cheng Man Ch´ing version of Yang style long form

Mark Donovan
Mark Donovan
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Published 2020-06-07
This is my first time posting a video on YouTube, I've been watching some other videos to help me re-learn this particular form, which I originally learnt from John Kells at the British School of Tai Chi Chuan in London in the early 90s. There aren't many videos on YouTube that show this particular expression of the Yang style long form, which is usually named the 85, 88, 108, 115 or 150 movement Yang Long Form. There are various ways to count the movements, but essentially the form is derived from the traditional Yang Chengfu style Tai Chi Long Form. Over time the form has evolved, and depending on lineage, teacher and school there will always be some variations. However, the principles and core movements are essentially the same.
Master Cheng Man Ch´ing (or Zheng Man-qing), a student of Grand Master Yang Chengfu, went on to develop his own particular way of teaching and practising this form when he moved to Taiwan, and I was taught a 47 step version of the CMC (ZMQ) modified Yang style short form, which was practised and taught by Dr. Chi Chiang Tao, who was a close student of Cheng Man Ch´ing for 20 years while in Taiwan.
I was taught the CMC short form (47), long form right side and long form left side by Dr. Chi Chiang Tao's senior student John Kells at the British School of Tai Chi Chuan during a period from about 1989 to 1998.
All of these people have since passed away, so I would like to dedicate this post in their honour, particularly to John Kells who first made me feel what real Tai Chi was all about, only in the last couple of years am I starting to realise the value of what he tried to teach me. I also learnt a lot from my fellow students at the school and the senior students who helped us practise the forms, push hands and other exercises.
However, since then there has been a period of at least 15 years when I wasn't practising any Tai Chi, which I regret. However, regret doesn't help much, so in the last year or so I've been re-learning and practising this form on my own without a teacher. I'm now beginning to reconnect with the way it used to make me feel when I practised this form during the 90s, and it's also for this reason that I have now decided to share it on YouTube.
It's still very much a beginner's Tai Chi form in progress. No doubt some people will identify many faults within my performance in the video, so any constructive criticisms that can help me improve will be much appreciated.
All Comments (7)
  • @Marbellalink
    Love the video Mark ! Greetings from your new amigo in Marbella.
  • @paolocoluzzi6847
    Hi Mark! After a long time I realized that you had posted a video as well. I jut watched it and I found it very good! I really like your style. It's really amazing how many small variations you can find in CMC forms... This is one of the things that makes it so interesting... Keep the good work!
  • @freelinentaichi
    Thank you very much for sharing this form! Although I never learned it I can kind of feel it... I don´t know how else to describe that feelining. I feel the effortlessness in the movements and it´s connections to each other. I had the same issue with not practicing the form/forms for a long time, but as you mentioned by yourself, regret doesn´t help. And the distancing from the form training actually helped me in my nowadays progress. Why? Well, back in the days, when I still taught Chen style Tai Chi to others, I very often had stressful thoughts such as: How is my Tai Chi? Does it look good? How much students can I get so that my teacher/master in China is happy with me? How is it possible that I don´t get more students? And so on... pretty self-destructing, right? But then, because of personal reasons and a 3 years training for a new job, I had to cancel my classes 5 years ago. Last year I started with buddists meditation, especially on the awareness, living in the moment, in the here and now! This year, 5 years later after my last teachings, and after the Corona lockdown here in Germany (April/May), I felt an inside urge to I start again with Tai Chi. Of course it felt pretty "strange" at the beginning and my fitness level was very low, but since I had practiced the Tai Chi for 15 years, the memories of the form came back pretty fast. And then I noticed something. This time I did the Tai Chi only for me, without any side thoughts. I was able to focus 100 percent on my body. With the start of my Tai Chi training this year I got a new student with whom I am practicing push hands on a regular basis, 3 times a week. Teaching the push hands and practicing it at the same time improved my Tai Chi a lot. It´s incredible, how important a calm mind with full awareness in the moment is! Oh, and another difference to my Tai Chi practice back in the days is that I don´t pay attention to the right depth of my stances or how much or far I move my arms. I pay attention on a relaxed and good feeling in the body and all the movements "flow" to their correct positions. And the same with the speed. Sometimes I feel like I have to practice a bit faster (not too fast of course), sometimes I feel like I have to do it in super slow motion! As long as I feel the connections within the movements, there is no right, or wrong.