Oh, I forgot to update! Thank you for asking The fan class I started teaching went quite well. There were three complete beginners, but others who have been doing taiji for some time. So I did have to start from basics, but tried my best not to annoy the rest. As was sort of my task, I always started the class with a bit of silk reeling and taught a new move each class, but it soon became obvious this tempo was too fast and people had trouble remembering, so as agreed with the teacher, I slowed it down after a few classes. I think that is good, we could practice more and focus on more details that would make learning the form worthwhile. As for the summer, many people are away, so although the classes are running, there are generally fewer people now. So each week I only have 3-4 students, however, it is mostly different ones each week. So so far we haven't been doing new moves much, but focus on improving the old ones, work on remembering the form and focus more on breath, making the form smoother, etc. Just last week we had a former instructor return after several months and because she only started learning the fan form with the previous group, she came to join now to learn the rest. I am really happy to see her, but I finally got the advanced student (far more advanced than me) whom I was afraid of getting She is rather temperamental, but if I could do something she could not, she's never hesitated asking for advice or cared about seniority. But I witnessed that she was definitely not open to any random advice. She can be a little scary then So far I have taught around 1/4 of the form thus far and will wait how many people would come back in September. The class may get somehowe joined by the previous fan class where I had learned the fan form, because the fans are rather loud and it is difficult to hold any other parallel class in the same room, so it would be both classes at the same time. I am not sure about the exact plans, but it sounded like two fan classes at once and possibly the class being open for anyone to join at any time with the opportunity to learn whatever more we would just be doing. So I am slowly starting to get scared again It there are two groups, the teacher should teaching the more advanced class, I suppose. But this assuring of his is not too reliable as he tends to dump stuff on me as soon as he gets a chance Making new and new challenges for me... But teaching the fan class, although I was afraid at first (I've never taught any weapons and I have never seen a class with weapons and complete beginners), is definitely a good experience, I have to say I quite enjoy it The students genuinely want to learn, so they are easy to teach. Also, since I teach the form more slowly than I was taught, and have to explain to more detail due to there being beginners, I have to think about everything more, figure out where to use which rule etc. and I am actually connecting some dots and it more starts making more sense to me. So I feel like I am myself learning more about the form and while I get more practice like this, I am improving as well As for Taiji update in general, we are now learning the double fan form, which is a challenge, but definitely fun. I've always thought double broadsword was cool and must be really hard. The double fan form has actually similar moves, but the fans open and close, which possibly makes it even more complicated, but it is a very nice challenge! The teacher has never taught this form before and he is actually learning it himself, so in the history of the school, we are the very first group. When he was supposed to be away for some weeks in the summer, he taught me a move or two ahead so I could then teach the class instead of cancelling it. I have had to teach even on some weeks he was supposed to be there, but either didn't show up or escaped! (As there were only a couple of people who obviously struggled and needed to work more on the previous moves anyway.) I just hope there won't be a time when I will get to teach a course for double fan I might cry then
G Dog lost me on that one too. Must be some esoterica beyond our ken. Hermeticism no doubt. Or some such jive.
