The Yang-Style Long Form Isn’t as Long as You Think

At Twin Cities T’ai Chi, we teach the Yang family long form as passed down by Yang Cheng Fu and taught to me by T.T. Liang. By design, there are many repetitions of postures to stimulate Qi flow and train the nervous system and muscle memory that will perfect the movement mechanics of each posture and the deeper internal aspects of the form. This repetition of movements creates a higher posture count that intimidates some prospective students and sends them running toward shorter forms.

Twin Cities T’ai Chi Instructor Stephen May has tallied some surprising statistics about the long form that get students to realize the form is not quite as long as they thought. —Paul       

First Section Fun Facts by Stephen May

There are 150 postures in the Yang-style long form we teach. The whole form is divided into three sections, with 12 to 15 new postures in each section. Because everything in the first section is new, the prospect of the whole form may seem a bit daunting. But you may be surprised to learn how much of it repeats in later sections. Some of them even occur in fixed sequences: Ward Off Right is always followed by Roll Back, which is always followed by Press, which is always followed by Push, which is always followed by Single Whip.

So let’s see how the first-section postures add up with those later repeats.

Posture learned     Repetitions           Total postures

Preparation*            1 time                    1

Beginning*                    1 time                    2

Ward Off Left               3 times                  5

Ward Off Right             6 times                   11

Roll Back                       8 times                  19

Press                             8 times                  27

Push                              8 times                 35

Single Whip                   8 times                 43

Lift Hands                      3 times                 46

Shoulder                        3 times                 49

White Crane                  3 times                  52

Brush Knee                    9 times                 61

Play Guitar*                    2 times                63

Chop With Fist               3 times                66

Parry & Punch                6 times                72

Withdraw & Push           3 times                75

Cross Hands                   3 times                 78

*These are the only postures that do not repeat in later sections. There are also two variants for Brush Knee and two variants to Single Whip, each done twice, effectively bringing the total postures learned to 84.

By the time you have learned the first section, you have actually learned just over half of the entire form. When these postures are secure, you will find that they will serve as breathing spaces between the new postures in the later sections. So relax and take your time. You’re making excellent progress!