(1/11) Yang Tai Chi Stepping Sets/ Line Drills Intro

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Stepping Sets or Line Drills in Tai Chi Chuan (taijiquan), this is a brief introduction to the idea. There is no traditional set of line drills, of which I am aware, that one is required to learn when practicing Tai Chi, but I require my students to learn 10 basic sets that are useful in building the coordination necessary for Tai Chi and aid in smoothing out some of the more problematic postures of Tai Chi. After these drills are learned I encourage my students to make their own sets out of any moves in any form that they are struggling with. This allows them the opportunity to refine one move in a continuous flowing manner, without having to simply repeat one segment of a form in a stop-and-start fashion. During my first two days of Tai Chi training in China the master only had me repeat the line drill for "Parting the Horse's Mane" from one end of the training hall to the other, after I was able to do that satisfactorily he moved me to "Cloud Hands" and left me to do that from one end of the training hall to the other. At first I was annoyed that I wasn't learning a Tai Chi form, or push hands, or some other "cool" Tai Chi thing, but when I finally did move on to those other things I found that the time spent doing line drills, refining my movement, and becoming aware of myself, was time well spent. I simply wish to pass that opportunity on to anyone who wants the practice. So feel free to modify these to fit the form/style you are learning and if you come across anything that contradicts what your master is teaching you, it is best to follow your master's method. Enjoy!