Based on what i have experienced through the years of taiji training i have come up to conclusions that short forms are absolutley useless for development of real gong fu. the grandmasters all practiced long forms and repeatedly practiced long forms for many decades of there training.

short forms are lacking of the complete sets and are just for stimulating the meridans for health while the longer forms begin to train the extraordinary power channels used in gong fu.

that is why i practice a few sets of long form and really feel it in my legs afterwards.