For your perusal

[KC Elbows]

Looking for input, this is a section of written stuff for the class I'm teaching to a few of the tudents of the guy who taught me taixuquan in order to replace a training partner of mine who moved. It's a free class, I only intend to teach long enough to train some training partners.

"Dropsies" are rounds of push hands where at least every third or fourth move, someone has to go for one of the drop step moves in the systems, ankle picks and such, as I found telling people to use them didn't work as well as just making them use them.

Here are the sections I'm wanting input on:

Class Structure
This class is designed to, in as short a time as possible, convey the foundational principles and techniques of the Taixuquan(Great Void Boxing- In Cantonese, taihuichuan) style of taiji and train its usage. The basis for the class is the style as I practice it, which stresses waist usage for power generation.
As such, the basic training I recommend for the class is the following:

1) Training of the form
2) Various push hands drills, including sparring
3) Shadow boxing using techniques from the form
4) Heavy bag work using techniques from the form

These are not stages in training, but concurrent practices that bolster each other. Without developing skill in each one, it is unlikely that one will develop appreciable skill in any of the four.
The main intention of the class is to fully train each of you in the style to a point at which you become my equal.
As I am the only one with sufficient experience with the waist work of this method, there are no assistants in this class. Students are encouraged to help each other, but must recognize that any such assistance may not be based around the principles of motion at work in this method.
Currently, I will not be accepting more students. I will be training you to the point where you know the entire set and can use a decent amount of the taixuquan techniques in drills involving pressure, after which point we will be doing your graduate work in The Game. At some point in that process(The Game), you may decide to invite and teach others, which I would be glad to help with.

Rules For When I Cannot Be At Class
Due to my current work schedule, there will be a period of time in which I cannot be there to teach you. It is my expectation on those days that people will pair up for pushhands and work on techniques that I have been teaching.
One point that I will be very firm on is that they do work on this material. Unless one has mastered usage of the techniques involved in taixuquan, time alloted for taixuquan should be used to hone taixuquan. Do not lose this time, and do not waste another taixuquan teacher's time getting more instruction when past instruction still needs to be implemented in push hands against varied partners.
If you are the only one to show up on such nights, shadow box to exhaustion using taixuquan(mixing in basic striking and kicking where you do not know sufficient taixuquan to use it alone, but only in this case), then go over the form, then shadow box again, until the two hours are up.
If an even number of people show up, all but two people should pair up for push hands. The remaining two will shadow box to exhaustion, then replace two others in push hands, and those two others will shadow box to exhaustion, etc. The two replaced need not be push hands partners at the time they are replaced.
If an odd number show up, the odd man or woman out will do their form once, then replace one of the others in push hands.
When there is more than one student, and most are playing push hands, with odd people out either shadow boxing or doing their form, once each person has done their form or shadow boxed once, then the push hands drill changes in this order:
1) Right foot forward push hands
2) Left foot forward push hands
3) Parallel push hands
4) Parallel, opposite stance
5) Dropsies, right foot forward
6) Dropsies, left foot forward
7) Square stance
See the rules for The Game to understand my expectations for push hands. These rules are mandatory, for safety and for efficiency of training. It is agreed between Mikey and myself that my rules apply to my class, so it is the students' responsibilities to ahdere to them, regardless of who is teaching the class that night, and especially if students are on their own doing the above regimen.


The Form
The most important thing to remember is that the form is not the style. Ultimately, it is your collective notes, in motion, of all the techniques comprising the style, done without an opponent. Those notes, when informed by practice in push hands and sparring of the techniques, can be useful. Without this information, the form will be limited in both martial knowledge and, ultimately, physical efficiency, and thus, limited in health benefits.
In this way, the form is just one training tool. Without shadow boxing, it becomes just a chain of moves that you will not be able to extract from that chain. Without push hands and sparring, it will be a body of techniques you've heard about, been told things about, and approximated based on other people's account of them, but cannot yourself verify with any surety their meaning from experience. Without use of the heavy bag, the form will contain strikes that you cannot use with real power. Without sparring, the form will contain strikes that you may understand, but cannot reliably connect with.
The style of taixuquan is a fighting style, and thus the style itself assumes something you are fighting. Thus, the form is not the style. There are always people who know a form, but do not know the style the form is a representation of. It is my responsibility to be certain that you are not such people, and you're responsibility to not see knowing the form as knowing the style, but merely access to a tool that can help know the style.
There is one taixuquan unarmed set, and it is the only set I will teach. The set is practiced three ways: slow, slow with a power generation called fajin, and fast with fajin. If the waist work cannot be done effortlessly, do not bother throwing power into the form yet. If the fajin cannot be done like thunder consistently, do not try to do the fajin set with speed yet.
At the stage everyone is at now, it is better to do the form consistently than to do it often, and must be done slowly with extreme attention to detail. Three times a day, around six days a week, is sufficient. Even with the full slow set, this is less than twenty total minutes, and it is frankly better if time elapses between each repetition in one day, in my opinion.
A necessary form related practice I call The Fives. Periodically, go through the form, doing each step five times on each side from the point in the form it begins at. Tntire form. I do this with fajin at speed, and still must split it up over various training sessions in the week in order to finish it.

[KC Elbows]

Shadow Boxing
Shadow Boxing is a very important solo practice. Form is not shadow boxing, as there is a sequence to the form that shadow boxing must break. Shadow boxing must presume that the next move might not be what one normally does. In short, shadow boxing must assume an opponent, and so you cannot choose, you must sometimes assume things don't go your way.
Another difference in shadow boxing as I want you to use it is that I want it to be fast, to the point of failing to do the move correctly. This is important. While your form is slow with extreme attention to detail, your shadow boxing needs to be at full speed and at the point of messing up the move. This can reveal balance issues and power generation issues that should then inform how you are doing the form, and give you a format to work the moves with pressure from speed issues.
I expect shadow boxing to occur at least as much as form, and involve taixuquan techniques, and remember to keep you hands up!

Push Hands, Sparring, and The Game
Push hands is to be practiced, for the first 2 rounds with a new partner, lightly, allowing each person to adjust to their new partner and develop responses to that partner's bread and butter moves. The goal is not to win, as push hands is not a fight, but a training tool to apply what one is learning in a safe manner, and a place to encounter new moves and new counters in order to drive you to expand your skills.
All targets are allowed, though in striking, care should be taken if safety gear is not in use. Where there are no mats, throw setups should be practiced over full throws.
Rounds of push hands are not to be interrupted for instruction or to analyze what happened. If something works, you can count on your opponent to try it again, many times. You will get many chances to face the technique, and the technique as it's working on you will yeild more ideas on how to deal with it than the simulation of it you create when you stop and try to backtrack. Since push hands isn't generally deadly without the presence of cliffsides or lavaflows, being thrown off repeatedly by the same thing is a gift, and generally doesn't happen for more than two sessions, as your motivation to find a solution becomes high.
Playing push hands during taixuquan class and not trying to use techniques from the taixuquan system is equivalent to not training taixuquan, no matter how many times you do the form or shadow box using the techniques.
Once you are reasonably comfortable playing push hands, after two rounds with an opponent, pressure and intensity can be increased, as long as both players are okay with this.
I do not have a problem with people using techniques from other systems during push hands, provided they are still also working on implementing taixuquan moves. In fact, I encourage this, as I want you all to be competent versus a wide variety of opponents.
I also have no problem getting pushed in an exchange. In fact, I ultimately require this of you all. I own a punching bag, I don't need you to be one for me. I expect you to throw me off, we each will have different areas of strong talent in the long run, and so some things will naturaly become quite effective for you that I don't expect. Use them. That said, beware of speeding up or suddenly raising the intensity to "win".
As to sparring, sparring will entirely be based on taixuquan, using safety gear allowing strikes and chops to be done with reasonable power, and shin guards allowing shin kicks to be trained to be effective. The gear will be provided. The training does not focus on allowing other style's because, once the students are no longer students, they will be taking part in The Game, which allows and encourages other methods.
The Game is not a class. Except on thirty second breaks, no instruction is allowed, and most of us able to instruct will be too tired on breaks to help. Those involved in The Game are assumed to be working on their own stuff, their graduate work in what they are training. Once you are ready for the game, my class nights will no longer be class nights, and I will no longer be your teacher. We will be training partners, I will have succeeded and replaced valuable training partners who moved away, and you can, when you are ready and if the need arises, train others.
The Game itself is not one game. The starting game is basically push hands, but it is open to other stylists, and is best termed a clinch contest aimed at allowing everyone to experience different approaches and develop responses. The first two rounds against a new partner(new meaning the first time you played with that partner that day) are to go lightly, in order to see some of what one faces and develop responses. Then, based on agreement, the intensity can be increased.
The Game is not a series of challenge matches, nor should it be a social hour. Unproductive or hostile people are not invited. A round timer is used, and, until at least twelve rounds are done, there is no break other than the thirty second breaks. The push hands phase will transition from right foot forward, to left foot forward, to parallel footing each side, to square stance, to dropsies, to lead leg unfixed, to stepping allowed, at the starting phase you are in the Game.
The Game will include sparring rounds, with the same two round rule. Gear for my taixuquan students will be provided. The Game is not a taixuquan class, but you will be taixuquan students furthering their studies in it in the game, and working whatever other martial arts you wish as well.

[KC Elbows]

I'll be working a twelve hour shift the next four days, so I might not respond right away, but I do appreciate the input, and will reply as soon as possible.

[kungfoozer]

I would take the ankle pick out of the dropsie drill. You need to be disconected from the person to do an ankle pick and trying to pull one off from a push hands position trains inrealistic technique, IMO. It leaves you open to being hit or thrown by someone who can just grab onto you when you shoot in.

[PlumDragon]

If your goal is to produce training partners as fast as possible for "The Game", then drop the in-class formwork. Unless youre just using it as a quick warmup, dont waste precious class time doing solo drills.

[SPJ]

drill or train one technique at a time

once the technique is learned and applied well then move on to the next

this way the class structure is more focused

30 min is the attention span of most people

anything longer than that, may be less learned.