a Daily Ritual Practiced By Millions All Over The Globe, Tai Chi Offers A Wealth Of Health Benefits. The Low-impact, Flowing Movements Sharpen The Mind And Strengthen The Body, Reducing Stress And Increasing Flexibility. Regular Practice Can Help Lower Blood Pressure, Relieve Chronic Pain, And Improve Sleep. If You’re An Athlete, You’ll Find That Tai Chi Improves Your Focus And Endurance.

but To Get The Most Out Of A Tai Chi Practice, Expert Instruction From The Start Is Key. So Is The Ability To Repeat Sections Over And Over Until They Are Second Nature. International Martial Arts Champion Tiffany Chen Learned This 60-movement Yang-form Practice From Her Father, Grandmaster William C.c. Chen. Her Expertise And The Unique Features Of This Dvd Make It Ideal For Beginners Or Others Wanting To Improve Their Practice.

special Features Include Learning Segments With Continuos Loop Option, Complete Form With Dual Audio Tracks For Movement Or Breath Instruction, Real-time Practice For Advanced Students, And Optional Mirrored Instruction For Complete Form And Real-time Practices.

An old tradition meets new technology in Step by Step Tai Chi, a user-friendly, 88-minute (plus bonus material) program presented by martial arts champ Tiffany Chen. Also known as tai chi chuan, this "internal" or "soft" martial art has been around for a couple hundred years, and while it has steadily grown in popularity in the West, it’s still often demeaned as an "elderly person’s exercise"--a notion that Chen aims to dispel, while emphasizing the use of tai chi to effectively relax, clear the mind, sharpen focus, and increase self-awareness. The practice she demonstrates, known as the "Yang style short form," consists of some 60 movements, organized here into eleven segments. Some of the movements have poetically descriptive names ("White Crane Spreads its Wing," "Retreat to Mountain Camp for Rematch," "Step Back to Drive the Monkey Away"), while others are more prosaic; virtually all of them are slow, involving subtle shifts of weight and balance, small steps forward and back and side to side, and graceful arm and hand movements. Chen’s instruction is good--clear, concise, and free of frills--but perhaps most impressive is the use of a variety of DVD features. The program can be viewed with the instruction turned off; the use of "mirrored" instruction is optional as well, and while each of the eleven segments is repeated twice (from slightly different angles and with different instructions each time) before moving on to the next, users can also opt for the continuous "loop" feature, in which a given segment is repeated indefinitely. That’s a good thing, as these movements are not easy; what’s more, on initial viewing they don’t seem so different from one another, so watching them again and again isn’t merely useful, it’s vital. All in all, it may be that no fitness video, especially one devoted to a practice as subtle as tai chi, can take the place of actual, in-person instruction, but Step by Step Tai Chi is undoubtedly the next best thing. --Sam Graham