April 9th, 2010 
Amazon.com
Does fitting exercise into your schedule stress you out? T’ai Chi & QiGong: The Prescription for the Future, Volume 1 may be your solution. Bill Douglas, author of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to T’ai Chi and QiGong, gears this 75-minute video toward reducing stress, increasing flexibility, and opening creative channels. Along the way, you get everything moving–from your lungs on out to your fingertips. And before long, you’ll even be Grasping the Bird’s Tail like a master. … More >>
T’ai Chi & QiGong: The Prescription for the Future
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I have viewed several videos on T’ai Chi and I like vol. 1 the best. The presenter Bill Douglas does a good job of taking the mystery out of this ancient practice , instead of worrying about exact form I feel like I am allowed to enjoy the art and movement and recieve immediate benifit. One morning I was rushing through the exercise that is on vol.1 and realized that by not spending time with the energy & warm up exercises I was not able to fully enjoy the T’ai Chi movements. I am looking forward to Volumes 2&3
Rating: 5 / 5
Half the video is *wasted* on breathing and relaxing… ok, so there’s some “exquisite nature footage”, but you’re supposed to have your eyes closed while concentrating, right? What’s the use of a video that tells you to close your eyes and listen? Ok, breathing and meditating is essential to Tai Chi, but waste *HALF* the video on it?
The rest of the video is some very basic, and i do mean very basic stretching… not stretching as you’d do before playing a vigorous sport, but just the kind of stretching to get your clothes a bit loose on your body. Then about 5 minutes of actual Tai Chi. Yes, about 5 minutes learning the first 12 moves… 12 moves out of 64… if you want to know the rest, you gotta buy the next video.
And multiple camera angles? I guess they’re talking about multiple camera angles during the scenic views, because during the stretching and the first few moves, there is just one “static” camera angle. I expected various camera angles to show you what it looked like from different angles, zooms, etc, but no, just the front view.
….
Rating: 1 / 5
I like this video. Bill has a very quiet and calm style of teaching that immediately makes you feel like he’s chatting with you and you alone.
He also looks like an average joe in sweats — not some overmuscled hunk that makes you feel intimidated immediately — he looks like me!
The sitting Qi Gong meditation was a nice introduction to my own Buddhist meditations and the Qi Gong warm-up exercises are very good. I use both in preparation for my morning walk — it makes it so much more fun.
My only complaint is that there was only a small section of this first video dedicated to T’ai Chi (my main reason for buying it in the first place). The one good routine leaves me wanting more — I need to get the other videos to learn the rest of the ’64 moves’ that he Bill teaches. I assume that is why this video is so cheap compared to volumes 2 and 3, nevertheless it’s a good starting point.
Rating: 4 / 5
While Bill Douglas has the best of intentions, this video just does not give enough information to practice Tai Chi safely. I have been a Tai Chi player for over 30 years, and I have seen students get hurt from the “non-instruction” school of teaching. I think it is time for everyone truly interested in advancing the art of Tai Chi to take responsibility for their students welfare, instead of saying “If it feels right, it MUST be right!” This is the easy way out. In this day and age, it is crucial for all good Tai Chi instructors to have in-depth knowledge of human anatomy and physiology, physics, including force vectors, energy flow, health benefits for each and every movement, etc. – and both the video and the book do not express any knowledge whatsoever of these crucial aspects of Tai Chi. This is a superficial exploration at best.
Rating: 1 / 5
I was really impressed to the detail and content of this video. I am looking forward to the next one; but it will take me a while to absorb this one; as a student of Sil Lum, Kung Fu; and Tai Chi, Yang long form; I was not easy to impress. Thanks for a good learning tool…
Rating: 5 / 5