I just joined the WTBA Foundations training program and went through the first sessions. I watched the warm up instructions lesson and I would like to share an opinion. I can go through the first 3 exercises, and perhaps through the weighted ones, although I find them a bit too long. But I have not nor I can have access at a sandbag, and I doubt even if I had I would like to do the practice. I practiced taekwondo some 30 years ago, but I am not sure sandbag punching is suited for me anymore. Also, I believe many of tai chi practitioners I have met would be reluctant to go through it. This is not to say that for many people this warm up can't be useful and satisfying, but I wonder if you could provide a warm up alternative, perhaps shorter and less demanding...
Hi Josep, thanks for your feedback.
You've given me a good idea, even though most people will be able to do the full warm up, some days people might just not have the time for the extra 20 minutes before the main class, so I'll do a simplified shorter warm up keeping it under 5 minutes that people can just roll through very quickly before the main class session on days they don't have time for the full thing.
As for the bag work, this is an integral part of both Taiji and Bagua, how ever like I've said in the introduction (at least I think I did) if any part of the classes are no for you then you can just do the parts that suit, so skip the bag. Some people might want to do only the slow form, not even the San Sau, nothing wrong with that at all.
Even though practicing only one part of a system could be said to make it incomplete, that one part will still give you huge benefits from the practice.
I've very busy this week and next but I will try to get this shorter warm up video into each week of training soon. In the mean time try taking some of the parts of the warm up you like best and just shortening them into your own little routine.