Last winter, I arranged to have
Sifu Amin Wu come to Google and teach the first part of the Yang-Style 24 Form (discussed
previously). In the spring, I was able to arrange to have her come back and teach the second part of the form.
I had been concerned about splitting the form across two sessions, particularly for new students who hadn't been in the first session. I was hoping that the class would consist mostly of returning students but about half of the students were new.
Sifu Wu gave a really nice comprehensive review of the first half of the form over the first 3 weeks, which was good for both the new and returning students, and then taught the second half of the form over the remaining 5 weeks.
As I expected, the attrition rate with the new students was higher than with the returning students but a higher percentage of students (both new and returning) got through the form than I'd expected. The class finished yesterday and, as with the previous sessions, I took a group photo:
While the results were pretty good, both Sifu Wu and I felt that splitting the class across two sessions was difficult both on her and the students - she just didn't have time to go into the details about the form that she would have liked to.
Sifu Wu will be away for the summer but I'm working with her to set up a fall session. We're trying to arrange a 12 week session rather than 8 week one, which should give her the (minimum) time necessary to get through a basic short form (Sifu Wu wants to teach the Chen 18 Form - she thinks the students at Google will enjoy it and I think it should be a lot of fun).
