2020 was a very different year. The world suffered from covid-19, everyone had to experience a lot of changes. Master Chen Zhonghua used to hold workshops all over the world non-stop throughout the year, which was inevitably halted, but Practical Method seeked to adapt and developed an online teaching platform with the latest technology. From a set of random classes to regularly scheduled classes by the beginning of 2021, the participating students made rapid progress and benefited a lot from them. This was largely due to being able to have more timely access to Master Chen Zhonghua and his instructors for guidance. The pandemic created an opportunity to allow a new level of Practical Method to soar to a higher level in the new year.
2020 Review
- The goals set at the beginning of 2020: https://www.shiyongquanfa.cn/archives/100087
- Yearly goal of 6001 yilus was achieved, and a lifetime total of 30,000 yilus on April 6.
- John Upshaw and I spent five sunday evenings to learn the broadsword routine..
- The number of my local students doubled.
- Weekday group morning practices were suspended in mid-March due to covid-19.
- From March 7-11, Master Chen Zhonghua’s Practical Method Toronto workshop was organized.
- A local Cannon Fist class started in January, was suspended in mid-March due to the epidemic, restarted in July, and suspended again in November.
- A new Yilu class was opened in Channels of Wellness in February. Students are very interested in Practical Method. The class was too suspended in early March. After two weeks, it continued online. In fact, as early as 2013, there were already practice sessions with students from the United States and India leveraging video conferences: http://practicalmethod.com/2013/04/notes-for-online-practice-sessions-using-video-conferencing/.
- From February onwards, I started providing video guidance for Practical Method videos every week, so far 92 Chinese and 23 English vidoes were completed, including 23 new English video trailers were produced.
- On May 9, I was interviewed in a Practical Method Podcast hosted by Levi Sowers and John Upshaw: http://practicalmethod.com/2020/05/pm-taijiquan-podcast-interview-with-kelvin-ho/
- In July, the Saturday Cannon Fist class and the Sunday Yilu class were resumed.
- In August, a Power Hour course was held online for the first time with three lessons per week: http://practicalmethod.com/2020/08/pm-power-hour-classes/
- Each one-hour live broadcast Power Hour class was conducted in both Chinese and English in August on every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday with a total of 12 classes. This course focused of the material taught in the Yilu First 13 Moves Power Points 20200717 video, plus any additional exercises introduced by Master Chen during his August online classes. Three hundred attendees participated in this course, including students from China, Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Indonesia, and Singapore. The students also shared their notes in https://www.shiyongquanfa.cn/archives/116248.
- In August, a Sunday sword private class started.
- On August 24, I started practicing with John Upshaw at 5:30am in early morning every day. Using wireless earphones, we were able to move around freely, and it felt like practicing along each other in person.
- Starting from the Absolute Beginner course in August, I participated in Master Chen’s online classes: 30 lessons in Chinese and 23 lessons in English in total.
- Starting in September, I began to teach online the Chinese-speaking students on Mondays and Wednesdays on foundations and yilu.
- Teaching online allowed me to improve on my level of Mandarin skill.
- Kelvin Ho’s Chinese Online Class Videos
- Average number of students attending the class: 70
- In November, an Practical Method introductory class was held as part of the Fountain of Youth Qi evening online class.
- Begining in the middle of November, the PM Friday Night Practice Club was formed including members from US, Canada, and New Zealand: John Upshaw, Edward Liaw, Winston Wang, Yuxin Liu and myself.
- Starting from December, I also began to teach online the English-speaking students on Mondays and Tuesdays on foundations and yilu.
- On December 11, 2020, I was invited for the 2nd year to perform taiji with my students during the online year end celebration of Fountain of Youth Qi.
- For the first time, the students and I were individually at home performing online together through zoom.
- Started to produce a video series of yilu corrections: http://practicalmethod.com/tag/john-upshaw-yilu-correction-series-2020/, this project is to be completed in 2021.
- Publish articles include:
- Chinese
- English
- Energy Alignment
- Practical Method Beginners’ Class
- Online Classes using video conferencing technology
- Practical Method Podcast: Interview with Kelvin Ho
- Taiji’s 1 and 0
- PM Taijiquan Podcast: Q & A Session on May 30, 2020
- Dixian 底线 Bottom Line
- Learning taiji in the new world
- Turning Flowers and Playing with Sleeves
- The importance of note-taking
- Three prerequisites of online classes
- Leader of the movement
- Rotation – Changing direction without changing direction
- Inflection Point
- Power Conversion
- Three types of not moving
- How to post your yilu video on practicalmethod.com?
- Practical Method is so consistent!
- Locking the two ends and moving the middle with sword
- The Art of Asking a Question
- PM Friday Night Practice on Nov. 20, 2020
- Taiji is 3
- PM Friday Night Practice on Nov. 27, 2020
- PM Friday Night Practice on Dec. 4, 2020
- Series of Master Chen Zhonghua’s Online Class Notes (31 piees)
- Performed daily operation and upgrade of the Practical Method official website
- Added encryption (from http to https) to the Chinese website.
- Moving the Chinese website using the latest cloud technology to create the website backend and increase the database capacity.
- Upgrade to support WeChat payment.
- Developed software to support background zoom automatic payment and registration system.
- Implemented a new search system for the Chinese website.
- Chinese website maintenance.
- Arranged and managed zoom online classes.
2021 Plan
- Personal training goals:
- 3000 yilus
- 500 cannon fists
- 500 times of sword
- 500 times of broadword
- Focus on strengthen training
- Improve push hand skills
- Organize a local push hands workshop or course.
- Continue to teach weekly online classes, and expand to other course subjects in 2021.
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Such achievement Kelvin! Thank you for all the hard work to make sure the websites and online classes running well!!
Congratulations! Very impressive dedication and achievements!
Incredible, Kelvin. Your persistance, consistency and output is an example for us to follow. Thank you for your efforts in keeping the Zoom classes running for everyone.
Impressive, inspirational and great to have a `cook in the organisation – kitchen` of you as an advanced and involved PM student, Kelvin!
Very Impressive Kelvin!