I received a video from a member of the online school last week. He's a captain in the army and has spent some time in the Middle East. He joined the online school a few weeks ago and has been studying the Internal Strength section (I recommend everyone start there no matter how long they've studied in the past).

He sent me a video last week so that I could coach him. His wife was on the camcorder and his daughter stood on a chair and pushed him in different ways so he could demonstrate the ground path.

I was impressed. His ground path was solid. He had never seen this concept before, although he has studied other martial arts and has army training. It was clear that he had learned it well.

In his next coaching session, he'll send me a video of silk-reeling so I can coach him on his whole-body movement, dan t'ien rotation, use of the kua, and spiraling movement.

Some people believe you can't learn the internal arts online. I'll be the first to admit that hands-on correction is the ideal situation, but let's face it -- most tai chi students around the world are being taught the wrong things. They aren't being taught the actual physical skills they need. So all the in-person teaching that they're getting is leading them down the wrong path anyway. Hsing-I and Bagua students aren't doing much better. They need someone to tell them the things their teachers aren't sharing.

One kung-fu black belt who owns a school joined the online school recently to supplement his own knowledge. He joined after signing up for the free 10-part course that I offer on body mechanics. He called me on the phone and told me that while looking at the videos in that free 10-part course, he wondered, "Why hasn't anyone ever shown me this before now?" His teacher is a well-known grandmaster and yet he hadn't been shown some basic body mechanics.

When I moved to Tampa, Chris Miller was a student here in the Quad Cities, and he posted occasional videos on YouTube for me to watch privately so I could coach him. I shot a video reply after seeing him do the Chen 38 on video, and I demonstrated some of the things he needed to work on. He worked on it, and before long, he sent me a video showing that his body mechanics had improved. It was a wonderful thing to see.

Across the world, students are earning college degrees through online learning. You can also learn the internal arts online. It requires some personal coaching, either in person or through video, but if you have a half-way decent body awareness you can do it. I encourage you to sign up for two free weeks in the online school and if you don't think it's going to work for you, just send me an email to cancel before the end of two weeks so you won't be billed the low monthly fee (to be honest, if someone forgets to cancel but lets me know, I refund the money anyway although this has only happened once in the past 13 months). You have nothing to lose and a lot to gain.