The Snake Form has been an enigma to me since I first heard of it. It was something that many people seemed to have an opinion on without having direct experience with it. In the past I have heard many different rumors on exactly what the Snake form is. For these reasons I jumped at the chance to experience it personally from Sifu Ding in Düsseldorf.

The Snake form has very, very low stances using 100% weighting on a leg instead of the standard 70%-30% rule in the long form. Weight is smoothly shifted between the legs always following the 100% weighting rule. The footwork is based on the triangle instead of the square and this affects many techniques seeming to me to make them more sideward oriented rather than forward oriented as in the long form.

For me the major difference with the long form was the compactness of the techniques where the elbow is almost touching the body and every move is small, subtle, tight to the body and powerful. Combined with the low stance and 100% weighting I could really feel the compression of my center and the techniques felt very powerful. 

After four days of the Snake form my legs felt very solid and my center felt very compact and powerful. It was very nice to then perform the standard long form as it seemed to then circulate that compressed energy. For this reason I personally find the two forms very complementary. I enjoy the powerful compression feeling and rootedness of the Snake form and the contrast with the more open and circulating feeling from performing the long form.

This was a great seminar in which I learned a lot more about Tai Chi. One thing I learned is that the principles behind Tai Chi remain constant and that only by working on the basic concepts and principles can I hope to improve the more advanced aspects such as the Snake Form. For now I will be happy if I can perform my Snake and long forms well at Tiger height (low) instead of Crane level (medium - high). One day with enough Chi Kung I hope to get the Snake form consistently down to the extremely low Snake level!