Due to the current unusual global situation, the past couple of months has seen an explosion in the availability of online qigong training – (and just about every other kind of online training as well!). Many who have previously been skeptical about teaching or learning online have now embraced it – maybe initially out of necessity, and are now discovering some of the real benefits of an online learning format.
Long White Cloud Qigong has a long history of offering both online and in person qigong training, so I thought it might be worth making some observations and commentary about the pros and cons of each of these methods of learning that may inform your current and future plans with regard to your qigong training.
Purpose of your qigong training
One of the first things to consider is what the purpose of your training is? what exactly do you want to get out of it? as that will play a big role in determining how well either online or in person learning meets those objectives. The following are several common objectives that you may have for your qigong training:
- Gentle exercise
- Social interaction
- Technical refinement of movement and posture
- Understanding of your energy
We will look at each of these in turn and some of the pros and cons of live training vs online training for achieving each of them, and then summarize the weaknesses and strengths of each of these learning formats.
Gentle Exercise
Most qigong practices are very safe and easy enough to follow along with. The process is similar whether you attend an in person session or training online. You listen to the instructions and do your best to copy the movements of the instructor. The biggest difference between these two learning formats in achieving this benefit is the convenience of being able to do your exercise at any time and in any place that suits you if it is pre-recorded online – whereas in person sessions would need to be at a specific scheduled time that may not always be convenient, and also at a specific place which may take a lot of additional time and effort to get to (for many people this may not even be an option if they cannot find classes near where they live).
For this reason, if your main purpose for your qigong training is to get gentle exercise – then it is likely that online training is going to be the best way for you to do that. The convenience of being able to practice whenever and wherever you like will make it much easier for you to practice more regularly and get the gentle exercise that you need. Depending on your personality, there are some dynamics of going to in person training that may give you some additional help with achieving this objective though…
Social Interaction
One of the best things about in person training is the social interaction. Even the most introverted among us benefit from some degree of social contact, and many people will find it motivating to train with a group of other people. Each time you go to a session, you are not just doing your own practice, but also catching up with the other people who attend. The positive attitudes and energy of the people in the session with you can help to boost you up and encourage you to stay regular with your practice.
In general this social interaction is much richer and more easily achieved through in person sessions, but as many of us have discovered over the last couple of months, online formats can also give us at least a little of this. It may not be quite the same as standing next to each other in the same room, but seeing the images of other familiar faces and maybe hearing their voice from time to time within a live online session can bring some sense of solidarity, connection, and community, which can give us a similar boost of encouragement as if we were in the same physical space.
Technical Refinement of Movement and Posture
In the past there were many people who said there was no way you could possibly learn a practice such as qigong without having direct contact with your teacher. But I think many of those attitudes came from the level of technology available at the time. In a bygone era the only way to learn from a distance was through books, and certainly trying to follow different exercises which involve complex movements from a series of line drawings or photographs can be very difficult and prone to many errors, as the connection of what happens between the individual pictures is often open to many different interpretations.
But… technology moved on! We now have video – which makes it much easier to follow the exact details of a movement! It is also now even possible to receive feedback on your movement in real time through two way video link!!! You may think I am overusing exclamation marks in making this point, but this is actually a relatively recent development. While two way video has been available for some time, it has become MUCH more reliable and easy to use in recent years, making it possible to effectively use two way video for not only one to one, but also one to many communication. This means that not only can the student visually observe the details of movements and postures easily, but an instructor can also observe the movements and posture of a student and give feedback and correction in real time.
This now makes it easier than ever to receive the feedback you need to technically refine your movement and posture when doing qigong, even from a distance. The one aspect of this where in person training still has additional benefits is in being able to use touch as a tool for guidance and correction. Fortunately, verbal instruction can give sufficient feedback in almost all circumstances.
Understanding of Your Energy
It is true that there are some subtle aspects of energy that you may be able to perceive from your teacher more easily in person than through a video. But… there are both advantages and disadvantages to this, and how you view this will depend to some degree on what you see the role of the teacher to be.
When we are in each other’s presence, our energy affects each other. By practicing in the close presence of a skilled teacher, they can more easily guide not only your physical movements, but also aspects of the flow of your energy. Usually a lot of this takes place unconsciously rather than consciously as part of the rapport effect between student and teacher.
This can be very beneficial in some circumstances in helping the student to open up their flow of energy and getting it to flow in the desired way. But… this can also sometimes lead to a dependence of the student on the teacher. They become so used to the additional assistance that comes from being in the presence of their teacher and their strong energy, that they do not develop the ability to direct their own energy as skilfully as they otherwise could.
Traditionally the way this was overcome was by not training in the direct presence of the teacher all of the time. Sometimes people romanticize what it must have been like to train with a master in ancient times – to have their watchful eye observing every aspect of your practice, and giving minute correction moment to moment. In truth this is not how training was conducted most of the time. What was more common was for the student to receive instructions of what to do, and then told to go and practice it until they feel like they have got it – sometimes for months at a time, before coming back to the master to receive correction and further instruction.
There are certainly times that having in person interaction with a teacher’s energy can be beneficial, but what is more important is that the student learns to find and direct their own energy within this process. There is a classic scene in a Bruce Lee movie that I think illustrates this point well.
When the teacher is always present, sometimes the focus goes to the wrong place. The teacher should just be a guide to help the student to have their own direct personal experience with their energy and the energy of the universe.
In my experience from teaching qigong online over the last 8 years, dedicated students are able to achieve this through online learning as well as in person training. If anything, online learning encourages them to become more self-reliant in seeking to truly understand their energy for themselves, than if they learn in an in person setting.
Strengths and Weaknesses of Online vs In Person Qigong Training
In this section we will summarize some of the strengths and weaknesses of online vs in person qigong training. Many of these flow directly from the topics we have already discussed, but we will include a few additional considerations as well.
| Online | In Person | |||
| Strengths | Weaknesses | Strengths | Weaknesses | |
| Location | Anywhere | May be far away or not available | ||
| Learning Environment | Comfort of your own home | May be hard to create space for focus at home | Environment may be particularly good for learning | May not have all the conveniences of home |
| Time | Anytime if pre-recorded | Times may not be convenient | ||
| Social Contact | Some but not as rich as in person | Great! | ||
| Teaching Quality | Easier to find a skilled teacher | Depends on where you live | Depends on where you live | |
| Learning Experience | Easy to refer back to materials as many times as you like | No contact for corrections | Contact can be used for corrections | May be difficult to remember all the details from live sessions. |
| Energy Experience | Encourages direct experience with your own energy | Easier to experience the strong energy of the teacher | ||
| Technical Issues | Sometimes arise | No modern technology required | ||
Conclusion:
There are many pro’s and con’s for each learning format. In the end the ideal learning format would include a mixture of both of these so that you could benefit from all of the strengths, and reduce or eliminate as many weaknesses as possible. This is what Long White Cloud Qigong has endeavored to do over the years, combining online learning programs with live workshops and retreats all over the world, to give people the opportunity to enhance what they have learned in the online programmes through in person experience whenever possible.
Of course, at the moment most of us are restricted to online learning only, so the focus for now is more on how we can make that online learning process as rich and complete as we can in the current situation. One way we can do that is by including more interactive content within the online programmes. It has been great to experiment with regular live streaming qigong sessions over the last couple of months, and we are looking at ways to integrate more of this type of learning as a permanent feature of the online programmes in the future. We are looking forward to starting to make the new and improved restructured online programmes available soon!
We also look forward very much to when we will be able to hold in person trainings again in the future as well. It was disappointing to have to cancel the planned instructor and qigong healing training in Thailand this year, as we know there were many of you really looking forward to attending. We trust that in due course it will be possible to hold this type of training again, and look forward sharing energy with many of you there!
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