Sorry, I neglected to get involved here. I do a little Sun style. I do a long form, some 70 or 80 moves or so I think, depending on how you count them. I do like it, but I focus more on my Chen style. All my Tai Chi takes a bit of a back seat to my external training while I am still a strapping young man of 35. When I get older I imagine my Tai Chi training will gradually move into a position of greater focus.
Sun is very different from Chen and Yang. The stances do tend to be higher, altho I've seen pics in Tai Chi magazines and stuff of some people taking the stances quite low. The stances in Sun are different. There is more from Xing-I and Bagua in it. Of course Sun Lu Tang was an accomplished Xing-I and Bagua guy, and I believe a good friend of Yang Cheng Fu. These things all influenced his Tai Chi.
Our Sun Style is actually from Fu style. I don't remember Fu's full name, sorry. Fu was a friend of Sun, and developed his own system that includes both internal and external elements, including Sun Style. Fu is probably most well known for Fu Style Bagua, spinning on the heel and whatnot. My teacher knows Madame Sun, and I believe how we do things is a bit different from the direct Sun lineage.
Anyway, anecdotal story here. I had been working on Chen for a while, and the tendon below my right kneecap had become very tender. This had happened once before, and returned. It didn't seem to want to go away, and stayed sore for like a year or so. It really interferred with my training during that time. Anyway, I began to learn the Sun form, and within a couple months or so the pain left my kneecap, and never returned. This was about 5 or 6 years ago. I don't really know what caused it to get better. Maybe the higher stances in Sun, maybe something inherently "healing" about Sun, maybe just shifting my focus somewhat away from Chen for a while which is known for causing knee problems if done wrong, or overdone, I don't know what actually did it. But I like to attribute it to Sun.
I can't claim to be very good at Sun, and I don't practice it as much as the Chen and my external stuff. But I do it and keep it in my back pocket for a rainy day, so to speak.
I don't really believe I am very good at any of my tai chi, to be honest. I do a few forms, certainly not as much as I should, but enough to be comfortable with them. I cannot claim to understand Chi flow and stuff. On occasion I feel something, usually burning heat in the palm of my hand that might be remedial chi flow, but I cannot control it or make it happen at will. I suppose that sometimes things just accidentally line up and it manages to squeek out. But I just keep doing them with whatever dedication I am able, and hopefully in another 40 years or so I will know better what is going on, when I am too old to do White Crane anymore...
