The syllabus.

Six stages, in order

1. Standing practice 站樁, zhan zhuang — structure, balance, awareness and the steady reduction of habitual tension.
2. The five loosening exercises — simple repeated movement that develops release without collapse and begins to change ordinary body mechanics. This material comes from Huang Sheng Shyan 黃性賢.
3. Qìgōng 氣功 and basic skill exercises — the conditioning and coordination work that makes the form possible: opening the joints, coordinating breath with movement, and the basic skills each posture assumes.
4. Hand form 拳架 — the 37-posture form created by Cheng Man-ch'ing 鄭曼青, taught in sections.
5. Push hands 推手, tui shou — structure testing, listening 聽勁, sensitivity, and the eight gates put to use against someone who is not cooperating.
6. Application 散手 — testing whether the internal work is still there under pressure.

Where the material comes from

The five loosening exercises come from Huang Sheng Shyan 黃性賢. The hand form is the 37 form, the 37-posture set created by Cheng Man-ch'ing 鄭曼青. Both are named because they describe what is actually taught, not as a claim of descent.

The rest is the accumulation of study with numerous teachers over a thirty-year period — corrections that stuck, and ways of explaining things that finally made them land. Where a particular teacher is the source of something specific, they are named.

How long each stage takes

Longer than anyone wants, and there is no honest way to shorten the answer. Standing and loosening are worked from the first session and never stop. The form is opened early and takes years to fill in. Push hands begins once there is enough structure for it to test something.