Forms: Different Masters, Different Standards, Different Viewpoint

Recently, I acquired a copy of the Zhu Hai Taiji Conference DVD. Many famous Masters were featured in there, including Wang Xi An, Chen Zheng Lei, Ma Hong, Yang Zhen Duo, Fu Sheng Yuan, Lin Mo Gen, Sun Yong Tian and Wang Hai Zhou.

In class, when my friend asked my teacher how he felt about the performances, he commented that he liked Ma hong and Lin Mo Gen, and added that Fu Sheng Yuan was not too bad too.

As for me, I liked Fu Sheng Yuan the most. I feel his form has the "soft outside, hard inside" quality. And looking at his form, you can hardly find any technical weakness. when he wards off(peng) or pushes(an), it looks strong with power and backing. You can really feel the strength behind it, body alignments all in place. Impressive!

As for the Chen style, I thought Ma Hong's form looked a little too hard and fierce. However, he does have many nuances in his form that the newer generation don't. Wonder why my teacher liked him that much though.....
Actually, of all the famous Chen Style stylists, I like Chen Xiao Wang the most! His forms are always smooth and all his fajings are crisp and packs a punch. Comparatively, although Chen Zheng Lei's form is also very smooth, his fajings are just not as great as CXW's.

After the reading the article by Li Ya Xuan the other time, I did a check on him and found out that other than his daughter Li Min Di and
her husband, another one of his famous disciples is Lin Mo Gen. And when my teacher said he liked Lin's form, I had to get the DVD!

However, when I saw him perform, his form looked very soft, very volatile I would say, like the moves could easily change and transit into another at any moment. I think this maybe because of the elusive song we have always been chasing after. However, the way he moves, it seemed to me that he was treading on the thin line of technical/structural weakness agaainst volatility of form. Nevertheless, if masters are performing such a form, they would know their stuff. If taiji beginners like me are performing such a form, I am asking for trouble.

Sometimes when I try to relax(song) to a similar stage as him, I find my hands to be "floating" like there is no substance. Usually it would be called relax and sink(Song Chen), as opposed to relax and float. But the sink part still eludes me at times.

In this DVD, I find that there are 3 ratings of masters: average, above average, good and excellent.
For example, Fu Sheng Yuan, Ma Hong, Lin Mo Gen and another guy performing yang style with the surname Li would count as excellent.

Chen Zheng Lei , Wang Xi An would be good.

There are some masters whom I think still lack the inner kungfu part of things but have excellent smooth forms which takes a lot of practice like Cui Zhong Shan and I would classify them as above average.

But there are some masters who really look quite average like Sun Yong Tian.

Nevertheless, all of them are much better than me and it would take years before I reach their level.

With my present limited knowledge and experience, this is as much as I can gather so if anyone could point out my mistakes and correct me, please do! Thanks!