Greetings, I second Dante`s comments above. The guo Juan school is tremendous value for money. I paid -85= euro for the year worth of lectures because I also did the group class. It`s like being a kid in a sweet shop although on e has to be careful not to keep jumping around too much. Once it becomes clear which courses you need, to sit down and repeat lectures over and over is invaluable. One finds new or forgotten things everytime. Among the best things, Jennie Shen does awesome lectures on shapes. When one goes back to playing games one can see them instantly and also see that even up to high kyuu level there are certain shape errors in the game which are probably never going to be corrected. By systematically learning to recognize them and thinking about them away from the game ones level slowly and steadily, inexorably creeps up. One interesting example is playing below extending from the corner star point to the point -below - the adjacent star points. Guo refers to these as low wings and is adamant that if someone does that one should (almost always) immediately jump in with a 3-3 invasion in that corner. An explanation of ow to do this is provided for study. These are the kinds of tips that really push your game to a highe r level. One of the best sets of lectures is `The Opening Training.` by Guo Juan. Here she systematically teaches the fundamental concepts one needs to know about spacing, direction, how to use thickness plus dozens of crucial josekis. The exercises are used by teachers in China. The courses become very advanced after the initial solid training. I use the lectures in differnet ways but more often than not I write out the exercises , sequences and josekis and then practice them away from the computer. When I come back to the computer and repeat the lecture I can reproduce the patterns most of the time and then just recheck the explanations which are very detailed. I also study privately with Guo and she sets me two lectures a week as homework. They are related to points that occur in the lesson analysis we do. Can`t recommend the school enough, Best wishes, Buri
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