The long form is called the public form, because there was a form that was not public. This is called Michuan.
The form depicted is not a public consumption thing, that type of thing is not practiced in most Yang styles. When we did our form in public we changed nothing, there are no secret aspects or things that are hidden from sight.
As for the use of the word initiation, this is because one cannot learn the proper energies without first person instruction, they cannot be understood through observation, this is why there is no problem showing the form in its entirety to the public, because seeing it means nothing if you have not been initiated into how it feels.
I was asked to keep the form from our line private only in terms of the video i was given, i am able to demonstrate any part of it to anyone and can provide video of it if i so choose, but not the video i was given, i must create my own if i wish to share it. It is because the video is a teaching tool for the school and the teacher regards it as his intellectual property, not because there are any secrets in the form.
As for cheng-fus form and health, well you can believe what you will, but your beliefs do not match the teachings in the line itself. When the form was adapted for health the posture was changed to keep the spine upright, also in snake creeps down the back toes of the rear leg were turned outward in the health version, while they do not change from the normal stance in the martial version. Chu teaches the modified version for health, not the martial version.
But if you know the history you know that those pictures were the second set of pictures that Cheng-fu did. The first set was done many years before the later set, here is a photo of part of the first set, made before he started teaching the form as a way to health:
You will note that the spine alignment is still the same.
And i will note that while i am very familiar with the WTBA and their teachings, you are not familiar with the school i was taught in or their teachings. Like i said, i know a number of people who know your teacher, but how many do you know, who know mine? You seem a little sure of yourself, maybe even arrogant, but it is hard for me to appreciate you speaking of what you are not familiar with, including the material i was taught. I have trained for years with a member of the WTBA, who is a very close friend. It isn't like your style is new to me in any way.
When he says he does Yang style it should be noted that Yang style has become a generic term that refers to far too many things to be specific. WPGtaiji is a practitioner of the WTBA style, which was formally called by its creator: The Montaigue System of Self-Defence. If you read the documents created by the founder of the WTBA there are differing accounts of what it is and where it came from, in some of their articles it is claimed to have resulted from him teaching himself after being disappointed with what he learned from Chu, in other documents it is said to have been taught to him.
Whatever the case it is worth looking into by any serious student of the internal arts, look up the 'old yang style' and try to overlook that in some of the videos you will find that he pronounces his so called teachers name inconsistently as well as in his articles he spells it inconsistently.
here is an example:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3jrlFPcIPgNote also that in this school there are different ways of doing the form and what he shows is made for those who are beginners in his system. Eli noted however that no students of Erle were doing the same form work at all, just the same kind of stuff, so when he took over the WTBA he began to standardize the system and make sure that people were all on the same page. I am deeply impressed with the direction that Eli has taken the WTBA in.
The resignation of Paul Brecher from the WTBA is also worth looking into for those who are familiar with this topic.