Wing Chun Training – The Wooden Dummy Story
The wing chun dummy and its 108 movements are designed to help you think on your feet and apply the practical techniques of the wing Chun training system.
Learning the moves, as you become a more experienced student enhances your skill, technique and understanding of wing Chun.
Although looking at it with the beginners eyes and you see a practitioner or your instructor run through the movements they seem to be a random set of moves that make no sense.
It seems like just an exercise in beating around a wooden post.
As you continue your wing chun so does your appreciation for the wooden dummy. It has within it a sequence of moves for th whole wing Chun system.
As you learn new techniques, new forms you’ll see how they adapt and reinforce what you learned during your classes. So sequences on the wooden dummy are designed to simulate an actual attack with an opponent. Although the wooden dummy is static it facilitates the concepts you’re learning. It is within these concepts as a student you learn to develop and adapt to real-life situations. You will learn how to position yourself in relation to your opponent, judging the distance and timing. This is crucial to any confrontation. It teaches you where you need to be positioned to execute a specific technique. Out of range you are ineffective too close means a bloddy nose.
Also when you get to more advanced intermediate levels the rhythm of which you flow through the moves of the wing chun dummy becomes more important. An experienced instructor or master will be able to tell how well you execute the moves of the dummy just by the sound. There is rhythm to it, so its not static. Not to sound like a metronome. There are elements, which need to take time, and there are elements, which need to be sped up.
Indeed going through the entire moves of the wooden dummy is like telling a story. When you begin it tells a story of engaging your opponent and throughout the moves , how to counteract and instigate further contact until the end he completed the sequence and defeat your opponent.
More importantly the wooden dummy is there to help you during your training and when you have completed all your levels of training. He is your companion throughout your trials and tribulations of you training. To be your teacher throughout your kung fu life.
