“So when we’re working on both sides, that means, it can come from either side. And, you realize, after a while, that you cannot, with your mind, control both sides at the same time. You have to at some point rely on reflexes. You have to turn off thinking, turn off being overly analytical and just react. So what this is helping you to do is to promote just a reaction, promote just a reflex, turn off the thinking, turn off the analytical mind that can’t really adequately follow what’s happening from either side. So if you do an action — I will learn how to react back without thinking.”
Sifu Greg LeBlanc
Mixed Martial Arts vs Kung Fu
“The other major thing that gives these limited sports martial arts a huge edge over Wing Chun is pure athleticism.”
MMA Fighter
A few years ago, I did an extended email interview with a guy I’d trained with for a little while. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to train with him too much as this was around the time I had to take a year off due to a shoulder injury.
His was an interesting perspective because he’d trained extensively in MMA before switching to Wing Chun plus he’s a very smart, articulate guy. Because so many online voices are critical of Classical martial arts versus the “MMA style,” I was really curious about why he’d switched and his perspective on Wing Chun’s training methods.
My questions are in red italics.
>>>Beginning of Interview<<<
I’m writing an article about how Wing Chun trains compared with how other approaches which use more sparring (boxing, Thai Boxing, Muay Thai) train. I’m contacting the people I know who have done those other approaches…I have a few questions about your MMA training.
“I’ve thought a lot about this … The first day I walked into an MMA gym I remember seeing people sparring and thinking how graceful they looked, how good their timing was and how I couldn’t imagine being able to respond to being attacked with such calm, concise effort. I’d been in a lot of scuffles on the street because the New York I grew up in was hyper aggressive and volatile but it was always flailing chaos.
At the novice level of training, the classes would spend about 45 minutes teaching you basic techniques: the mechanics of a jab, cross, hook, round kick, etc. At the end of the class we’d do some very simple one step sparring for 15 min or so. Similar to what you see in Kung Fu classes. I throw the cross, you slip and counter hook/cross. Something like that.
Students usually only stayed in this foundational phase for a month or two. Then you’d move to the regular classes. The regular classes were structured similarly. We’d spend about 30 minutes going over some combinations or ideas for attack/defense strategy and then we’d spend 30 minutes doing some sparring.
The class would be generally split in half. The people with less experience going to one side of the room and their sparring would still be a sort of one step sparring but random. For example, you launch some combination of attacks. I defend and let you finish, then its my turn. Similar to what we do (in Wing Chun). The more advanced side of the room would be free sparring at 50% – 75% power.
I think the beauty of this gym’s approach was that they designed their classes so that everyone had contact EVERY SINGLE CLASS. It made people good fast. It took away all the pent up desire to go balls to the wall that I’ve seen in other schools where they spar once a week and everyone can’t wait to throw down. It was nice, steady, and progressive.”
Photo courtesty of Chris at Flickr. Click to see attribution info.
Do You Make These Mistakes With Your Wing Chun Wooden Dummy?
“For learning the wooden dummy…most people think they will practice their arm very strong … I can break the opponent’s arm! It’s wrong.
In Wing Chun, all the touching is angle. When you touching your angle and using your power point to help your structure you save a lot of energy and you won’t be using force against the force of your opponent….If I am an old man but my angle is correct … I can take your position and hit you out very easy.”
Gary Lam, Complete Wooden Dummy DVD
The Wing Chun Wooden Dummy is a widely misunderstood tool.
Although it’s used in other systems of Chinese martial arts, such as Hung Gar and Choy Li Fut, the Wooden Dummy (or Mook Yan Jong) is the signature tool of the Wing Chun system and one of the most important pieces of equipment a Wing Chun fighter uses to develop their skill.
But from what I see on Youtube, most people are using this equipment incorrectly. In this article, I’ll describe the mistakes people make and the correct use of this iconic training tool.
Ip Man brought the concept of the Wing Chun Wooden Dummy with him from Foshan to Hong Kong, but he didn’t bring any actual dummies. In fact, I think he barely escaped the communists with the clothes on his back! He’d been a military policeman for the Guomindang, the political party which fought the communists for power before losing in the late 1940s. So when the communists won, he had to get out of the country fast.
Master Ip learned how to “play” the Wooden Dummy from Chan Wah Chun on a buried dummy (such as the one Donnie Yen plays in the first Ip Man film).
The frame mount version most of us were trained on was developed after Master Ip moved to Hong Kong with the assistance of a carpenter (Fung Shek). Master Ip was no longer wealthy and lived and taught in high rise apartments, so it wasn’t practical to bury a dummy in your floor, as it would be sticking out of the ceiling of your downstairs neighbor.
Different teachers utilize the dummy at different points in the curriculum, but in the Wong Shun Leung lineage, it’s usually introduced at the intermediate stage, somewhere between the Siu Lum Tao and Chum Kiu forms are taught (or just after CK).
I think many people have only learned the system for a year or two and often have not had proper training in the use of this equipment. So they train on it the way they think it should be used, which is often incorrectly and of little use. Yet people are excited by this tool, so they like to film themselves beating on it!
Looks cool, right?
Here is a list of the top 5 mistakes people make in their Wing Chun Wooden Dummy training.
#1 They use the Wooden Dummy to “condition” their arms.
I’ve seen this in person and on the internet. Someone beats the crap out of the dummy, making a lot of noise and causing the dummy to slide wildly on its rails. While this looks (and sounds) impressive, its wrong and a misapplication of time and energy.
Sifu Gary Lam, tells a story about his teacher, Wong Shun Leung (legendary street fighter of Hong Kong). One of Sifu Wong’s students always practiced on the Wooden Dummy with a lot of force. One day, he hit the dummy so hard, one of its arms broke off. “He very happy and then bring the broken arm to my Sifu. Sifu, I did it! I broke the arm!” Wong looked at the student, took the arm and thumped the student on the head with it, and said, “Now we have to buy a new one!”
The idea that you want to “toughen” your arms by hitting the dummy calls to mind the sort of Iron Palm and Iron Body Chi Gung practices of other Chinese fighting systems. This is not the purpose of this equipment in the Wing Chun system.
Wing Chun is a system of deflection.
We use angle to deflect incoming power. This is one of our “secrets.” Wing Chun does not fight power with power. It fights power with re-direction. This is why, as Sifu Lam says above, even if the Wing Chun fighter is an old man, they can still use the fighting technology of the system to overcome a bigger, stronger fighter. The Wing Chun fighter deflects incoming attacks, not intercepting the power but sending the power off at an angle.
This is one of the ways we “let the power go.”
Sifu Gary Lam often used the story of a Mercedes – Honda crash to illustrate this point.
