This is a place to discuss the uses of the (Wing Chun) Wooden dummy. Its for classical and non-classical uses - and debate and tips and everything dummy related
I wish I could skip like this girl! I bought a skipping rope a few weeks ago and went to use it now the weather is warm and I can go outside where there is space to skip.
First thing. I cannot skip!
Second thing. It does test your co-ordination. This video did say that.
I had to set myself a realistic goal, therefore, to adhere to the task.
For me just getting the rope to go over my head without mangling up on my body was that goal. (I did manage one skip however, a few times) But I called it a day, as that was enough.
Today, I managed 5 skips, before it got mangled up. I could feel myself getting all light headed when a pattern started and as soon as I was conscious of that .... rope gets mangled.
My next goals will be to build up the number of skips and then once I am automated in that , learn some other skipping footwork.
This video is very inspiring because it shows someone pushing their body and mind. The two are linked.
Richard was studying for a PhD at the time of this program shown late at night on Mondays on BBC1. (Look at his book shelf, when the camera scans it).
The program was called 'Making the Most of the Micro'. This person is probably one of few who really had learned to program and use their computers for productive purposes, too. He says he had to teach himself to create new programs to help him. (The signature he creates, is made of full stops joined together - very cleaver - and adds a personal level to the communications he makes).
He passed his PhD and there is a book about his life, written by his Mother. I want to get that.
Exercise ..... mmmmm.... a hard cardio work-out I mean ... I love to exercise -- the burning lungs ... the sweat ... the feeling you are going to collapse .......yuk yuk yuk, don't be silly.
I see the cardio side, as a chore a lot of the time. The dull repetitive tasks are not far off working on an assembly line. And like the latter you only do it for the outcomes - the benefits being health related.
Ways around the repetitive nature of exercise in martial arts, can be to do moves and drills that also look like the moves you do in your art and there is overlap. < This is what I do now, with my mini-weights.
But to do these moves burns up the energy store you have. In training with my colleges Slippers and Sleeve, you can see after a 3 minute round the effects hitting a pad has on you. Pufff, pufff puff. (Sometimes the sensation to vomit). This is why cardioid-exercise is a necessary evil for self-defence. No engine, no gas ... can't run off even!
This web page on the BBC and the supporting Horizon program, really fascinated me. It shows how individual differences in people will affect the responsiveness we have to exercise regimes. Blanket advice is 'exercise is good for you'. The implications of the program are - types of exercise need tailoring to types of people whose genetic makeup makes them responsive to some types of exercise, not others.
(If you are outside the UK in theory you cannot see the program - but there are ways).
What interested me is the short intensive exercise of 3 x 20 second all-out bursts on a bike..... And that is it! I had been told about tabata exercise before - is this that ? Look at the evidence for the benefits given. See also what did not change.
Here is a link to a BBC Radio 4 program of the impact of Bruce Lee and Kung Fu in the 70s.
He is seen as the catalyst in diffusing martial arts to the West.
The program is called 'In Living Memory - Kung Fu'.
I liked the way in the radio program they mention how the film 'Enter the Dragon' (1972), promotes Lee like a James Bond character. Also, noted is the representation of the Orient in this type of genre (thinking David Carradine's series Kung Fu), which uses stereotypes of Eastern philosophy which are just not realistic outside a California beach. This type of representation is a form of 'othering' that sets apart people as being distinct. (In the blog above there is a picture of Chinese characters in English pantomimes - have a look for that). The program ends saying that the martial art shown in the film is 'a fake' simulation not authentic martial arts. A film's symbolic construction.
This year I made some advances in the forms / Jurus I have because I used my own private language to make sense of the moves to me. It was no good someone saying to me 'show me juru 3 left side' - sorry I don't think in numbers I am not Leibnitz. Breathing. A problem was identified in that I was holding my breath in my drills. Had to overhaul the way I breath in and out now and be really conscious about it slipping into a mismatch between movements and breathing. Towards the end of the year I started using small weights and these have made some physical difference to me. They are not heavy enough to affect my joints or make me like Arnie, but I can feel a difference in my muscle composition. I will keep this up to see what long term affects this has. I can root myself better now, as I can sink like a sack of potatoes more readily, rather than remain standing up straight. Like the breathing, I knew you are supposed to do this, but it is becoming automated, more so now. Found more ways to do silat moves on the dummy. This is not really hard, but you need imagination. Got a camera to record myself on the dummy and shadow boxing. Been meaning to do this for ages. It does show you finesses to adjust and change. E.g. leaving the centre open and having 'chicken wings'.
Maybe I ought to have some New Year resolutions ....
Here are two videos of two disparate activities: chess and martial arts. You do often get comparisons between the two but these are not always that detailed.
Here is one similarity - reverence for 'the center'.
In chess, if you can occupy or control the center, then, you take space away from your opponent. Also, you can swing your pieces left or right, or crash through more economically - i.e. take less moves to make more threats.
In Wing Chun, the center too, is important to defend and attack down, at the same time. If your hands occupy the center you can deflect on-coming attacks from the left, right and center economically, as your arms do not have to move as far, as if they were parked on the edge of your body. Also, if you occupy the opponents center then, you can enter more easily to create threats on them.
So what? The point is the role of theory is to simplify and explain things. In chess you have a forest of possible moves and things to do. The role of theory and, here - 'the center' for instance - is to simplify your task and make meaning of the game and where you should put your pieces. Same for Wing Chun. The theory gives you something to think with and about. I.e. where should I defend and where should I attack? What should I be doing with my arms. This simplifies the choices to be made when interpreting a scuffle.
Theory is not actually to complicate. It is to simplify, that is why in academic courses such as social sciences effort is made in introducing learners to theory, to actually show how it is a tool to make meaning of a messy world by focusing on just a few prioritized ideas. You do not have to come up with novel ideas why things operate, or how they operate. You take the theory off-the-shelf, as someone else has done the spade-work.
The last theory we looked at was Beck's theory of 'the risk society'. I am not going into detail about that - but will say it gives us a focus on a few ideas to make meaning of why modern life offers anxiety and paradoxically decreased trust in experts, but yet also a reliance on experts in the modern age, as the threats we face are invisible and we need their help.
A theory I was learning about was 'existentialist counseling'. There the theory focuses us to realize what it is like to live life and understand it is not pre-determined, but we have freedom - i.e. choices to make. The weight of these choices is crushing upon us - and causes anxiety. Anxiety is part of life, which we need to embrace and according to Nietzsche we need to love our fate. If we can do that we live life authentically and not in bad faith. The issue of freedom and the problems it gives us is the core of this type of counseling. It has its principles in its theory to make meaning out of troubled lives in the counseling setting.
The theory is 'the center' then to be focusing on here, and also showing us what to ignore in doing your thinking. It is a simplification, but it speeds up analysis time in any of these activities when you think with these precepts, and take them as a given.
