Friday, September 14, 2007

Weeble Dummy [tm] ?

In a conversation with a learned colleague the wing chun dummy doesn't 'give' and can be limited for some martial art applications. This was a reason why one of his Wing Chun friends had stopped using it in favour of a punch bag.

I am a fan of the dummy so set about creating the 'Weeble Dummy' [tm]. Ahahaha. Seriously I know that my dummy can be made to give 'if' you remove the wedges from the corners of the trough its in / and / or put it on bricks. I put my dummy on bricks to stop it getting too muddy and stuck in there. Also it heightens it when I want it higher. THAT is heresy I know to traditional wing chunners who like it low so their stance is low and legs bent. Joseph Simonet in his Slam Set dummy said his dummy is modified as he is is taller and not expecting small people to fight him (actually he didn't say it like that but you know what I mean).

In another Blog on wing chun [see below] the Classical dummy should not give 'if' you want your structure to be tested and force going back down your legs.

Anyway enough of the apologetics. I wanted the dummy to rock so I can do this drill shown on the video. The leg is taken out so I can move the whole unit with my arm and without the leg acting as a break. I put 2 x pads up for the elbowing. I could have used my Thai pad and belt to keep it up there alternatively. The dummy weighs about 13 stone. I have added extra weights on the base to make it heavier - although they may have slidden off in this drill.


I TOOK THIS VIDEO OFF. On re-watching the elbow I used looked like one from a Wing Chun stance, Lan Sau , up-right stance etc. [like a 90 degree elbow attack - I should have had a more Silat angled elbow - pointed forwards more and hand 'home' on the neck, less space between the elbow and my chest and an angled torso - ready to flick out to grab the dummy.

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