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Greg LeBlanc On The Wooden Dummy

By Steven Moody November 27, 2019 Leave a Comment

I remember the first time I saw someone “playing” the Muk Yan Jong (aka Wooden Dummy).   This guy was visiting Oakland from Germany and had come by my old school (before Greg) to do a little training.  He didn’t want to  train with any of us – he just wanted to use our equipment, which he was allowed to do.  None of us (not even the Sifu) had learned the complete dummy set, so it was a kind of mysterious tool which we’d only seen used fully in the movies.  We had only learned to use it to train the Gan Sao and Kwan Sao “hands” (“in the ballpark,” as Greg would say, of what we see in the video below).

The dummy is most often associated with Wing Chun but variations on this tool have been used in many Chinese styles of Kung Fu.

The German visitor was learning some style of Wing Chun but the way he trained was quite different from what I later learned from Greg.  He pretty much beat the crap out of that dummy and his goal seemed to be to make a show of force and the insensitivity of his arms.

There is an old story I heard from Gary Lam about his teacher Wong Shun Leung.  A zealous student was hitting the dummy so hard he broke one of the arms off.  He took the broken arm to Sifu Wong and said proudly, “Look Sifu, I broke it!”  Sify Wong took the broken bit of arm, knocked the student on the head with it, and said, “Now I have buy a new one!”

I was trained as Greg demonstrates here, that working the dummy should be done with precision and controlled power.  That the dummy is a training tool which teaches position, structure, and an approach to footwork.  The footwork aspect is the least of it, as the dummy doesn’t move and requires the practitioner to step broadly around the arms and enter and exit and reenter, unlike real fighting, where the entrance is much more direct with a much tighter angle, and probably never that wide 45 degree entrance you are taught as a “training mistake” (i.e., a mistake you make in training that allows you to train but isn’t how you will fight, like training with both arms simultaneously in Chi Sau or developing footwork with a jump rope in boxing).  The main thing the dummy teaches, if memory serves, is angle and structure and “chasing center.”

Filed Under: Wing Chun Training

Centerline Punch with Sifu Enzo

By Steven Moody July 26, 2019 Leave a Comment

A very clear discussion of the basic punch.

Thanks to Kabuki Fox Kung Fu and Sifu Enzo (a student of WSL and David Peterson).

Filed Under: Wing Chun Training

Coaching the Reactive Element of the Chi Sao Drill

By Steven Moody June 16, 2018 Leave a Comment

“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

Filed Under: Wing Chun Training

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Hi. I'm Steve, a professional researcher. I've studied Chinese martial arts for over 20 years. During that time, I've learned from some of the best teachers in the world (including Greg LeBlanc, Gary Lam, and Bernard Langan). Plus, I've done hundreds of hours of research into fight science. This website contains the best of what I've learned. Contact: steve@snakevscrane.com

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