Wooden mess with The Yip, Man... (116 Wing Tsun Dummy Techniques - Chun Yip, Ting Leung)

Member Name: Leadbelly

Product:	116 Wing Tsun Dummy Techniques - Chun Yip, Ting Leung
Date:	01/10/01 (744 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Its ace, Best thing about the Dummy

Disadvantages: You cannot learn from a book alone

This book is the only text that could, with any degree of reality, be called a definitive guide to the Yip Man, 116 move Wooden Dummy Form. SO I thought I would write about it. If this is a bit naff, tell me & I will adapt it. If you disagree with my pearls of wisdom, shush. Sorry if this is a bit too Wing Chun orientated folks, I will do a simple guide to the style, but I want that to be 100% good, so I am doing this first!

Back in the days of the Siu Lam monastery of China many styles used Plum Blossom poles to train the skills of the arts martial (thats Martial, not marital - DONT make the mistake I did once when I was younger & more foolish : walking out of a multi story car park in brum and into a shop that I thought said Martial Arts, not Marital Aids. Having said that the weapons on offer were truly spectacular & only for use by trained masters....). These were then given 'limbs' in the form of sticks protruding to symbolise / simulate arms or legs. The most renowned and advanced form of this comes to the Wing Chun Wooden Man. An opponant with 3 protruding limbs at torso / chest Level, and a single 'leg' below. Other styles have uses for the dummy still (the real funky Praying Mantis stick dummy for example) This doesent mean we train to fight 3 armed 1 legged foes. It is hard to visualise without doing but if you go to the right of the dummy only teo of the arms are near you, therefor at that moment in training the other arm dosent exist - Trust me, when you have a go you will understand! (honest).

The Contents of the Text.

The book is split into 8 chapters.

First about Yip Chun - Who rocks & is the Eldest son of Yip Man.

Now we have a few pages on the Dummy and its development. Nice, useful information.

Then we have the treasure of the text - a series of 116 photos of Grand master Yip Man (and yip Chun where the photot is missing) performing the wooden dummy form, to enable th
e knowledge to be passed on.

We then have some applications of the dummy techniques. Nice but as with any photo strip it is always the bits between the photos we need to work out how to get to the positions!

Finally we have a brief Biography of the mighty Yip man, by Yip Chun.

The book ends with a glossary of terms (always useful) and then some nicely dated adverts for Leung Ting publications. My copy is from 1982, and it all looks REAL dated.

Well is it worth Chuff all to me ?

Yes! its a really useful tool to assist your learning. BUT, and its a mighty big BUT... you can NEVER learn froma book or tape alone. the photos only capture the completion of a move - the finale if you like. This means all the foot work, adjustment of weight and body are pure guesswork - and therefor most likely to be utter Chimp Droppings. A real fine example is between picture 35 "Left Man Sau" and 36 "Left Sideward thrust Kick ". I know for a fact there are 5 or so points of move ment to go from the Man Sau (inquisative/ asking arm) and the Kick, on top of that the position has to be bang on, and at the right angle.

So thats it really. Get training & If you have a cheap dummy to sell please tell me as I want a new one!

One Final word on the book - It also gives you a wonderful diagram of the correct specs of a wooden dummy & a fine portrait of Grand Master, Sifu Yip Man as well.

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