[Impact on wood]
- Hi. This is Dan Lok.
Today, I'm gonna give you a few techniques
on how to use the wooden dummy,
and very often beginners, when they get a wooden dummy home,
are not sure how to use it and they hit it
like a heavy bag, and that's just not right.
Now, in traditional Wing Chun, we have 108 forms,
and you can do a very traditional form.
Things like that.
There's nothing wrong with that.
Now for a beginner, I want to give you
first of all an overview.
Maybe, a couple quick tips on the proper way
of how to use the wooden dummy.
Now first of all, the wooden dummy is not a heavy bag.
You are not gonna bang it or hit it just like a heavy bag.
That's not right.
And also, this is a piece of equipment.
So, you are not treating it like this is
like a human person, this a human being,
and you're moving around, although, you could.
But the wooden dummy, what it's designed to do,
is a couple things.
A couple key benefits with this thing.
Number one, when you hit the wooden dummy,
when you practice it,
when you practice using a wooden dummy,
it conditions your forearm, okay?
When you're used to hitting a wooden dummy,
you can see, you can hear the impact.
It an take the impact, suddenly, when you are touching
it with human hands, it feels like butter.
When you can move the wooden dummy,
when you practice enough, going to a person,
and bridging that gap becomes very easy.
That's number one.
Number two is you focus on having a good structure.
So imagine if I have all three blocks
if lets say, I'm off center, that's it
and I'm not doing it right down the center line
I would do it with the dummy.
See I'm hitting up, see up
So if I'm hitting the wooden dummy
Boom, boom, boom
See that? You're forced to have good form
Good form, right here,
Even when I'm being blocked, like that
It forces you to have good form, that second thing.
And third thing is your strike three,
in terms of you bridge the gap,
your checking your leg right here.
Make sure you are always checking your leg.
So those are some of the benefits.
So you're not going to need like a heavy bag
like a speed bag, you're not fighting like this to a guy.
But this is a nice piece of equipment
even when doing solo work
and your practicing alone.
So for a beginner, how to use a wooden dummy? Very simple.
Let's say we take one of the most popular techniques
in Wing Chun, let's take Pak Sao.
Pak Sao, Pak Sao, hand over here.
Very simply, you look at the wooden dummy,
just right here.
And you can pick a traditional Wing Chun stance.
So imagine we are touching hand to hand
We're touching him like that
Like so.
You're pulling your Pak Sao now.
Some people they might Pak this way
So this L, the outside gate
They Pak and then they hit.
Personally, I don't like this because
see how this is not proper form.
This is no good.
I much prefer to go practice here
And I Pak and I just went like that.
In reality, this bar,
and this is what this looks like.
But I like to do like this.
I Pak.
(striking wood)
I Pak, then I hit.
Now one of the most common mistakes people make.
When their hitting the arms,
they do it a lot like this.
You see someone, even on a YouTube video
who doesn't really know how to practice
doing what they are doing.
They might hit it like this.
(slapping wood)
You can see how the side, you see, the other side.
And that's not correct.
When you are practicing, the attention, the focus
needs to be going through the dummy.
This is the person, spine, the structure,
So you see the difference.
Now my energies on the side.
(striking wood)
See that?
By this, my energy is up.
(slapping wood)
See that?
(slapping wood)
That's not right
I should focus forward pressure.
So same technique.
Up (slapping wood)
then forward (slapping wood)
My structure
It's not like this.
It's more like this.
So Pak Sao, it's not inside,
but forward,
forward
So Pak Sao,
In the beginning do it slow.
Do try to do...
Forget about that shit!
Looks good but practice the form.
The line...boom.
Just do like that...even
Just do like that.
Of course this is the ...dummy.
You can tap and reach full power.
But if you have a traditional wooden dummy, don't punch it,
cause you will hurt yourself.
But you can do can do a palm strike.
Just, palm strike.
(palm slapping)
Just like that.
So for a beginner, practice this
many, many, many times.
Now, second technique.
You could do the Lap Sao.
Lap Sao right here.
Right Lap Sao. And left.
Lap Sao from here, pull.
As you can see.
Pull.
Elbow.
And punch.
Or could be palm strike.
This is punch.
Turn my body.
(smacking)
Right.
(smacking)
When you can pull like this.
You can pull human arm, it can just fly.
Again.
(smacking)
Or you can do Pak Sao
Lap Sao, Pak Sao, Lap Sao
Mix it up.
So that's the second technique.
You can practice. It could be any of the techniques.
Your arms out.
Again the energy is not side,
It's forward.
Forward, and look away and
Lap Sao here, or go back to Pak Sao.
So for beginner, when you are practicing,
form, slow, forward energy,
focus on going through the dummy,
not the arms, focus on going through the dummy.
Another very good technique or
another thing you can practice
on the wooden dummy is this.
It's bridging the gap
and closing the gap.
Because a lot of times you see...practitioners,
they go around the dummy and their coming this way.
And the wooden dummy this way and that's okay.
One of the things I like to do is bridge the gap.
...could be natural stance.
So let's say we're bridging the gap.
So let's say that I want to do a finger jab.
I want to kind of check in this...the stance like this.
You have to imagine the guy is like this.
I'm here.
Then I want to bridge the gap.
(smacking wood)
Like this. So practice
from natural stance...boop!
Or sometimes I might check the leg first
And then!
So that's another way you can practice.
You can practice outside gate, inside gate
Again, outside gate, inside gate....
So those are some of the techniques and tips for beginners.
How to use, how to properly use the wooden dummy.
(music)