I finally got around to re-mounting my homemade mook jong. Above is a photo I snapped with my trusty iPhone. Someday I hope to be able to mount it to a concrete wall. Mounted to a wall made of wood and drywall means that I cannot punch or kick with extreme prejudice. In turn, this means that I often stop the form and walk over to my freestanding bag so I can “feel” the strike.
The college has a construction program so one option I’ve considered is to have the students build me a real wooden dummy. Typically such arrangements mean that the program will just charge for the materials. The other option is to just order a bag attachment. We shall see…
Bastardized Dummy Form:
I forgot most of it, however, it’s coming back slowly. I am glad that I have notes and grainy video of teacher demonstrating the form or I’d be done. Right now I’ve resurrected the first quarter of 100 or so moves. My plan is to practice and refine the first quarter and then move on to the next quarter.
The dummy is great for maintenance and refinement of techniques. Also, frequently I’ll step out of the form and freestyle techniques from taekwondo, boxing, or some other art. The only thing missing is a partner to practice some of the two-person form drills with.
Freestyling on the dummy:
Just head over to YouTube and search for “freestyle mook jong” or “freestyle wooden dummy.” Doing so will result in dozens of videos demonstrating Wing Chun and other martial arts styles thinking outside of the box.
Here are two of my favorites:
This one moves fast, however, it’s mostly an adaptation of classical Wing Chun with some extras.
Now the chicken coop wooden dummy may get some purists in a bind. However, it cracks me up and I do like it. I’m guessing with references to cat stance and crane stance that this guy is from karate or kung fu. Regardless, he’s come up with a unique way to practice alone and for that I salute him!
-BCP
Mounted to wall — If you mounted it to two horizontal 4″ x 4″s, with the 4″ x 4″s lag-bolted to about three studs on either side) — I doubt you have the power to tear down the wall…
Chicken coop — neat-o! He’s dressed kung fu, not karate, IMO. (My Hung-Gar instructor used to dress like that — and in my experience, kung fu guys tend to dress in black.) –GG
Right now we are renting so I can’t get too crazy on the wall. As for the chicken coop, yeah, I bet you are right. It’s neat to see someone from a different style of kung fu utilize a wooden dummy!
Dummy: This is possibly more work than you’re interested in, but: make a rectangular frame of 2″x4″s or 4″x4″s, pressed against the wall but free-standing, about six feet long (i.e. 3 ft on either side of the dummy); buy two or four of these used 55 gallon drums (no affiliation) (http://www.bayteccontainers.com/55galfdareop.html) — Google says they should be about 2ft diameter by 3 ft high — and bolt them to the ends of your framework; Google says a gallon of sand is about 12.5 lbs, so after many bags of “sandbox” sand, a pair of 55 gallon drums would max out at 1,350 lbs — probably **not** gonna shift during even the most vigorous of workouts! Or, fill ‘em half full, which is around 700 lbs — still pretty good. Or use the 20 gallon drums — http://www.bayteccontainers.com/20-gallon-blue-plastic-drum.html — which would be 2 x 20 x 12.5lbs = 500lbs — still fairly stable.
If the barrel had small openings, you’d have to lay out the sand to dry for a week or so. And you’d have to use a 2L pop bottle as a funnel and shovel it in — a workout in itself.
Again, a fair amount of work. But, scaleable, and modular (you could disassemble it when you moved — undo the bolts, drain the sand…).
–GG