20 arms Wooden Dummies, it is one of the best invention ever created. It is a well balanced piece of equipment and it can be practice by everyone. Training Fighters on the 20 Arm Dummy By Calasanz In the early 80’s, I challenged myself to prepare, in three months time, a group of street fighters to compete in the black belt division of a local touranment. As I was thinking through my strategy to accomplish this, I noticed that, back then, many tournament competitors lacked coordination and were sloppy fighters. This is often true of street fighters…they have the guts and will definitely hurt you, but lack technical skills. I looked at the traditional wooden dummy I had mounted on the wall in my dojo and had an idea. I decided to expand the traditional wooden dummy to help my students improve their fighting skills. To prepare them for the tournament, I wanted them to learn how to strike from different angles and to properly judge distance. To do this, I had to get very creative. I drafted plans for a 20 Arm Wooden Dummy and called a carpenter. I got the idea from on the traditional wooden dummy or mook jong used in Wing Chun class. Wing Chun master, Yip Man, created the traditional wooden dummy as a training tool for practitioners. A staple in any Wing Chun class, the wooden dummy is basically a post with protruding “arms” and “legs” so you can simulate fighting a real opponent. It is a great training aid not just for Wing Chun students, but any martial artist who wants to practice different combinations of punches, strikes and kicks. It also develops blocking skills and practice close quarter fighting techniques. The main difference between my 20 Arm Wooden Dummy and the traditional mook jong is that with mine, you train to fight in four directions on five opponents. I came up with this idea from my days of growing up on a farm in the Dominican Republic. My family grew coconut and coffee bean trees. In the meantime, I had been exposed to martial arts through movies and would practice the kicks I saw on the screen on the trees. While standing in the midst of all the trees and shrubery, I let my imagination run wild and made believe I was surrounded by multiple opponents who were hell bent on attacking me. I would get in the middle of three and attack, punching and kicking the trunks, leaves, twigs and branches while going from tree to tree. I’d hit big trees, little trees and everything in between. I would purposely swing the branches, putting them in motion so I could practice bobbing, weaving and evading my opponents’ attack. I knew my training worked when I actually had to use it on the street. I came to the defense of a woman being harrassed by this jerk who was much bigger and stronger than me. My father was a very traditional male who believed that it was a man’s responsibility to protect a woman. I wasn’t going to let this guy insult her so I went after him. Taking this guy down was just like hammered those tree trunks on the family farm! Little did I know that years later, I would apply this principle in an interesting way. Ultimately, we constructed a valuable training device. The 20 Arm Wooden Dummy frame consists of four corner posts plus a traditional dummy that is mounted to the floor for stability. In addition to including the traditional wooden dummy in my new design, the four corner posts have several “arms” and “legs” attached to each post so you can attack or defend. This allows you to fight at different angles. You also build up your arms and legs by absorbing the shock of striking the various parts of the dummy and your cardiovascular fitness by quickly moving from one post to another. Once it was finished, I immediately put this training tool to work. I was able to get these guys ready in three months by having them practice on the 20 Arm Wooden Dummy. I also supplemented their training with some traditional Wing Chun. I was pleased with the results as many of the fighters won first place in their divisions. The 20 Arm Wooden Dummy has proven to be an effective training tool in preparing fighters for competition. From my days on the farm, I was able to create a group of “training partners” that never get tired, will train at any time of the day or night and are always ready to work out! If you’d like to actually see how the 20 Arm Wooden Dummy looks and watch an actual workout on it, check out the opening moves in this video: youtube/watch?v=On20ERxfAzU&feature=related
Posted on: Wed, 29 Oct 2014 18:44:22 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015