Customer Reviews

116 Wing Tsun Dummy Techniques

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

116 Wing Tsun Dummy Techniques demonstrates the authentic movements of Grandmaster Yip Man's wooden dummy form and offers explanations in a clear-cut format. Following the form demonstration, each section of movements is broken down and the method for applying these movements in fighting is shown. Prof. Leung Ting, who co-authored, edited, and published this book, produces some of the finest kungfu books available. This book is recommended for students of all ranks and levels who are interested in seeing the authentic demonstration by the late grandmaster, Yip Man.

If you've never done Wing Chun before & would like to get a dummy & learn the dummy form, this book is probably a waste of your time. The first half of it is mostly just still-frames taken from a film of Ip Man doing his dummy form. This film was never intended for people to "teach themselves". Rather, the film was taken as a reference for people who've already had training in Wing Chun. The film was also made so that students could tell whether or not a given instructor was really teaching Ip Man's Wing Chun, so they could discern real Wing Chun instructors apart from the liars, fakes, and the blatantly unqualified. So don't get this book with the intention of using it to teach yourself the Wing Chun dummy set from the ground up - Wing Chun is a lot like law: "The man who represents himself has a fool for a client", and "The man who trains himself kung fu has a fool for a sifu". For instance, you might be able to learn the sequence of positions, but this book will leave you clueless as to how to move from one position to the next. It tells you nothing about how fast you should & shouldn't move, or how to deliver force, for example.

That being said, the 2nd half of the book is examples of application of each movement in the dummy set. If you already train in WC, there's a good chance you'll see one or two things in this section that'll surprise you. The rest you'll probably already know, but reinforcement never hurt anyone.

So if you already do Wing Chun, this book is a must-have, & completely lives up to its intended purpose. Use it as a handy reference while learning the form. And check the form in this book against what you're being taught at your school - if there's a few minor differences, that's no big deal (for instance, I do Ip Ching Wing Chun, & Ching has changed a couple little things - like replacing a tan sau with a lop sau in one of the movements). Little changes here-and-there are no big deal, but if your Ip Man lineage Wing Chun school's dummy set is radically different than this, you can be sure that whatever they're teaching didn't come from Ip Man - they changed it, or never knew it in the first place & made a bunch of stuff up.

Also, if you come from a Wing Chun lineage other than Ip Man, you'll find this book interesting. It's always neat to see how other traditions do things (at least I think it is).

That's about it: Highly recommended for any WC practitioner at any level.

For non-WC practitioners, there's no substitution for real, hands-on instruction, but if you must learn from a book or video there are more useful introductory books & videos out there. For videos, start with Wong Shun Leung's "The Science of In-Fighting". For books, look no further than Wayne Belonoha's "Wing Chun Compendium".

This book contains Master Yip Man's complete 116 move wooden dummy kata. Each of the moves is shown with an excellent picture and clear instructions. This is probably the best way to improve one's infighting techniques. The book is written by the master's son, Master Yip Chun using photographs that his father had originally had taken to leave for his students. An essential book for kung fu students.

I recommend this book to Wing Chun/ Wing Tsun practitioners of all lineages. Yip Man performing the Mook Yan Jong makes this book a necessity for the historical aspects alone. The 116 move form may be different than the 108 that many have trained in. There are more similarities than differences and I would not recommend trying to learn a form from any book. There are some newer books out there that explain the form better than this but the special binding and photos make this a book that will eventually become a collectors item.

This book can be used as reference for anyone that practices the Mook Yan Jong or are in the process of learning it. A qualified Sifu is necessary for learning the form and it's applications which may take time to find. Quite a few teachers have not mastered the internal aspects of Wing Chun and add techniques from other styles that they've studied rather than teach strong simplified basics that can later be adapted or modified. The techniques of Wing Chun do not take long to learn but the principles take a long time to internalize.

The main principles of Wing Chun are simplicity, directness, economy of movement, minimum use of brute strength (li), full use of body leverage, physics and internal power (Ging) and practicality. There are a few Grand Masters that claim their lineage is the best but the fact is, Yip Man changed his teachings over the course of his life. Different disciples have also changed their teachings so the teaching methods will vary.

Bruce Lee's teachings went from traditional to JKD from the time he left Hong Kong until his untimely death. Bruce ended his Wing Chun study at the Chum Kiu level When he left China. Bruce Lee's first student in the US, Jesse Glover put out a self published book about Bruce's first years in the US and stated that Bruce mainly spoke about the effectiveness of "Tai Chi Chuan" (misspelled as "Tai Chia" in Glover's book) among all of the Chinese arts he had studied.

There are many performers of Wing Chun but few artists. Martial Arts is not strictly "unarmed combat" and in the real game of life I would choose a weapon that is best suited for the the worst possible scenario. An AR-15 type pistol (.223/5.56 NATO) does not take a long time to master. For unarmed fighting in a cage I would choose BJJ, Muay Thai and Boxing for their effectiveness and practicality. Comparing apples to oranges is useless and as unproductive as debating religion and politics.

This is an amazing book for any beginner of Wing Chun, and I say this being a beginner myself. The format of the book first shows the pictures of the techniques as demonstrated by Master Yip Man on the Dummy, then shows all of the same techniques in pictures as demonstrated by his son Yip Chun against another person. So you get to see how to practice the techniques on the Dummy, and then the practical application of the techniques against a person.

This book is mostly pictures, which I find extremely helpful for beginning any martial arts technique on your own. Of course this book will not allow you to become a master of Wing Chun in itself, but for practicing this is a great alternative to begin learning the muscle movements and motions. The book also includes information on building the Dummy, and history of Wing Chun and Master Yip Man. This helps to really round-out the book and I feel makes it a must-have for any Wing Chun/Kung Fu enthusiast!

This a great book for someone who wants to learn the wooden dummy techniques. The book has many pictures of Grandmaster Ip man and Ip Chun. This book shows step by step of wooden dummy techniques and their applications.

This is from the main branch of the wing chun tree.
Get a dummy and a good instructor, and follow this manual.

THIS IS THE REAL DUMMY FORM OF YIP MAN! AUTHENTIC! LOOK FOR THE MPEG CLIP OF YIP MAN DOING THE DUMMY SET. THIS IS IT. HIS SUN DID A GOOD JOB FILLING IN MISSING PHOTOES. COMPLEAT EAST TO READ. I LERNED THIS SET IN 3 WEEKS IN MY SPARE TIME IT IS NOT EASY BUT WORTH IT TO MAKE YOU DEVELOP GOOD BODY MECHANICS. GET IT LERN IT APPLY IT!