Wing Chun wooden dummy against heavy bag

Almost every martial artist or fighter is familiar with a heavy bag (sometimes also called a punching bag). Even people who are not martial artists or boxers know what a heavy bag is; you see them on TV, in gyms, or hanging from a beam in someone’s garage or basement.

But there is a much lesser known training device that not even many martial artists are aware of: the Wing Chun wooden dummy. A wooden mannequin is a wooden pole that is between 8.5 and 9.5″ in diameter, and has three 12″ arms coming out of it and a wooden leg coming out of the bottom. The arms and legs of the dummy simulate the arms or legs of an attacker and allow the Wing Chun student to practice his techniques against them, with force, without hurting another student.

Since both are used to develop martial arts techniques and power, let’s take a quick look at some of the similarities and differences:

power development – both teams will allow the student to start building more power over time. When a beginner hits a heavy bag, his wrists may bend because they are not used to the force of the impact. Something similar can happen the first time someone hits the body of a mannequin. But over the months, the student will be able to slowly increase the amount of power he uses and his hits will be more effective.

Hardness – Heavy bags are dense, but are usually relatively soft. This softness helps absorb some of the impact of the blow. In fact, a very strong blow will often cause a heavy bag to fold in on itself for a moment as the martial artist’s hand or foot appears to go. within Bag. Wooden dolls are hard. They are made of wood. There is no “give”. While this is good for the arms and legs, which simulate the attacker’s arms and legs (which are also hard), hitting the body is a bit less realistic than with a heavy bag because there is no softness. In fact, you can hurt your hand if you hit the body of a wooden doll too hard before you’re ready. To counteract this, some people wrap a soft cloth around the body to provide a bit of “padding”. This allows harder blows to be delivered with reduced risk of injury to the martial artist.

blocking techniques – a heavy bag isn’t very useful when it comes to blocking, since all you can really do is hit it. A wooden dummy, on the other hand, has arms and legs that can be used to practice blocking. Many of Wing Chun’s techniques involve simultaneous blocks and strikes, and these can be trained on the wooden dummy; one hand blocks one of the doll’s arms while the other hand hits its body. This simulates a situation with a real opponent where there will be real physical feedback when you block their attack and thus provides a more realistic training scenario.

So this is not to say that one is better than the other, just that they have some similarities and differences, and both heavy bags and wooden dummies can be used to enhance a martial artist’s training.