Wang Kiu Live Dummy - Section 1

Besides the wooden dummy, Wing Chun also has something called the Live Dummy which are just an organized system of drills that come from the wooden dummy or wooden man.

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Master Wang Kiu was an early private student of Grandmaster Ip Man. He often spent time with Ip Man in a local Hong Kong tea houses to discuss various matters concerning Wing Chun or problems that came up with the club.

Wang Kiu already had various conversations with Ip Man before becoming his official student soon after Wong Shun Leung joined. Besides being a private Ip Man student, he also trained with the second official student of Ip Man who was Lok Yiu.

One day after Wang Kiu’s lesson with Ip Man, he was asked by Ip Man if he would like to start learning the Wing Chun wooden dummy movements. At that time Ip Man taught the 108 version of the wooden dummy and later changed it to the 116 version.

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One problem was that the club did not have any wooden dummy yet. But Ip Man said that was no problem because there was also a two people version of the 108 movements wooden dummy that he taught. He called it the Live Dummy meaning the two people version. One is not necessarily better. The two just teach slightly different skills and feel different.

So Wang Kiu said to Ip Man “Do you think I am ready to learn that?” Ip Man said yes. So they started in the restaurant to learn the first movements of the Live Dummy. Soon after Wang Kiu learned this version, the wooden dummy was built and then he also learned the 108 version on that like everyone else.

At this time the wooden dummy and the long pole and the Butterfly knives were not taught to many people. Perhaps it was impractical to do so in the small Hong Kong training spaces or lack of equipment or Ip Man just felt it wasn’t time for everyone to learn it? Wang Kiu didn’t really say what he reason was.

Wang Kiu said the dummy was just a training device that went hand in hand with Wing Chun’s sticking hands. The dummy was meant to train good positioning and footwork. It was not something that you try to smash to bits or break the arms off to impress people in a show. Wing Chun was not designed to impress anyone except by hitting them in a fight.

Both the wooden version of the dummy and the live version had many variations once the basic pattern was learned.

Ip Man was almost like a mathematician some days since he re-organized the training at various times to match the number of movements to the number 108 and to the number eight and the number ten. So the 108 version of the wooden dummy had 108 movements and ten sections to it.

Later he thought that eight section fell more in lines with the other forms so he changed the form by juggling around the pieces to make 8 sections and a total of 116 movements. However both versions are really just as good because they both contain about the same movements except in a few spots.

His 108 version was already a modification and simplification to what he learned in China. Ip Man was always looking for more efficiency and simplicity in his art. He once said that if all the forms could be combined into one form then that would be even better. However each form had distinctly different ideas and that’s why the forms were not left in a combined form as some people thought was the original case. Little is known about all of this.

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Note1: Position 1 is just both partners with the standard pre-dummy movement pose with one hand a Wu sau and the other a Man sau or a Tan sau.

Note2: My version of the two people dummy is shown in the photos section. I was not too concerned with my exact postures so it doesn’t look as good as when my female students did it.

Note3: The demonstrators were Anna Lui and Brian Tong. Both were excellent with their Wing Chun.

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Here I am teaching one of our most dedicated ladies at the time, 20 years ago, how to do the two people dummy form which is called the "Live Dummy." There are many variations to this with different spacing, different techniques for each section, different speeds and forces applied etc. The Live Dummy was a platform for creating all kinds of Wing Chun drills. This was Esther’s first time so we went very slowly and repeated everything many times. Esther was one of the top Conservatory of music piano and also violin teachers. She was also a Fencing instructor. I was very impressed. She stayed with us for more than 10 years before retiring.