Mook Jong material - Wing Chun

[leehoicheun]

I checked out the web site with the PVC dummy. What a piece of junk. Unfortunately a lot of people really don't know the real purpose of a dummy and therefore think creating something that looks similar will do the trick. Even most dummies you see on the market are junk. My suggestion, ask a qualified Sifu about the best option within your family of Wing Chun. They should.... if qualified.... guide you to buying the right equipment.

You get what you pay for: the PVC dummy that guy made was absolutely terrible. For starters the body & arms are too thin. The angles of the arms are all wrong. How is he mounting it? Against the wall, free stand? How is that thing going to withstand the beatings a dummy is subjected to?

I have three dummies and working on a fourth. one is what we call the GREEN MONSTER. Now this dummy is not mine, it belongs to the Jun Fan/Jeet Kune Do instructor of our school. It was built for him as a gift by someone who made it look cool but didn't know the abuse these things take. Therefore it is quite feeble. The second dummy is by Immortal UK. It's not bad, we did a review on it and I expressed my likes and dislikes ( http://www.themartialist.com/1103/immortal.htm ) For the money, it's a good buy and only needs minor tweaking to get it just right. The third dummy is a custom made Ash body Muk Jong that I had made for me by a master wood worker in Victor NY. The plans were given to me by my Sifu which was hand down to him by his. I made one minor change in it's construction.... a steel leg. This is by far my favorite dummy. We are working on getting a fourth from a company called The Great Lion Co. They make true to life, real deal dummies.

You can see video clips of me on the Muk Jong at: http://www.syracusewingchun.com/wcmedia.html

To sum up..... I recommend that you take the time to save the extra money it will take to buy a real quality dummy. You won't be sorry Not only will it last but the fact that it is built correctly will make sure that YOU are using correct angles and force. The reason why wooden dummy is not taught until the final stages of your training is this: You need to have a solid base before working the dummy and you need a solid dummy to develop and preserve your solid base.

Good luck :asian:

 

[sungkit]

I brought my wooden dummy back from in Hong Kong in 1994 after training there and it is still going strong. My dummy was obtained from Sifu Stephen T.K. Chan of the Wing Chun Tak Kwoon and it was the best investment I have made. Besides the training! He had the dummies made to the specifications of the wing chun clan and that is important. Friends of mine in australia wh have had them made there, have always ended up with a product which is not as good or as lasting.

 

[Wanderer]

Here's a link to some plans (rough) for building your own Jong:

http://home.iprimus.com.au/peterlyleward/plans.html

Note: The plans appear as a jong would if you were facing it, ie. the left arm-hole is higher than the right.

 

[HammerFist]

I made my own and I don't mind saying that it turned out great.

I used a pine log for the body and paid a wood worker to make the arms out of oak. I wrote a little article on how I built it. Here's the link: LINK

 

[leehoicheun]

very cool story on your dummy making process. I recently have been in contact with the Great Lion Company. The owner seems to be very knowledgable on Wing Chun as he studies it and that means a lot to me. They are willing to custom make each dummy to fit the particular "family" of WC you practice. This is a plus.

My custom made dummy is still my "baby" but I have found the next best thing in Great Lion.

the three dummies you see in my post above show some extremes. First we have the green monster which was made as a gift by a friend of our Jun Fan/Jeet Kune Do unstructor. This thing is incredibly fragile. I usually only let students practice no-ging (no power) type flow movements on it.... nothing more. The leg is completly wrong and the base while looking good is more in the way then useful. The black Immortal dummy is... well.... ok. The pros of the dummy are the good look and the indestructable construction. You can leave the thing out in the coldest of cold or the rainiest or rain and it won't budge... BUT... the cons are as followed. The body is way too thin which offsets the arms... the arms are too short and not even at all. The base is ok for non-traditional WC'ers but for the rest of us though it is sturdy gets in the way of various footwork and does not offer the live feel that wall mounted dummies offer. My biggest gripe however is that you can not adjust the hieght. The dummy I recieved is too tall for me. All in all.... if a student really wanted one I'd say it's not bad as a starter but in the end... I wouldn't recommend it to serious players. The custom dummy was built to my exact specs and therefore I really can say anything other then... I love it. BUT.... my Sifu wants me to make a few changes. I will ASAP.

again.... congrats on the success of your home made dummy

 

[CuongNhuka]

o.k. This is just what I’ve heard, (I don't think that Coung Nhu teaches wooden dummy stuff, we do have Wing Chun though). Oak is the best for the body, with a cord rapped around the middle, were you would punch. This makes it double as a Makiwara. And the arms should be made of ash. Now this is I highly doubt the correctness; the head level arms should at angles. Left at 45 degrees, right at 22. The body level arm should be straight. And I have no idea on the leg. If this is wrong I would appreciate being corrected. I have heard (some were) that someone has created I kind of kung fu that focuses on using the wooden dummy, and to help with that they made dummies with different arm positions (meaning the arms are going down, and some other things I can’t remember). Weird, but what ever floats your boat. Something I do sometimes, that is roughly based off the idea of a wooden dummy (off subject though) is I’ll take I bo staff (if you don't know what that is, it is basically the six and a half foot pole that Wing Chun does, only a little shorter) and stick it a hole in the wall and practice a blocking movement and entering in to the wall. Very unrealistic, but if you can effectively enter in to a wall after blocking a six foot stick, you can probably do it no problem to a person. Back on subject, I think I heard off someone who took a heavy bag and rammed wooden stakes into it at the same angles as a wooden dummy. I don't think I could do that, or make a normal wooden dummy. Well o.k. I probably could, just not with out hurting myself severely.



Sweet Brighit Bless your Blade,



John

 

[juntao wing chun]

a wing chun school ....

 

[Rhino5]

I know this response is quite outdated. But for those that are wanting to build your own Mook Jong. Use PVC High Pressure Watermain. The regular PVC stuff (Home Depot grade) is too thin in the wall and is generally used for sewer pipe. The high pressure stuff has very thick walls, i.e 8" - 10" main has about 5/8 - 3/4" wall, (for obvious reasons) and is HEAVY. Now I'm not a Wing Chun guy (I'm a FMA guy that likes to use it for my own techniques) but I've built three now for Wing Chun guys and they love them. The arms etc. I get a woodshop to make out of cherry or ash and I let the practitioner dictate where the arms etc. go for their particular body size (short, tall etc..). You can get HP Watermain from any subdivision being built (don't pilfer the stuff!!). Generally there is tons of scraps and cutoffs available on site and if you ask nice the site-super usually lets you take a six-footer (as he'll only have to throw it out!). Hope this helps. Now if you'll excuse me I have to run back over to the Modern Arnis forum....... : - )

 

[Skubysnak]

I never wanted to pay the $600 plus that was advertised online and that didn't include shipping. I just came from the Philippines and was lucky enough to find a guy who took my design, which I got online, and after about 3 attempts, he got it right. I paid a bit over $200, but it's worth way more than that. The wood is too hard, so I have to use small hand pads. Looks great too...

 

[James Kovacich]

Thank you for the info. The ones for sale are a bit outta my price range for now, but definately look good. The plans look pretty useful. Bit plain, but hey, its easy to follow which is good.

Thank you again.

Better late than never!
http://www.wckfc.com/news/dummy/index.htm

 

[Nobody]

I had to make my own Wing Chung dummy an have thought of making the grappling dummy.

grappling dummy site:
http://www.thelivingexample.com/eljefe.html

 

[Nobody]

here is another site that has good ideas for training using less money.
http://www.angelfire.com/ny5/shenandoah/Grunt/grunt.html

 

[tenth1]

very impressed with your home made dummy it looks fantastic, just a question though did you use any kind of varnish or sealer on the body or arms of your mook jong or did you leave them untreated?

 

[profesormental]

Greetings!!!

MAny thanks for the sites!!

I'll have to make a Jefe clone too. I'm looking for a name for mine. Suggestions are welcome.


Just the name made my day!

Juan M. Mercado

 

[CheukMo]

Has anyone built/bought/found a PVC dummy that will take the punishment that a wooden jong will?

 

[DaveyBoy]

For anybody in the UK considering buying a wooden dummy, I recently got a free standing one from http://www.ttwdc.co.uk/. They are beautifully made to the correct specifications and for a similar price to the mass produced ones that I looked at.

The guy that makes them is an extremely nice bloke that you can talk to directly and he was more than willing to accommodate any specific modifications to the dummy.

 

[Andy3012]

Hi there, i was looking at making a Mook Jong - So far i have the main "pole" for the dummy and a couple of narrow (strong) pieces for the "arms". I was wandering what size is preferable for the pole to be.
Mine is only 4inches in diameter and 1ft around - however it is about 5ft8 high - i am 6ft2, and i was just wandering if this would be big enough for me to use.
Also what kind of tools do you guys use for making it (so cutting the holes for the arms to slot into etc)

Many thanks in return

 

[koenig]

www.wingchundummy.net

 

[skatmill]

WOODEN DUMMY SERVICE

wd-service.com

 

[catch]

I built a Mook Jong and it turned out great! highly durable, geometrically accurate and can take a beating!