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I worked out at Kung Fu school that had a small Wing Chun class. The owner of the school, who wasn't a Wing Chun stylist bought the a dummy he saw online and it was rather unusable for WC because like the dummy pictured above the arms were way to far apart. So if you are looking at buying a dummy, keep that in mind LOL.
I don't know how true that is...Because the WC system has elements of Crane, Snake and Bak Mei or Pei Mei with in. So one would think that a regular hung gar dummy would be useable and same measurements as well...
I didn't see a problem with the dummy until I tried doing the first dummy form and found myself having to take a huge steps to get around the arms. To sum it up, I was pretty much breaking ideal foot work to make the form work.
IMO, that made the dummy unusable because I went from stepping to basically jumping.
Okay maybe some Hung Gar schools used different types of dummies. Because the ones I seen are alot similiar to the same ones I saw in this WC school. As well as the same ones My Sifu has.
I could be wrong....I have to do more research I suppose. There are other variations out there. But the three arms and one leg dummy that WC uses I have not seen an alteratation with Hung Gar yet...
Even the videos I see people using the Mook Jong...it is basically the same thing!
I'm really confused at what point you are trying to make, so let me explain in greater detail of what was different with the dummy I was using that stopped me from being able to use it effectively for the dummy form.
Here's an image of the dummy I was referring too with the same arm spacing.
http://www.tentigerskungfu.com/lft_hd_ld_dummy.jpg
Yes. At first it seems very similar one might expect with a Wing Chun dummy. But do you notice the angles of the arms? The tips of the arms are too far apart from each other. If you would to stand on top of the dummy and look down the base of the arms would be in a 90 degree angle to each other. That spacing is incompatible with WC stepping. How's that? As I explained before, this spacing was lead to the dummies arm being dead center with my sternum after stepping to the side, and stepping in with the tahn and low palm.
Now I have never seen a dummy with the arms that far apart, most I have seen are in the 45 degree range or less, drastically different than 90. Of course you have to also factor in the spacing of the holes on the dummy's body for the arms, most are around an inch. If you scroll up and see the pictures in another post you will see the difference in spacing.
Was the dummy I was working on for Hung Gar? I don't know, it could of been made for Wing Chun by somebody who didn't do Wing Chun, but between the pictures and videos I've been viewing online it seems Hung Gar favors arms that are set wider apart.
From what I have seen the Hung Gar dummies can vary but usually have a heavier arm that pivots up & down and the Hung Gar dummies do not have the same arm configuration. Look at the site for Great Lion where Master Thorton makes many dummies. You will see.
and don't forget Choy Loy Fut....
I have another question on the wooden dummy. Why are the arms on the dummies different between makers? some are level with eachother and other makers have the arms 1 a little higher than the other.
but then both types are called Traditional Wing Chun dummies.
I didn't see a problem with the dummy until I tried doing the first dummy form and found myself having to take a huge steps to get around the arms. To sum it up, I was pretty much breaking ideal foot work to make the form work.
IMO, that made the dummy unusable because I went from stepping to basically jumping.
Although not having seen a Hung Gar dummy up close, I use one built for the Pan Nam system and the arms are a bit further apart then a typical Y.M. dummy. I have not had any issue with performing the Y.M. form thus far. I examined my footwork closely after reading your post and found I had no problems with having to take huge steps or break ideal footwork but perhaps it's a height issue or just not as far apart as the hung gar dummy?
I also noticed you stated the first dummy form, other than having differences perhaps from family to family does your family have more than one dummy form or did I simply misunderstand?
With respects,
Buzz