The most beautiful form...

[geezer]

Pardon me for starting two new threads in the same afternoon, but I'm bored and this forum has been a little, well... neglected of late. Anyway, IMHO WC/WT forms tend to look pretty dull, at least to those not involved in the art. We are not about flash, or performing dramatic, imaginary combat. And it shows. But we do have two forms that are really beautiful to watch. One is the two-man Chi-Sau set referred to in my other new post. But that is peculiar to the WT system. And, Chi-Sau in general is pretty cool, but not traditionally held to be a form. So I'll disqualify that.

The other form that even outsiders can appreciate is the "Air-Dummy" set. I guess I never payed much attention to it back when I used to train the dummy, back in the 80s. Then I got out of the martial arts, moved several times, changed careers, started a family, and came home one day to find that my wife had set my dummy out for the Goodwill truck. By the time I rescued it, the leg and stand were gone, and one arm was damaged.

With counseling, my marriage survived. Now, years later, I've returned to training, and am finally back to working the dummy set. But, I still don't have my dummy repaired and set up (we live in a tiny, crowded house). Maybe next month. Seriously.

Meanwhile, I use the dummy at the kwoon and just do the "Air-Dummy" at home, watching my reflection, when I can, in the window of our back arcadia door. And, for the first time I noticed how visually interesting the movements are. It's way more graceful than Chum Kiu or Biu Tze. Especially when someone way better than me does it. (I've been checking out some old clips of my original Sifu, LT doing "Air Dummy" on youtube. Powerful stuff.)

So, do you guys do the "Air Dummy" when you haven't got a wooden one? If so, don't you think it's pretty cool looking stuff? Yeah, I know we aren't about looks, but still...

 

[profesormental]

Greetings.

I though "Air Dummy" was part of training. And it does look better than the other forms (because of the footwork), yet it still looks awkward as far a CMA sets go, since the facing doesn't change.

I've had to do it for lack of dummy, yet I hope to make one again soon... someone cut a trunk of an oak tree near my house and I'm thinking of using that.

Have you tried doing air dummy or actual dummy in a really fluid way (instead of discretely putting force on the dummy arms as many I've seen do)?

THERE it looks very nice!!!

Juan M. Mercado

 

[mook jong man]

I put my reply in your other thread , anyway I do practice the dummy form in the air sometimes , but its no where near as satisfying as using a real one , a bit like playing the air guitar.

No amount of visualisation can replace that instantaneous feedback that you get from training on the dummy , in terms of how much noise you are making on it which tends to signify that you are clashing with the arms .

But I do think the Bil Gee form is beautiful when it is done by somebody good and you can see the speed and power in the elbow rotations , as well as the precision of movement in the rest of the form . Because you know how much work it takes to get to that level.

 

[BFL]

Just a thought that might help - I lived in a tiny little apartment when I first acquired my dummy and had no room for it. My salution was to mount hooks on the inside of my closet and used the lateral slats set into those hooks. I could open the door, lift the dummy, set it on the hooks and work it from there. When done I could set the dummy off to insided the closet and close the door. (I think I have a photo of the set up somewhere if interested). When I moved from the apartment, I unscrewed the hooks from the interior closet frame, used a little wood putty and some paint and voila' - no more dummy and no more holes. Just a thought that might or might not help.
Cheers!
Buzz

 

[geezer]

Just a thought that might help - I lived in a tiny little apartment when I first acquired my dummy and had no room for it. My solution was to mount hooks on the inside of my closet...

Clever! ...So you were a "closet WC practioner".

Well, I've neve actually done the dummy set in a closet, but when I was a grad student in the 80s, I lived in a tiny rented room with barely enough space for my desk, a bureau, and my dummy which hung over the bed. I Remember getting some really odd reactions from a few girls that I invited in. lol. If they didn't run away, I knew things were promising. One ended up becoming my wife!

 

[KamonGuy2]

Forms in wing chun should never look pretty
If they do you're doing it wrong. Flamboyant moves and quick rapid movements are not what the wing chun forms are about

It always saddens me when I watch karate kata competitions and you have gorgeous women (sorry to be chauvenistic) doing forms really fast to dance music. It's martial arts-a-cise at its worse

Saying that (if it makes your confidence in wing chun grow), one of our instructors took bronze at a martial arts festival for the forms/kata competition

http://www.kamonwingchun.co.uk/FeatureSouthEastMartialArtsFestival.asp

(I took gold for self defence)

 

[naneek]

beauty lies in the eye of the beholder geezer, when any form is done well then that to me is a thing of beauty

 

[yak sao]

beauty lies in the eye of the beholder geezer, when any form is done well then that to me is a thing of beauty

I think a person who masters "kung fu" of any type is someone to be admired.
Several years ago I saw a master violinist, who told the audience about a trip he had made to Scotland and how every morning there would be an old man who would walk the shore of this lake and play Amazing Grace on the bagpipes. He said it was the most beautiful and inspiring thing he had ever heard. He said he wanted to share that with us, and proceeded to play Amazing Grace on the violin, and if you closed your eyes you would swear he was playing the bagpipes....one of the best things I have ever seen (or heard)

 

[Nabakatsu]

wow.. thats deep, thanks for that yak sao.

 

[Tensei85]

Sweet Yak Sau and Naneek, awesome posts!

Geezer,
Yea actually I used to practice the "air dummy" all the time well mostly because as most I couldn't afford a Muk yan jong. But it looks great!

One thing we also used to practice is footwork and various training of hands in a pre-set pattern. So we would use a jin ma and bin ma along with the dip jeung and lin fa jeung and go in the direction of a compass as to map out each direction. It wasn't exceptionally flashy but was pretty cool.

Its great to let the Wing Chun speak and be creative!
We all or most have: (depending on Yik Kam or Chi Sim influence or others)
Siu Nim Tau
Cham Kiu
Biu Ji
Muk Yan Jong
Luk Dim Poon Guan
Baat Jaam Dao
(or more)

So its great to develop your own understanding instead of just taking for granted the SNT, CK, BJ as the end all be all of WK. All things evolve why not Wing Chun Kuen? But they are the base however.

Thats just my $.02


p.s. Yik Kam has only one long SNT
Chi Sim doesn't have SNT, CK, BJ but has similar forms like Fa Kuen(Hua Quan), Saam Bai Fut, and Sap Yat Kuen which are similar in a lot ways. They have a lot more forms of course but these are of primary influence.

 

[Domino]

beauty lies in the eye of the beholder geezer, when any form is done well then that to me is a thing of beauty

This
I personally love watching drunken master style.