Wooden Dummies for other Martial arts

Wastelander · KF Sensei

As with a lot of the terminology of karate, different people prefer different names for the same thing (uchi-uke vs. soto-uke, anyone?). It is, admittedly, a bit harder in this case, because I have no idea what the word "tou" translates to! As far as I can tell, it's an Uchinaguchi word, not a Japanese one.

It seems, to me, that "tou" is a catch-all category for impact training tools that are post-like and attached to the ground. I have seen the word "tou" used to describe bamboo bundles, solid wooden posts, split wooden posts, and wooden posts with arms. The word "taketaba" literally means "bamboo bundle," and is technically the most appropriate term for that tool. "Ude-kitae" seems to almost exclusively be used to describe a solid wooden post with no arms, but I have also seen it used to describe the bamboo bundles. "Ude-makiwara" is generally used to describe wooden posts that have been split several times down the middle to add flex, and these also do not have any arms. It is fairly rare that I hear someone call a solid wooden post with arms anything other than a "tou," although it does occasionally happen.
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Wado Heretic · Green Belt

Thank you for the clarification; it is perhaps down to who one interacts with that leads to the terminology you encounter. Must admit, my teachers in Okinawa favour the Makiwara, Chiishi, and Nigiri Gami and some western equipment such as kick bags and treadmills. Thus, as you can imagine the talk rarely turns to other types of equipment.
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R. Keith Williams

Alan Armstrong · Black Belt

As great are these training aids are to stike on, or practice blocks on, there is no real equal training, other than another living human being.

Timing and simultaneous impacts come to mind. None of this happens when practicing with a dummy. It is just your timing and your single impact with every technique thrown.

Yes heavy hitting and slipping around wooden arms works on the dummy. Not so with humans.
Unless the real person's fighting IQ is equivalent to the practice dummy.

Never have I felt like I have learned something from practicing ma on a wooden dummy. Yet practicing with another human being, there is always something to be learned or gained.

Wooden dummies are for those that want to pefect something that they already know. The dummy has nothing to teach you, that is why it is called a dummy!

sensei8 · KF Sensei

Shindokan, being a Karate style birthed in Okinawa, trains extensively on the wooden dummy from day one, with the bulk of training beginning at 6th Kyu/Green belt.

Shindokan is Tuite and Tuite, at least the way our founder describes it, is Shindokan; neither can be separated, and if they're separated, then value is loss.

Shindokan lives within the arena of close range, and for us, the closer the better. In that, Shindokan is 85% hands...15% feet, and it's those hands, that we value the training that is received from the wooden dummy.

The transition from the wooden dummy to a live and resistance training partner is quite valuable. While the wooden dummy is just a thing, that thing helps us to understand how to address proactively the intrinsic movements and the like that Shindokan teaches. Transitional movements and training with the wooden dummy provide us another type of a snapshot of how one might address that which assists our Tuite and the like at many different levels, and understandings.

I don't know of many, if any, Karate styles that train with the wooden dummy, but what I do know, is that the wooden dummy is an important tool for us in Shindokan.

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**Proof is on the floor!!!

Alan Armstrong · Black Belt

WCD can be adjusted for height as all opponents are relatively, small, medium or tall.

A WCD is a solitary tool to practice on, if there is no other partner to train with.
It is not however to replace a sparring partner.

As a person adjusts the WCD for comfort right, how can this be right? Opponents are anything other than comfortable.

So much (over) practice (on a WCD) can be misleading to a student. This is why so many of them (students) can get beaten up because they loose the reality check chip.

Now if a WCD was kicking me from time to time, then I would be up for getting one.

Or if grappling arms on a WCD surprisingly appear to grab the back of my legs to throw me down to the ground, while doing a dummy form; that would work for me also.

WCD or punching bags that are arm less and leg less also headless, can seem a little pointless from time to time.

As martial artists we are all still evolving; well some of us think we are...

Alan Armstrong · Black Belt

On the other hand: As the mook jong is a Wing Chun training device, and Wing Chun is a Yin/Yang style then this is an important aspect to remember when using it.

Two fold simultaneously toughening forarms and also developing sensitivity in them.

The mook jong (wooden man) is a Yin/Yang multi tasking teaching device and training partner that is always in class before you and never quits or tires out or gets saggy or lazy, doesn't talk back and has no ego.

For a variety on reasons from every other discipline other than Wing Chun, it seems to be lacking the human element of aliveness as it doesn't hit back, but the same can be said for a punching bag or speed bag and a makiwara board.

The WCD shouldn't replace a living sparing partner just as dancing with a wooden mop isn't advisable at a discotheque either, when practing with the real thing is available.

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