I don't do much kicking and the thought struck me that I could use my Wing Chun dummy to practice my kicks on. After a few beers I created this kicking exercise!
Face the dummy square on, with one hand forward, one back, as in long wu sau, normal wu sau. Step to the left, as in the start of the dummy form, but instead of stepping forward with the right foot, kick the dummy with that right foot. Just a low kick, but make it short and snap it out quickly. Keep you hands up in wu saus as you kick, and immediately after the kick remain balanced and upright. The kick should connect on the dummy with the heel. Shake it, don't break it.
As the right foot comes down after the kick, move into gaan sau, as you would do in the dummy form. You can follow the form here and do a kwan sau after that. After the kwan sau, though, repeat the kicking action on the other side by stepping right with the right foot and kicking the dummy with the left. We're just repeating what we did on the other side now.
Basically, all you're doing is stepping to the left and kicking with the right, then stepping to the right and kicking with the left. Each time you step and prepare to kick, you are facing the dummy but from one side. Doing these movements seems to fit in well witrh the early sections of the dummy form, so why not use something familiar to practice your kicking?
This exercise is one that you can just cycle over and over. When you've finished one kick, step into gaan sau and repeat.
January 31st, 2012 at 12:43 pm
Awesome!!, I also made up a kicking excerise, but having no wooden dummy, i had to be even more creative after a few beers! hehe,
If you stand a small distance away from the bottom of your stair case (facing it) in the goat hearding stance. You want you foot to end mm’s before the start of the step you are aiming for.
First, shift your weight to the left, now raise your right leg and kick with the heel to the second step up… without placing your right foot on the floor, repeat this for a set of twenty, long slow kicks… Do the same on your other leg.
Then repeat on step 3 and if you want, step 4.
It is really good for improving balance during kicks, core stability and ranging, low kicks are close up, higher kicks are further away… give it a go and let me know what you think…
January 31st, 2012 at 11:56 pm
Sounds good, and it’s one of those exercises you can do in anyone’s house! Before I got the dummy, and any time I can’t get to one, I like to do the same on anything upright like a coat stand or the corner of a wall etc. Nice one, ta.