Every year, Sifu Chua will hold a special class on wooden dummy for all his beloved students.
This class is not just about the moves but more on the angle of the body structure together with the moves to optimize the efficiency of attacks and defence simultaneously. There are many ways to train with the wooden dummy. As there are more senior students in this class, Sifu Chua revealed that the essence in the Wing Chun Dummy's moves lies in the way that the form teaches how to direct and not block attacks. The wooden dummy form prepares students to deal with any confrontation.
The first level of the form is to familiarize students with a typical confrontational scenario. It also allows students to experience the hardness that they will be dealing with. From here, the form is categorized into several levels which are branched out from each new interpretation of the form. Sifu Chua always stresses students to learn the basic moves before experimenting the moves with their own interpretation.
"You still can go wrong even though you execute the right moves, or rather you can get the result even though the moves are executed wrongly" asserted Sifu Chua which confuses all the students. Sifu Chua then continue to expound that "there are no wrong moves as long they deliver the expected result". There are many times that students may be executing the right moves but not getting the result intended. In every move, there are many factors that come into play. The height, mass, body structure, strength, flexibility, the coordination of the muscles are just some of the factors that need to be in perfect symphony for each move.
Sifu reiterates " The Wooden Dummy Form doesn't teaches you how to fight. It forces you to learn how to be a martial artist." Those who fight in a confrontation relies heavily on speed and mass - not much skill is required. "A martial artist just moves into a fight and decide if he wants to finish the fight or continue to play with you!" grinned Sifu Chua.