Wing Chun – My Martial Art of Last Resort?

I had a little bit of an injury recently for a week or so which threw me off my usual routine. Being unable to do many movements that I do a lot of, like deep kung fu stances and squats in Crossfit, was an interesting experience, which I nonetheless hope not to repeat. From the Crossfit perspective, I ended up doing even more pull-up type stuff since that does not tax the glutes/hamstrings much, if at all. From the kung fu perspective, however, whole styles were basically beyond my reach since I could not do deep stance work. For sure, I walked through some of my regular material, simply avoiding the deep stance work, but this was even less than treading water, far from satisfactory.

But then, there was my mook. If you don’t know, the mook is a wooden practice dummy, most commonly associated with Wing Chun, although traditionally I believe that it is also used by some other kung fu styles. My knowledge of Wing Chun is admittedly pretty limited. My first kung fu instructor taught Wing Chun, although with an “internal” spin which I think is fairly different from a lot of Wing Chun out there. But I don’t really know since that is the only Wing Chun that I ever studied formally and I never progressed beyond the first form for a variety of reasons. (My current Instructor does not teach Wing Chun.) Despite my limited exposure, Wing Chun always resonated with me. And I always appreciated the compactness of the style. The first form involves hardly any footwork. I practiced it extensively during a period of about six months when my practice space was limited to a small extra bedroom while we were doing house renovations.

Because of my liking for Wing Chun, and because he thought it would be an interesting project, my husband made us a mook several years ago. For a while, I practiced with it quite consistently, teaching myself the basic form and techniques from a classic book that we have, as well as various YouTube videos. I enjoyed working with the mook, but ceased to practice at some point for reasons that I can’t even recall.

Anyway, the mook does not require deep stances, so when I was looking for something to work on which would not worsen my injury, it seemed like a natural choice – and also a whole lot of fun as it turns out. There is something enormously satisfying about whacking on the dummy, sliding around it, striking to produce a certain cadence/vibration, and developing the timing. It is quick and clear.

Maybe the martial art of last resort, i.e. the one that I turn to when I lack space or lack ability due to injury, is actually the best martial art of them all for me? Also, at least according to legend, Wing Chun was developed by a woman. Just another reason to love it more.