FAQs

• How do I mount my Wing Chun dummy? do I mount my Wing Chun dummy?

Required Space
Be sure you have room to train before you mount your Muk! The arms extend from the wall approximately 24”. This means you will may require a five foot section of wall to mount the dummy. Some people mount them in less (my son put his between a door frame and a closet, using about 24 inches of wall). Floor space is the key. Allow yourself at least four feet off the wall for training space. If you are practicing most kung fu styles this is about right. Other disciplines using extended kicking techniques are going to want more.

Mounting Concerns
Your muk is designed to mount into wooden studs. Most houses have studs 16” on center. You have to find and verify exactly where the studs are in your wall. This is critical. If your wall does not have wooden studs 16" on center, you have to let us know what you do have. We can make adjustments for your needs.

Please consider electrical wiring, plumbing and telephone lines are inside your walls. Sorry, without actually seeing the wall we can't safely predict what's inside it. If you have doubts, find someone to ask.

Your martial arts school is the best place to start if you don't know someone already. There's always someone in a school who works construction, does electrical work or is a handyman. If there's not someone in your school who does these types of things, somebody there knows someone who can. This is a pretty easy call for someone with the proper knowledge, they just have to see where you want it.

Unusual Request
Got the yearning for the muk but you want to mount it someplace other than a wall. We want to hear about it. If you have a pole, beam or different type of wall let us know. We have faced quite a few mounting challenges and we will work with you.

Each muk comes with a mounting and care manual (with lots of pictures). Our goal is happy customers. We welcome the opportunity to know to the people who use our muks Please contact us with any questions.

• What is 'report'?

Report refers to the sound the dummy makes as you execute techniques. The report depends on several things: the type of material the dummy is made out of, the tolerance between the arms and body, and correct energy transfer. A muk with fixed arms, poor ceiling, etc. cannot give a good report.

At a seminar, my Guru told us that he could work his form on his dummy while his Sifu was doing something else. His Sifu would say "Ah,ah,ah…you missed…" (a certain technique). He could tell by the sound alone whether technique was right.

Without the capabilities of good consistent report, the practitioner cannot tell if the energy transfer of the technique is correct or not. Our dummies cradle the solid oak arms in schedule 40 PVC pipe. The report is a sharp audible crack. It is not excessively loud, but it is distinct.

• What is ceiling?

It is best to explain ceiling by telling you how to check it. Simply hold the ends of the arms of the dummy with the fingers of an open hand. Lift the arm towards upwards (toward the ceiling) and observe the play. Kind of bounce it to get it's feel. It should have a good area of travel, it should feel loose and cradled by the body.

• Is it important which arm is on top?

That is something we have looked into and it depends who you ask.

We originally manufactured muks with the right arm higher. Then we were asked to make the left arm higher, so we did. There are others who are adamant that both arms be exactly even or the dummy is not considered a "true wing chun dummy." My Guru told me, "don't worry about that."

It is important that the dimensions and spacing of the arms and legs and the mounting height is right for an individual. Like most manufacturers, our muks use the same design which has been used for centuries. Once mounted correctly, trapping, sweeping and striking can be accomplished at the same time.

We really don't want to offend anyone—they have reasons for their opinions—but to us this seems to be tempest in a teapot. If the dummy is close to the correct height, the arm positions will not effect your training experience.

• Why oak arm and legs?

  1) Because oak has the highest strength rating we could find for this application without using exotic woods which are disproportionately expensive.

  2) Because the wing chun dummy is a percussion instrument. Oak sounds better than anything else we tried.

  3) Because oak is easily maintained. Wipe tung oil on it and it will look as good or better than the day you got it.

  
  Wouldn't a wood body be better?

  Yes and No.

• We are aware of the time and energy that goes into creating a wing chun dummy and anyone, including us, will be proud of their product. When manufacturers are creating an item using the same basic design, they are going to feel the quality of their product is in the material used and the craftsmanship of it's construction. The quality of muk jong varies from manufacturer to manufacturer.

• There are excellent wooden body wing chun dummies on the market. For some martial artist nothing less will do. Ultimately the martial artist who owns the muk is the only one qualified to say what is the best for him or her. We will explain the priorities that drove our design process and let you decide.

• A large mounting system is impractical for most people. This led to the development of the Chi-Return Pat.Pend. Mounting System which created a need for a much lighter body. We chose Schedule 40 PVC: it is impact resistant, easily maintained and gives an excellent report when used with the oak arms and legs.

• PVC allowed us to drive down our price so more people can afford to train on a muk. We wanted the training experience to be as effective is the best muk we ever trained on, we feel we have exceeded our own expectations.

• What is the "Chi-Return" ? Pat. Pend.

It is a counter spring mounting system. On a well made traditional wing chun dummy you can kick the leg without the top of the dummy moving back and forth. And you can hit the head portion of the dummy without the bottom moving in and out. The angle of the body changes but the other end rotates on the slats.

To accomplish this traditional slats are usually a 1" X 2" about 6 feet long. When you strike or drive into the dummy they flex. On some designs people have actually broken slats or dislodged them from the upright post they go through. This is why Sifus don't like inexperienced students beating up their wing chun dummies. Of course the other reason is the student is probably strong arming the techniques, not the way he was shown. Other designs shorten the slats to stop avoid this but the tradeoff is the flex.

Martial-Quest Still has about 2" of lateral travel on the slats the same as most traditional muks Kick, hit, pull and drive all you want, the dummy goes right back to where it was and stops as fast as you release.

The Chi-Return is simply not going to break and it will never slow you down.