If you do any kind of martial arts sparring, you know that protective gear is of the utmost importance. Any man who has the stones to go into a sparring match without a cup on, won’t have them for very long. There’s protective gear like the heavily padded “foot gloves” that I wear when I’m teaching, so I don’t accidentally do a spin kick and take someone’s head off when they miss a block. But the protective gear I want to sing the praises of today are the martial arts sparring shoes.
Now, I use the martial arts shoe for two very simple reasons. The first is that after I did a series of practice bits against a wooden “sparring dummy”, I walked out of the dojo on several bone-deep bruises in my feet. Now, bruises are the price you pay for any contact sport, including martial arts. Even a little bit of padding would’ve kept me from walking funny for two days. My friends and co-workers were making fun of my little mincing steps to avoid putting weight on the tops of my feet from a particularly nasty bruise – almost a break in the bone.
The foot has so many small bones. And almost no meat. No fat. No protection. Poor bloodflow. At least mine do. Pain sticks attached to my ankles!
I guess I’m a slow learner. Two weeks later, I did the same practice drill and about pulped my big toe when I mis-judged the distance to the wingchun wooden dummy on a kick – instead of hitting it with the arch of the foot, I did a direct “full force kick” with the point of contact centered on the toe. The joint popped, the toe swelled up to twice its size, and only pure blind luck kept me from having a fracture.
OK, so kicking wooden dummies in bare feet is a dumb idea….
I went looking for things to save me from my own stupidity and found martial arts sparring shoes. Now, those sparring shoes are different from tourney foot pads. They’re light enough that you won’t develop compensatory habits to adjust for the weight…and while they don’t offer as much protection, it’s the difference between kicking a wooden dummy with your bare foot and kicking it with a pair of tennis shoes on.
On top of that, they also improve traction on the ground, and stability when doing routines and drills. Given how much I like Kung Fu styles, and how acrobatic they are, that extra traction was very appealing. While it’s not fun to be thrown on your ass by a sparring partner, it’s even less fun to do it on your own because you slipped.
Plus, to be honest, it was good to come home from a session in the dojo without feeling like I was being a sniveling, whiney brat because my feet hurt. Trust me, these things saved my marriage – my wife was making fun of my new “dance steps” when I was busy beating the crap out of my feet and whining about it when I had to take out the garbage.
Didn’t I mention I can dance? That’s for another article. She saw Dancing With The Stars and it was over. I don’t know what hurts more, learning to tango or kicking that wooden dummy!

I have always been a huge martial arts fan. From watching all those cheesy dubbed films from the seventies as a kid, to watching Jackie Chan kick some tail, I have loved it all. I remember thinking, man, wouldn’t that be so great if I could do that stuff? Like fly over some tables and knock the stuffing out of the bad guys? Or take on thirty fighters at once and creamed them easily? How cool is that?
Alas, it was not to be back then. You know how life is, one thing leads to another and then another. You forget about all the crazy little dreams you had as a kid because you have responsibilities as an adult. Don’t we all have them? You have to work. At a real job. Not some fun job where you do what you want but a job that pays the bills. I did it just like most people do.
But get this. I found a great way to follow my dream of being a hard swinging Kung Fu artist by watching these awesome movies. The kung fu style is called Wing Chun and they are something else! I tell you, these are so fun to watch, so thrilling, I can not imagine being without them.
Believe it or not, you can learn everything you need to know about how to fight in martial arts by watching these movie clips. This style is the major southern Chinese style that was perfected by Bruce Lee himself and now it is available to us in the United States. What a wonderful invention the DVD player is! I get to train and focus my energy like I never thought I could. Without these videos and Wing Chun movie clips, I never would have the time or money to learn these techniques.
Going to a local place, a dojo if you will, costs a lot of time and money. Time and money I do not have. What better way to kick some tail than by staying at home and having all the time I need? This is the best way I have ever seen to learn how to master the art of martial combat. The movie clips are easy to watch, fun and entertaining. It may seem too easy, too simple, but in my experience, the best things in life are just that: simple.
I found myself growing stronger and stronger each day as I watched these movie clips. The instructions were easy to understand and easy to follow along. I never felt rushed or under pressure like I might at a fighting studio. It is a great feeling, knowing I am following my dream every time I turn on the TV and start learning Wing Chun martial arts.

I am a sucker for anything related to Kung Fu. Especially when it comes to discovering the various art forms of real fighting. I started watching these awesome kungfu videos months ago and I got really passionate about fighting. My skills have dramatically improved. The thing is, I was starting to feel a bit bored after a while. There is only so much you can do with punching and kicking nothing but air.
But check this out. I got into something pretty awesome. It is called the Wing Chun Dummy and this thing is the real deal. This is how it all works. The Wing Chun Dummy is a wooden training dummy designed to be used by martial artists to increase power, strength and overall ability in any fighting arena. If you think fighting a wooden dummy is silly, think again. If you think your hands and shins are tough, brother are you in trouble!
Basically, you just whack the heck out of this thing and act like it is an opponent. Pretty fun, if you ask me. One solid word of advice though: make sure you know how to hit this thing because, if you don’t know what you are doing, it will hurt! Trust me, I learned real fast how much damage you can do to yourself if you don’t learn the right way to hit a wooden dummy. It is not like it can hit back, but still, it is a hard, compact piece of wood we are talking about here. Be careful. Expect to bruise and even bleed your first few sparring sessions. I’m not joking.
So I start beating on this thing for a while and watching the dummy training DVD at the same time and within days, I start feeling stronger. My muscles felt harder, denser and better able to take punishment. I felt like I could take on anything! My endurance was amazing after only a few weeks. It was incredible. I had plenty of war wounds, namely bruises on my shins and elbows, but the increase in ability was worth it. The first time you kick this thing full power, you’re gonna squeal like a little karate girl. The shin bone has no meat on it. But it gets tough, quick. You can strike much harder than you can a human in practice. Just imagine how much power you can generate in your back, shoulders and triceps…fearsome stuff.
It was also a nice change of pace from the same old kung fu training DVDs I have been watching before. Don’t get me wrong, those things are great and got me to where I am today. But, after a while, it is good to step it up a notch and try new things. It worked for me. I started looking forward to training more and more each day, even with some of the self-inflicted beatings I was taking.
Another technique used on the dummy is the act of finger striking. This has always been one of my favorites. I remember watching a movie when I was a kid and this guy practiced poking this wooden board over and over and eventually was able to really smash someone with them and crush their windpipe. Now, I am not advocating hurting anyone, but I always wanted to be able to have that kind of power in my fingertips. Thanks to the Wing Chun Dummy, I have it and more.
Power, speed, technique, even toughness…all is possible by training with a wing chun dummy. The ancient kung fu masters have sworn by it for 5 centuries, who was I to argue?