" The Dragon, Tiger and Phoenix, met in heaven to revive our Shaolin ways"

"Teach your followers righteousness, let each generation up hold and enliven"

This website is dedicated to promotion and preservation of the traditional 
Chinese Martial art of Choi Lee Fut kung fu

Masters of
Choi Lee Fut
Chan Heung
Chan Koon Pak
Jeong Yim
Chan Yiu Chi
Tam Sam
Ho Hgau
Chui Cheung
Chan Hon Hung
Tse Wing Bun
Lee Koon Hung

Choi Lee Fut 
Schools Directory
1. Africa
2. Asia
3. Australia & South Pacific 
4. Europe
5. Latin America & Caribbean
6. North America

Choi Lee Fut Articles
1. Choi Lee Fut 
Kung Fu
2. Chan Heung`s 
Ten Rules
3. The White Crane of Choi Lee Fut
4. The Choi Lee Fut Wooden Dummy
5. No Substitute For Skill

The Ching Jong of Choi Lee Fut Kung Fu

The story of the Choi Lee Fut wooden dummy, and similar training equipment. It is said that the monk Choi Fook taught Chan Heung the techniques. And how to correctly install the equipment,

One of the most popular of all the Choi Lee Fut wooden dummies must be the Ching Jong. Ching which means "balance" and Jong translates as "training device". The Ching Jong resembles a balance scale, an old-fashioned Chinese weight scale where one end is raised or lowered in order to balance the contents and judge their weight.
The Ching Jong dummy has a large wooden arm on its upper section. This upper arm has a short section which protrudes from the rear of the dummy. In the old days, a heavy metal weight was hung from the arm's short rear section.
Thus balanced, the upper arm accounts for the name Ching. There are two arms in the centre section of the Ching Jong dummy. They are smaller than the upper arm and are loosely attached in order to give when struck. They are used to practice blocks and midsection strikes. At the Ching Jong's lower section is a single leg that angles out and down, and is valuable for takedowns and sweeps. Most Ching Jong dummies have seven flat punching bags attached to them. There is one bag on the upper portion, one in the centre, one each on the upper right and left sides, and one on the centre right and left sides.
A wooden dummy also helps students learn to judge distance and focus on the striking area. Since the dummy can't fight back, it won't help timing. However, it will always provide solid resistance to blows.
With the Ching Jong's flat punching bags the practitioner can condition the fists and claw hands, while the dummy's arms toughen the student's arms and palms. Shins and feet are conditioned by sweeping and kicking the dummy's legs.

Advice on Building a Wooden Dummy

Perhaps the dream of every practitioner of Choi Lee Fut is to own their very own Ching Jong. To possess one of these opens a whole New World of training opportunities, especially for those who sometimes do not get the chance to train with have a living training partner. To be capable of committing a large part of your personal training to the forms and techniques of the wooden dummy can only increase your skill, motivation, and understanding of Choi Lee Fut. One word of warning. The construction of such a device will by no means be an easy task. It will require, like Choi Lee Fut itself, a commitment of time, effort, and patience. Nevertheless, to invest these personal assets shows your seriousness for the art and will give you a finished product that should last a lifetime of training.

Do You Have Space?

I suppose the first criteria for constructing such a creature is having enough room to stand and effectively utilise the finished product. You must ensure there is ample room not only for the dummy, but also for yourself to maneuver around it so the techniques can be correctly perform. You do not want to be constantly worrying about hitting a wall or tripping over your furniture. Common sense would object to having it in your living room. Although it would make a fine conversation piece, its aesthetics will not be pleasing to anyone else.

So What Are Your Plans?

You are surely lost without good plans; to make a Jong by approximate measurements is doomed to failure even before you to use your tools. You will be left with, at best, a wooden dummy which is ill-proportioned for the proper execution basic hand techniques never mind the practice of your forms, Your footwork technique, and timing will likely be damaged rather than improved by training on a badly constructed Jong. If you do not have access to any plans, you could take accurate measurements of a completed Jong you have access to (like at your Gwoon).

Top of page

Chan Heung Gong
The Founder of 
Choi Lee Fut 
 

My Sifu, Edmund Ng

This page contains my profile, 
About Me
  My Choi Lee Fut lineage