The wooden man
Most traditional martial arts of the Far East involve practice against a “wooden man” ( “mu ren zhuang” or “muk yan jong” ) – a dummy that serves as a kind of “striking target”. My favourite kicking tree - circa 1987 The earliest version of this “wooden man” was almost certainly just a tree or sapling, but ultimately it evolved into something with a striking surface that was a little more uniform (the bark of a tree can be a little unforgiving) and a little more convenient (finding the right tree is okay if you live near a a forest, but try finding one in a city!). The other issue with trees is that they don’t tend to have much “give”; even a sapling is not that different to a brick wall when it comes to receiving the average punch or kick. Hitting something with that much inertia can be quite unsatisfying (to say nothing of damaging to the body)! Early in our careers my brother and I discovered that Australian paperbark saplings were a reasonable tree for kick...