after seeing replies I researched the prices and it looks like the submission master has gone down a bit and the bubba dummy has gone up. But there both at least half a G which is just ridiculous. Especially when for about 100 to 150 bucks you can invest the time and effort to make something that is so much more versatile. Not to mention the shipping!
My gripes with the sub master is the bottom half. The legs and hips are just to stiff in my opinion. It's good for top game, and situations when guys are sitting on there butt, but any open guard techniques where guys are standing, on one knee, or practicing escapes, both dummies fall short. The weight factor of both are a bit unrealistic as well. It's like grappling a freshman in highschool as opposed to any live situation which has weight and pressure. I'm currently adjusting the chest plate on my diy dummy and will post vids that demonstrate why with a little time and effort you can truly build something that's high quality for about a 1/3 of the price. As I said my dummy is easy 100 pounds or higher and has a bottom half that can simulate situations when your opponent has lockdown, standing in ur open guard, on one knee, x guard, top game and other defensive situations when your opponenet is not just gonna sit on his knees. playing lockdown or half game on it is alot more realistic because all major joints have been considered and the weight adds a lot more pressure.
If you wanna try or feel skeptical here's a list of materials I used:
The skeletal frame is made of Industrial electric cable, I think it's 20x40x60 guage or something like that. It's 3 bucks a foot and depending on how you decide to design the skeleton may be the biggest investment. i would get about 15 ft or so, maybe more to be safe. It's a total of three cables two are really thick (maybe the thickness of your thumb) and one is thinner. I'd start from your left foot up and out to the right arm and vise versa from the right foot to the left arm so you can build it in one continuous structure with balance. I unfortunately learned this by trial and error so from the toes to the chest is one peice, the head down the spine and around the hips are another, and the vest plate is the third, If I were to do it all over I would just make it all one peice and buy more materials. But once you cut it you gotta get innovative about re-attaching one cable to the next.
the bones are made of 3/4 inch pvc (think it's like 1.50 for ten feet). Just measure out your own bones, like fore arms, shins, your knee to your hip, ect. and cut them to size, then run the wire through the pvc. Fold a peice of out door duct tape in half so it's sticky on both sides and mark off the bottom or top of the bone your trying to attatch, (depends on wether your going feet to head, or head to feet, i suggest feet to head) and go around the wire a couple times so that when you run the pvc through it'll act as a stopper for the pvc. Then isolate the top by repeating the step on the top of said bone or joint and move progressively in the direction in which you are building your dummy. Understand that the pvc pipe perfectly fits over the cable so there's very little space to begin with. When the aforementioned bone is secured make another round around both the bottom and top to ensure it's stuck and continue till the skeleton is complete. When joining the middle of the dummy from the crouch through the spine you'll double up with two cables so that the left and right side are fused together. It's kinda hard to explain it in words, but imaginge taking one of the the thick 15ft cables and folding it in half. Where it's folded you'd round it out to simulate the foot and continue upwards with two cables on one side of the body. When you get to the groin and hips, the inside half of the cable will be fused with the other inside cable of the other side of the body to make the spine while the outside 1/2 will make the ribs and hips, then comback in around the shoulder joint to form the chest (like a vest plate, thorax) and go up the neck to the head and back down and out to form the arms. The important part of the skeleton is to measure where the body bends, the hips, ribs, and spine is where attention to detail is a must.
After the skeleton is done buy yourself two 60 pound sand bags (10 bucks) and a bunch of ziploc bags. this simulates the muscular structure for shape so you can articulate muscle groups like quads, calves, biceps, tris, forearms ect. By taping the ziploc bags you reenforce the seal so the sand won't come out and keep it's shape. Tape the little muscle bags to the pvc skeletal structure as needed and go around at the tops and bottoms, then cover it with those float noodles (5 bucks for one) to add padding softness and fullness over the little muscle groups. Just as you measured out the pvc for the skeleton you'll do the same for the floaties, and add the skin and outside surface to the whole dummy.
I haven't gone this far yet, but I have a painters tarp that will hopefully simulate a canvas but I'm not a great sewer so I'm thinking of cutting out sections with lace wholes and tying it over the whole dummy in sections.
It's kinda hard to explain in words, but tomorrow I'll work on the chest plate and try and post it so you can see some of the proccess and see what mine looks like now. You'll need a shit load of outdoor duct tape which is about 6-9 bucks a roll depending on the grade and is the other major expense outside of the industrial cable.
Mine lasted about a year until my friend body slammed it out of a truck and broke the part that joins, the hips to the thorax. After observing it this is why i feel the whole dummy should be done in one continuous peice instead of sections that connect to prevent this. But to be honest my friend was just being a dick and weighs at heavyweight. He didn't understand how much time I put into it and that it wasn't designed to be thrown by a 250 pounder full force onto the cement. I mean gravity rules all and as I said this easily tops a hundred pounds, maybe 150 or more ( it's hard to weigh cause of the size).
I know I may take some flack for this post because it may sound ridiculous to some, but I know all grapplers have considered this and it's a much cheaper alternative than the half grand plus shipping of both the bubba and the submission master. With time and effort it's possible, it just depends how much you want it.
It's am hours here in hawaii so I'll work on the dummy tomorrow and post pics or vids.
My gripes with the sub master is the bottom half. The legs and hips are just to stiff in my opinion. It's good for top game, and situations when guys are sitting on there butt, but any open guard techniques where guys are standing, on one knee, or practicing escapes, both dummies fall short. The weight factor of both are a bit unrealistic as well. It's like grappling a freshman in highschool as opposed to any live situation which has weight and pressure. I'm currently adjusting the chest plate on my diy dummy and will post vids that demonstrate why with a little time and effort you can truly build something that's high quality for about a 1/3 of the price. As I said my dummy is easy 100 pounds or higher and has a bottom half that can simulate situations when your opponent has lockdown, standing in ur open guard, on one knee, x guard, top game and other defensive situations when your opponenet is not just gonna sit on his knees. playing lockdown or half game on it is alot more realistic because all major joints have been considered and the weight adds a lot more pressure.
If you wanna try or feel skeptical here's a list of materials I used:
The skeletal frame is made of Industrial electric cable, I think it's 20x40x60 guage or something like that. It's 3 bucks a foot and depending on how you decide to design the skeleton may be the biggest investment. i would get about 15 ft or so, maybe more to be safe. It's a total of three cables two are really thick (maybe the thickness of your thumb) and one is thinner. I'd start from your left foot up and out to the right arm and vise versa from the right foot to the left arm so you can build it in one continuous structure with balance. I unfortunately learned this by trial and error so from the toes to the chest is one peice, the head down the spine and around the hips are another, and the vest plate is the third, If I were to do it all over I would just make it all one peice and buy more materials. But once you cut it you gotta get innovative about re-attaching one cable to the next.
the bones are made of 3/4 inch pvc (think it's like 1.50 for ten feet). Just measure out your own bones, like fore arms, shins, your knee to your hip, ect. and cut them to size, then run the wire through the pvc. Fold a peice of out door duct tape in half so it's sticky on both sides and mark off the bottom or top of the bone your trying to attatch, (depends on wether your going feet to head, or head to feet, i suggest feet to head) and go around the wire a couple times so that when you run the pvc through it'll act as a stopper for the pvc. Then isolate the top by repeating the step on the top of said bone or joint and move progressively in the direction in which you are building your dummy. Understand that the pvc pipe perfectly fits over the cable so there's very little space to begin with. When the aforementioned bone is secured make another round around both the bottom and top to ensure it's stuck and continue till the skeleton is complete. When joining the middle of the dummy from the crouch through the spine you'll double up with two cables so that the left and right side are fused together. It's kinda hard to explain it in words, but imaginge taking one of the the thick 15ft cables and folding it in half. Where it's folded you'd round it out to simulate the foot and continue upwards with two cables on one side of the body. When you get to the groin and hips, the inside half of the cable will be fused with the other inside cable of the other side of the body to make the spine while the outside 1/2 will make the ribs and hips, then comback in around the shoulder joint to form the chest (like a vest plate, thorax) and go up the neck to the head and back down and out to form the arms. The important part of the skeleton is to measure where the body bends, the hips, ribs, and spine is where attention to detail is a must.
After the skeleton is done buy yourself two 60 pound sand bags (10 bucks) and a bunch of ziploc bags. this simulates the muscular structure for shape so you can articulate muscle groups like quads, calves, biceps, tris, forearms ect. By taping the ziploc bags you reenforce the seal so the sand won't come out and keep it's shape. Tape the little muscle bags to the pvc skeletal structure as needed and go around at the tops and bottoms, then cover it with those float noodles (5 bucks for one) to add padding softness and fullness over the little muscle groups. Just as you measured out the pvc for the skeleton you'll do the same for the floaties, and add the skin and outside surface to the whole dummy.
I haven't gone this far yet, but I have a painters tarp that will hopefully simulate a canvas but I'm not a great sewer so I'm thinking of cutting out sections with lace wholes and tying it over the whole dummy in sections.
It's kinda hard to explain in words, but tomorrow I'll work on the chest plate and try and post it so you can see some of the proccess and see what mine looks like now. You'll need a shit load of outdoor duct tape which is about 6-9 bucks a roll depending on the grade and is the other major expense outside of the industrial cable.
Mine lasted about a year until my friend body slammed it out of a truck and broke the part that joins, the hips to the thorax. After observing it this is why i feel the whole dummy should be done in one continuous peice instead of sections that connect to prevent this. But to be honest my friend was just being a dick and weighs at heavyweight. He didn't understand how much time I put into it and that it wasn't designed to be thrown by a 250 pounder full force onto the cement. I mean gravity rules all and as I said this easily tops a hundred pounds, maybe 150 or more ( it's hard to weigh cause of the size).
I know I may take some flack for this post because it may sound ridiculous to some, but I know all grapplers have considered this and it's a much cheaper alternative than the half grand plus shipping of both the bubba and the submission master. With time and effort it's possible, it just depends how much you want it.
It's am hours here in hawaii so I'll work on the dummy tomorrow and post pics or vids.
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Originally Posted by La'akea Sanborn
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