Grappling with Dummies

[Elronmaynard]

Hi everyone, I was wondering if anybody had any experience/advice they would like to share about solo workouts with grappling dummies. I've been thinking about buying one but not sure if it would be worth it as I would want to buy a mat also to do solo workouts at home. Thanks

[Jason 'J-Faz' Farren]

I built my own dummy, (lots of old clothes, coke bottles, and tons of cloth tape) it may look like shit, but it'll save you heaps of cash.

I personally get heaps out of practicing with it, just like a boxer would a boxing bag. But in my opinion it really depends on how many times you get to roll with training partners as to how much value you'll get out of one.

In my case access to training partners is often limited to 2 maybe 3 times a week, so having it to rep on is really a neccesity for me.
As for solo workouts I just rep transitions, subs, and passing like I would with a real rolling partner.

Hope it helps.

[Sam Charette]

I just got a bubba dummy from i&i because its hard for me to get people to roll with more than once or twice a week. Its not bad but for the price I would try and get a good sparring buddy there are to many things a dummy can't do and it sucks, but if your desperate like me its worth it. I just got some mats from zebra.com for a great price check out the discount offer section and you can get some pretty good deals. Also if you want to go cheaper getrung.com has some good mats for the price. I have some at my mma club and they work pretty good, just be careful if you want to practice throws because they are not the thickest. Hope that helped.

[Elronmaynard]

Appreciate the responses, they do help. My wife was actually thinking about trying to build a dummy.
It sounds like it could be pretty beneficial. Unless I get some more opportunities to roll I think i'll go for it.

Thanks

[Cody Kietzman]

I grapple with dummies all the time....Lon Lopez, Derek Stewart....the list goes on and on

[Kyle Spalla]

I grapple with dummies all the time....Lon Lopez, Derek Stewart....the list goes on and on

I see what you did there.

[Joachim Hoff]

I have a Bubba! The quality is great. The damn bastard is hard to motivate. In x-guard for example. He always wants to fall over. And it's no use trying to train wrestling takedowns with him, He's not into that. Any type of mount is great tho. And rubber guard. And lockdown, and also foot locks! Z-guard works, deep half works.. Escapes.. So so.. I really love having that dummy! It's mostly a mnemonic device. Some movements are better to just practice without a dummy, just shadow-wrestling, but when it comes to learning a new complex move, it's great! Like the samurai, I wouldn't have gotten the hang of that without having the dummy. (Or I would have, but I would have to pester everyone with the old; "Hey, I have a new cool move, lay down for a bit"-line. So yeah, I think it's a great tool. But give it one or two years, and the joints become really floppy, and he starts to stink. It helps to wash his clothes, but he still stinks.

[Mark Holloway]

I use the Submission Master grappling dummy that Bob Dorris makes. In my opinion it is superior to Bubba. For the purpose of drilling Rubber Guard techniques it is awesome, but it works well for other techniques too. After moving to Atlanta I haven't started training at a school yet. I drill techniques every day with the dummy as part of my routine. As silly as it sounds, I continue to watch the Rubber Guard and All Stars DVD's as well as MTS on this site and drill, drill, drill, to stay fresh with my techniques, then roll with some friends from Alliance on the weekend and all I can say it works well for me. Granted I was training at 10th Planet Phoenix so I do have a history of instructor training, but at this point I've got a system that is holding me well until I find a school.

The dummy's arms a retractable and the legs are bent with the ability to be straightened, so it's well suited for practicing anything from your back, half guard, or techniques from dogfight or spider web. Sometimes it's a little cumbersome to setup the starting point because the dummy is very heavy, but Bob really cares about the construction quality of his dummy and it shows. If you want something to practice 10th Planet techniques from top or bottom position this is the way to go. It's not cheap but what's cool is Bob lets you break the cost out into multiple payments. I believe it's still cheaper than Bubba.

sub-dummy.jpg

[Jon Watkins]

Training with a partner is definitely better, but I have one and use it sometimes when I have ideas for subs and transitions. It's mostly good for guard work. Bubba doesn't look bad, but I bought one that stays at it's knees and it's been somewhat helpful. Not worth the money they cost though. If you could figure out how to build your own, do that.

[Chris Cabral]

I use the Submission Master grappling dummy that Bob Dorris makes. In my opinion it is superior to Bubba. For the purpose of drilling Rubber Guard techniques it is awesome, but it works well for other techniques too. After moving to Atlanta I haven't started training at a school yet. I drill techniques every day with the dummy as part of my routine. As silly as it sounds, I continue to watch the Rubber Guard and All Stars DVD's as well as MTS on this site and drill, drill, drill, to stay fresh with my techniques, then roll with some friends from Alliance on the weekend and all I can say it works well for me. Granted I was training at 10th Planet Phoenix so I do have a history of instructor training, but at this point I've got a system that is holding me well until I find a school.

The dummy's arms a retractable and the legs are bent with the ability to be straightened, so it's well suited for practicing anything from your back, half guard, or techniques from dogfight or spider web. Sometimes it's a little cumbersome to setup the starting point because the dummy is very heavy, but Bob really cares about the construction quality of his dummy and it shows. If you want something to practice 10th Planet techniques from top or bottom position this is the way to go. It's not cheap but what's cool is Bob lets you break the cost out into multiple payments. I believe it's still cheaper than Bubba.

sub-dummy.jpg

I have a submission master dummy as well, and in my opinion its far superior to any other grappling dummy. Especially for a 10th planet practitioner. Its alittle pricey at allitle over 600 bucks, but if you have a shortage of grappling partners theres no beating it. Theres very little you can't do with it. I myself put in about 2 hours on it everyday drilling various things. And as Mark said, its definately high quality.