I have been practicing judo for over 22 years and have competed and trained in some of the toughest dojos and gyms on the planet. Personally, I was a bit skeptical when it came to the use of gripping dummies. He had the strange belief that gripping dummies were useless because he wasn’t a real person and therefore didn’t react or feel like a real person. While training for the Beijing Olympics, I had a fantastic training partner who was there whenever I needed him to train. With 3 months to go until the Olympics, my training partner suffered a terrible ko soto gari and suffered a torn ACL and needed a knee reconstruction. This meant that not only did I lose a training partner, but I lost the number of uchikomi reps I was doing day after day.

One of my friends mentioned that someone needed to invent a robot that would stand up to anything you throw at it. I immediately thought of a grappling doll.

I soon found a mixed martial arts gym at the far end of town that had legendary fighting dummies.

I started doing hundreds and hundreds of reps of my favorite throws like Ippon seoi nage, double leg takedown and Te guruma (high crotch). I also started working on my top control game by doing various position changes while on top and even started pulling guard with the dummy as a warm up.

As the Olympics approached, I began to increase my fitness and conditioning with various circuit and hill sprints. To further improve my throwing technique and fitness levels, I began adding throws, takedowns, and top control exercises to my fitness circuits. By adding the throw to my circuitry, I found that the power I could generate when throwing a resisting opponent was increased simply because I was repeatedly exploding to throw the dummy.

As a judo and Brazilian jiu-jitsu instructor, I constantly use the grappling dummy as an extra body if we have odd numbers in a class. A few years later, I’m still finding things to do with my dummy, like pull-ups while holding the dummy between my legs, push-ups, box jumps, and zercher squats. Most recently, I applied to the local fire brigade, and as part of the test, I had to drag or carry a hundred-pound dummy about a hundred yards, so I practice with my own dummy to pass the test.

I highly recommend my clients use a gripping dummy (especially if they are busy and can’t make it to training) because if they miss training they can still work on their footwork, speed up and increase their throwing speed in the comfort of their own homes. .

These are some of my favorite throws that I do with the dummy. I usually do 1 throw and then do 2 burpees after each throw. Usually I try 20-50 shots per set. You can do:

– Ippon seoi nage (shoulder throw)

– Koshi Guruma (crossed buttocks)

– Morote gari (double leg)

– One legged fire mans carry (Kata guruma)

– Osoto gari (Major outdoor harvest)

– Juji gatme (arm bar)

– Sankaku Jime (triangle choke)

– Zercher squats

– Shoulder press

– Dummy drag for 3 dojo spans

Give these workouts a try and watch your fitness and technical skills improve dramatically.