DUMMY TRAINING
by Chuck Sullivan

It all started in 1964 around the time of Ed Parker’s first International Karate Championships in Long Beach, California. Parker and I had become involved in several business projects, one of which was a karate school on my end of town. One evening, a student said he’d recently had an opportunity to use the skills he’d learned in class. While everything had turned out satisfactorily, he said, at one point he tried to extricate himself quickly from the situation by executing a kick to the groin. Unfortunately, he came up short—literally. He did the popular technique just the way he’d practiced, but he couldn’t switch from not making contact in class to making contact on the street.

       
Dummy training eliminates the guessing from practice sessions because it’s easy to see and feel how well a roundhouse kick (LEFT, Chuck Sullivan) or a hook kick (RIGHT, Vic LeRoux) works.

In martial arts theory, a target is supposed to be a target, whether it is a point in space near a physical object or the physical object itself. If you are able to hit that point in space every time you throw a technique, all you have to do is extend the blow a little farther and you’ll hit the physical object, right? Evidently, not for everybody.

Searching for a Solution

I knew then that my students needed a method of actually seeing the target get struck while being able to assess the efficiency of their blows. The first thing I thought of was a heavy bag. I tried drawing targets on it, but it didn't work at all. A heavy bag is cylindrical and has no distinguishing features. It also spins when hit, and it swings and bucks in a manner that is totally unlike the way a person reacts when he receives a similar blow. That’s when I decided the only thing that could take the place of a body was a body.

LEFT: Chuck Sullivan sends a spinning back kick into the UltraMan Dummy. (To minimize movement in the dojo, the plywood base should be larger than the one shown here.) CENTER: When a kick to the groin is 100% effective, both of the dummy’s pants legs will jump. If the technique is slightly off-target, only one will rise. RIGHT: When a claw to the eyes is done properly, it leaves small indentations that last for a few seconds—long enough to see if you have delivered a powerful blow.

It took an entire weekend to build my first life-sized dummy. It was a spur-of-the-moment project, so I had to make do with what I could find in my garage: plywood, 2x4s, screws, old clothing for padding and twine to bind it together. I named him “Frank N. Stine” because he was homemade. It took about half an hour for the animals at the dojo to kill him—and they didn’t even give him a funeral.

A few months later I tried again, this time with galvanized pipe and more rags and twine—remember that this was before duct tape hit the market. “Frankie No.2” lasted a couple months. That dummy was still inefficient cost-wise and time-wise, but it did teach us the value of such a training device. There have been a number of other home-builts over the past 37 years, which have had a tremendous influence on our training and the design of each successive model.

We’ve killed a lot of dummies in class, but during each one’s life span we could see exactly where our blows were going and assess what kind of effect they would have on a human attacker. In the beginning, it was a real eye-opener. Some of my students, who I thought wouldn’t have any problems at all, couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn. They were so far off the mark it was astounding. Speed was part of the problem: Some of our people had gotten so fast they could blow your socks off, but when it came to hitting targets, they just whiffed by them. Great shows but few blows.

Feeling Reality

To further illustrate the value of training dummies, let me recount a short story about an incident that happened a year ago. One of my students brought a teenage friend who had trained in another system to observe our class. We were working extensively with the dummies that night, and I could tell he was dying to try his stuff. When class ended, he asked if he could use a dummy. I said, “Sure,have fun.” He stepped up and did as good a head-high kick as I’d ever seen. It had all the form and snap you could ask for; it just didn’t hit the dummy’s head. I said: “It ’s OK to hit him—that ’s what he’s here for. Go ahead.” The visitor executed another beautiful kick, which also failed to make contact. I said: “No, you don’t understand. Go ahead and kick him in the head.” Three kicks later, he finally made contact—and came very close to falling down because the impact threw him off so badly. It was frightening to watch. Aside from teaching accuracy, another advantage of working with a dummy is  they stop your blows, just as a human body does. In the air you can go like the wind, but when something stops your normal flow and you're not accustomed to it, it can be disturbing. It can interrupt your rhythm, timing, speed and balance. As if that weren't enough, it can throw off further accuracy as well. Can you afford that on the street?

It doesn't have to be that way, however. Dummy training is the key. It's challenging at first, but with a little practice you'll learn how to strike hard without losing your balance Then you'll find your speed returning. In fact, with enough practice you will get even faster. It’s fantastic when you can simultaneously hear, feel and see a technique hit.

    
LEFT: Chuck Sullivan prefers to dress his training dummy in a uniform so he can grab a sleeve or lapel while practicing sweeps and takedowns. RIGHT: Because a training dummy lacks the weight of a human opponent, it is useful to have a partner add his mass to it during practice. Vic LeRoux pushes down on the dummy’s head or shoulders, while Chuck Sullivan sweeps its legs.

Answering Naysayers

A frequently voiced objection to dummy training is that dummies don’t react the same as a real person. That is true. However, sometimes a person doesn’t react the way you think he will, either. We have found that most of the follow-up blows of the kenpo combinations can be applied to a standing set of targets with just a little adjusting—which is what the art is all about. From your initial block or parry, you effect strikes designed to take advantage of your opponent’s reactions, but you are constantly ready to go to other techniques instantaneously if the action demands it.

Another objection is that dummies don’t fight back. Well, they can if you want them to. We deliberately built our dummies without arms so a workout partner could stand behind them and use his arms to simulate a punch or use a padded weapon to try to hit you.

Can a dummy replace a live training partner? No, and by the same logic, a live training partner cannot replace a life-sized dummy. Each has its place in your training regimen. A dummy can’t react like a live partner, and a live partner can’t be struck with full force. If I could have only one, it would have to be the dummy. Training partners get tired, and sometimes their wives won’t let them come out to play.

Another byproduct of striking a training dummy is the resistance it offers and the power you develop from that. An interesting exercise we discovered involves thrusting a claw into the dummy’s face. When done with power, the point of impact of each finger will be evidenced as a short-lived indentation in its canvas face.

Setting Up a Program

When you begin using a life-sized dummy, you’ll find yourself experimenting with various kicks and strikes. Once you ’re comfortable executing single shots, you should move on to simple combinations, then more complex series of blows. One of the best ways to utilize a dummy in the dojo is to employ it as a competitive tool. Devise a series of strikes consisting of front snap kicks, roundhouse kicks, rear heel kicks, punches, chops, elbow strikes, claws, hammer fists, head butts, backfists, ridgehands, heel palms or whatever else you wish to include. Do the combination until you can move comfortably, then do it on the dummy. Then do it for time in front of a panel of judges. In the beginning, you will see a conspicuous difference between what you can do in the air and what you can do on the dummy.

The best way to review this type of training and competition is with video. Sometimes the inaccuracies of your techniques will be very obvious as you see yourself miss the target altogether. Sometimes you will see your strikes graze the target. You can judge the effectiveness of such a partial hit by using the theory that if the dummy doesn’t react, neither will an opponent. Watch for penetration and look for movement from the dummy. Leave enough play in the mounting device to allow for a reasonable degree of movement. If the kick was intended to be a groin shot, make sure it really hits the groin and not the inside of the thigh. That’s another positive feature about the dummies: They don’t lie, and neither does video.

Vic LeRoux supports the dummy with his left forearm. He then chops its throat and sweeps its legs, sending the dummy to the mat. Next, LeRoux spins and executes a right rear heel kick to the dummy's head, finishing in a check position.
 

Building the Ultimate Dummy

The design, materials and construction of life-sized dummies have come a long way since I built my first model in 1964. One of the best developments was the invention of high-density foam rubber, which is light- years ahead of using rags to wrap the striking surfaces.

After years of research and development, Karate Connection designed the UltraMan Dummy, which is now manufactured by a major boxing-equipment company. Foam padding surrounds its steel frame, allowing for 360 degrees of striking. It is sufficiently dense that students can power-thump it without injury. Nevertheless, it is recommended that they wear gloves and shoes during workouts.

Another characteristic that makes the UltraMan unique is the presence of legs that can be struck. Leg attacks are an essential part of self-defense, and when it comes to practicing them, a dummy is invaluable. Striking an opponent’s legs in freestyle competition is prohibited; therefore, in the dojo it is often ignored. However, if you never practice leg attacks, you’ll have little hope of succeeding with one when the chips are down. A training dummy will allow you to kick its shins and knees all day long with nary a complaint. It’s virtually the only way you can get that sort of practice.

Until you have worked with a life-sized dummy, you haven’t felt the full effect of what you have learned in the dojo. So build one or buy one, but don’t deny yourself this most important training element any longer.