ProForce just dropped a brand new piece of martial arts equipment, and it’s a very well-rounded contender.
The Proforce® Striking & Throwing Dummy (available with or without handles) is a very handy multi-purpose training tool for anyone who wants to work on their striking, grappling, and overall fitness.
Weighing in at 50 lbs, this 40” throwing dummy with a heavy-duty synthetic leather cover, firm poly/cotton filler blend, and reinforced, triple-stitched seam construction is built to take every hit, takedown, sweep, and bit of positional work you can throw at it. And it’s designed for use everywhere from the dojo to the gym to your own home.
When the AWMA Blog profiles martial arts gear for the Get The Most Out Of Your Martial Arts Gear series we usually add a couple of out-of-the-box suggestions at the end. But with a product as versatile as this, we need a whole post just to talk about all of the things it was made for.
Here are five ways to get the most out of your Proforce® Striking & Throwing Dummy.
Standing and Striking
The Proforce® Striking & Throwing Dummy with handles is an excellent all-in-one training tool for athletes of every skill level who participate in Boxing, Kickboxing, Muay Thai, MMA, and Boxercise. It’s strong enough to take anything you’d throw at a strike shield, but adaptable enough to give you the kind of fine-tuned precision training of focus mitts or Thai pads.
That means that you can use the Striking & Throwing Dummy to work on almost every technique and position that you do from the feet, including punches, elbows, knees, push kicks, roundhouse kicks, and clinch work. And you can use it to focus on a number of different aspects of your striking game, like cardio, muscular endurance, hand-eye coordination, power, speed, and agility.
Takedowns
Just like it says in the name, the Proforce® Striking & Throwing Dummy can also help you work on your throws — and any other method you use to get an opponent from their feet to the mat. This includes clinch work, head and neck control, and takedowns.
If you train in a martial arts or combat sport that involves grappling like Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Judo, submission wrestling, amateur wrestling, or MMA, this dummy can be a very helpful substitute for the days where you don’t have any training partners to throw around. Both the handle and handle-free versions are good for this type of training, so which one you use comes down to your personal preference and training goals. The handles can help you work on grip training if you’re focusing on gi training, and the handle-free version can help you work on your no-gi game.
Positional Drills
The Proforce® Striking & Throwing Dummy is useful once you get down to the mats, too. It’s an excellent solo training tool for anyone who wants to focus on positional work, sweeps, and submission attempts. If you can do it on the ground in BJJ, Judo, amateur wrestling, submission wrestling, or MMA, there’s a good chance that you can find a way to drill it with your new substitute training partner.
The Striking & Throwing Dummy might not be the perfect replacement for a human training partner or a more traditional grappling dummy. You can’t easily apply an arm bar or leg lock on a piece of equipment that doesn’t have limbs. But with a little creativity, you can still get a very good grappling workout with it.
Ground and Pound
You won’t need any creative workarounds when it comes to striking training on the mats. This Proforce® Striking & Throwing Dummy is perfectly designed for working on your strikes from multiple positions. You can put the dummy on the mat and work on your straights, hooks, hammer firsts, and elbows from guard, or switch it up and try things from side control. You can also roll over onto your back and put the dummy in your guard to work on your punches and head and neck control from the bottom.
This type of training is obviously great for MMA fighters who want to work on their power, precision, and endurance on the ground. But they can also be a great workout for fitness buffs who are looking for a fun and effective workout that’s a little different from their ordinary strength and conditioning moves. And the Striking & Throwing Dummy is so easy to use that people of all skill levels can enjoy doing ground and pound training with it.
Sandbag Training
For fitness buffs who are looking for a more classic functional fitness workout, the Proforce® Striking & Throwing Dummy can also function as a sandbag. Its weight and shape are perfect for dynamic exercises like swings and drags as well as more traditional weightlifting exercises like chest presses and bent over rows.
We recommend using the dummy with handles for these exercises. (Although you could give the handle free version a try if you have enough grip strength, body awareness, and empty space to work out in just in case you slip.)
