Combat Sports International: Grappling Gummy

[Diesel_tke]

Ok, this is my first review so don't haze me too bad for it.

I bought this grappling dummy from Combat Sports International. Just to keep everything strait in the world, I have bought many things from them and got only good items...until now.

The dummy arrived in only 4 days(with standard ground shipping). The UPS guy wasn't happy when he brought it to the door!! The packaging was good, it was in a big box, then a long black burlap bag, and wrapped in some type of plastic rap. Everything was in perfect condition when I received it.

The dummy went strait to my garage and on the mat for instant use. Everything looked good on it. It is the 90lb dummy. I am able to stand it up and do throws with it. I can do tai clinch knees with it. The legs are a little stiff(even after 8 months of use) so you can't really do ankle locks with it. You can do knee bars a little bit. The neck is way to thick to do triangles, rear naked chokes, guillotine cokes, or arm triangles. You can still practice the arm triangles and guillotine if you use your imagination. Anaconda chokes are not possible. You can do omoplata and gogplata. I have been able to balance the dummy on my back and do a rolling knee bar(I know, eveyone thinks I'm psycho).

Throws are really good with this dummy. I am able to stand it up and do everything from ankle pics, single legs, double legs, all the way to sizor takedowns. You are not able to do a rolling knee bar because it doesn't bend at the waist.

Transition drills are OK. I actually have a throwing dummy that I like better for this. When in the side mount, transitioning to the north south, the arms really get in the way. You can't do the half mount too well because the legas are so stiff. But you can get there just enough to practice. There is no possible way to work from the guard.

You are able to put the dummy in your guard and work pretty well. All types of drills are easily done in this possition. Arm bars, kimura, americana, omoplata, gogoplata, arm triangle, and sweeps. The legs are stiff enough to use them for sweeps. You can not do triangles as said before.

Now for the bad side. I had only been using this dummy for about 3 weeks. I was doing all the above drills with the dummy. I was practicing arm bars from the mount when I noticed the material started ripping in the inside of the elbow area. The rip was about an inch long and an inch wide. Shapped like a triangle where the material was stitched together in a T shape. The material was very thin and I could see the stuffing inside.

I imidiately contacted the service department at combat sports. The e-mailed me the policy of the company for replacing these items. They told me that they would fully refund the amount of the dummy or replace it. The only thing I had to do is pay for the shipping back to the company. The sipping amount back to the company was going to be about $150. About 100 dollars less than the cost of the dummy. So if I did this they would either refund my money, so I would be out $100. Or they would send me another one and I would be out $150. So I opted to keep the dummy and duck taped the **** out of it.

I went ahead and tapped the other arm to prevent it from ripping. It has done good in that aread. So I have used it for about 8 months now and I just noticed another rip. This one is on the seem of the arm that didn't rip. You can see that rip in the pic. So I will probably end up tapeing that one.

Over all the dummy is pretty good. It is usable for the purpose other than the arms ripping off. The problems with this dummy mostly revolve around the way it was made. The material doesn't allow you to bend the arms enough which cause it to rip. The legs are too stiff which make it impossible to do guard passing or ankle locks. The neck is too thick so you can't do chokes.

If I ever get enough money I will get the grappling dummy and then rate it against this one. If I had it over to do, I would get the grappling dummy instead. The one I'm talking about is at grapplingdummy.net.

I hope this review helps someone out and wasn't too long.

[Omega Supreme]

Um, I would like to rank this to but it doesn't seem to give you that option:

Ah well. As grappling dummies goes guys I would highly suggest that you invest in a different dummy than this. It will not last long and after shipping and handling you'd be better off investing in a more expensive higher quality dummy. For throwing purposes I would use the Century or CSI Throwing dummies that cost a little bit less. The arms on this dummy are way too short to properly apply anything and you can do mounting drills easier on a heavy bag.

[Diesel_tke]

Yeah, I actually have a throwing dummy, and we use it more especially for transition drills. I think this dummy will be funner when the arms finally rip off and I can just tape over the openings.