How to make homemade martial arts equipment

[RapidAssault16]

Hey. I was wondering if anyone could help me out. I recently headed to a garage sale and got the following items:

3 old tires
several pieces of unused styrofoam boards
3, 72" stretchable cords with hooks on the ends (the kind you use on luggage)
20 feet of yellow nylon rope
some old baseball padding (shin guards, face guard)

Okay, so I've tried to find ideas as how to make a tire dummy for weapons and empty hand training (mostly weapons). Can anyone give me any tips as to how to construct one? I plan to hang it from a tree outside my home.

The rest of the objects are more obscure. I was thinking of turning the foam boards into a striking pad. How can I use the stretchable cords?

The baseball padding is more obvious. Shin guards will probably work well for practicing kicks to the shins :-)

So yeah, if anyone has any ideas, feel free to share. I saw a book by Michael Janich called "Homemade Martial Arts Training Equipment". I'd rather spend my money on the parts necessary to build the gear as opposed to buying the book...so if anyone could give me some advice I'd appreciate it. Thanks

[Beginner]

I have a couple of tires tied together w/c I hang in the garage when I do my tirework. The bigger tire is on top of the smaller one & the thing is hung about the height of my shoulders. The upper tire simulates the body & the lower tire the legs. I don't know how small your third tire is but if it is like one of those golf cart tires, you can place it on top as a head.

I do my tirework much like boxing. I hit them as hard as I can while limiting the tires' swinging. When it does swing too much, I "kill" the swinging by jabbing the "body". BTW, it will spin a lot & I "kill" that spin as well.

Hope this helps.

[chimpgimp]

Make a dummy of a person with head and body , practice moving in and cutting and stabbing to vital points. Even better do it with a friend (obviously not with a sharp knife). try and flow , practice cutting the cut. If your arm is moving from the head to the body then cut as you move it down, don't waste the movement. The same applies to the stick. Take and hit every target you pass as you go from one zone to another.

It's amazing how many people , even seasoned martial artists do not think about their targets when they have a blade or weapon. Sure the weapon will do the work for you but with a little help it will even better for you.