DIY Double-end Balls for Boxing and Martial Arts

What does it mean when your martial arts club is free, open to the public, and meets at the park? Well, it means no money and no permanent equipment installations. These constraints force a certain amount of creativity.

Note: Creativity and freedom are not as closely linked as most folks think. Restrictions are what drive innovation, the same way that predators drive the evolution of prey animals, the weight of soil shows seedlings which way to grow, and the way Blues music sprang out of dirt poor people’s need to express their situation with the instruments they could afford. Examples abound. Think about it.

So I made these horizontally mounted double-end balls for striking practice. Before I show you how to make them, here’s a video of me playing with one for the first time:

Anyway, here’s a photo gallery showing how I made the “sharpshooter” tennis ball one. Follow the captions below the photos. Once it’s done, all you have to do is anchor your ball to opposing surfaces or sturdy objects — hooks in walls, posts, pillars, or what-have-you — using bungee cords.

Be prepared though — these seem to be bit harder to hit that vertical double-end balls!

: Drill a hole through the tennis ball. Careful to get it totally oriented to the poles.

: Get yourself some wire and cut a piece about a foot long.

: Cut yourself about a meter of parachute cord. Toast the ends a bit so they don’t unravel.

: Fold that wire in half and stick the loop through the ball. Thread the parachute cord through the wire loop and pull cord through the ball with the wire “needle.”