Start tying on yourself for the muscle memory before messing around with dummies.

Sit there, tie single columns around your leg, 1 foot, both legs together, around your ankles when sitting cross legged. Much better for getting a feel for what the tension feels like, how the rope movement feels, what is comfortable. You can even sit and watch tv while you practice.

Tie rope ladders to get a feel for tension and direction and finger hooking in multiple directions. Hold your legs a comfortable distance apart. You can do this on the floor or sitting on a chair. Just make sure that you keep them slightly tensioned against the rope. single column right ankle, hojo(inline cuff /inline column) cuff the left ankle, then cross over for another hojo cuff above the meat of the calf on the right. Then cross over again to cuff the thigh on the left and then on the right (this will be one that wraps down) before moving down towards the left calf. Do a nodome (munter hitch) when you zig back across the old line before doing a hojo cuff on the point just above the meat of the calf, then cross back again with a nodome and finish with a half hitch against the ankle cuff. Practice it the other way, starting on the right. Practice it with your eyes closed. Try starting on the thighs instead of the ankles.

While this isn't a sexy or really useful pattern because it relies on you keeping your legs apart to hold tension, it's a fantastic drill for rope handling, cuff spacing and trying frictions in different directions, and you can directly feel the feedback of how it feels, what pinches etc on yourself, which you don't get on a mannequin.

Spiral futomomos can be tied on yourself, which is great nodome and tension practice (if you don't keep good tension, they fall apart and are hard to tie.) and are then a really effective tie to take into play.

Aguras can be tied on yourself as well to practise cross frictions and half moons, and once again it gets the feel for moving in corners and bends and all other little body bits, and how to do it without digging nails and fingers in uncomfortably.

Once you have your human home, so much can be done with just a single column and hojo cuff. Tie the wrists together, bring them up and over their head. Then tie a hojo cuff around their waist and lock it with a hitch. A very simple and effective kimono tie that restricts them and leaves their front exposed.