Training Mats

[Greg Hoyt]

Aloha Everyone, 
We're finally at the point where we can think about putting away the folding mats and purchasing some permanent flooring for our school.  We have researched various vendors, prices, and styles.....and we're kinda thinking about the 1" puzzle mats.  We are seeking comments, pro and con, about these different flooring choices.  Mahalo. 
Greg

[Mitch Powell]

Greetings Greg!

We use wrestling mats and they are so much better than karate style mats. We train both barefoot and with wrestling shoes and the mats work great. I got mine from a high school that was buying new mats. You can check around at schools in your area. If you want brand new you can try: suplay.com

They are a wrestling supply company. They also have great prices on wrestling style shoes.   

[sleddog]

We have had this question in the past as well. Our school is pretty well matted on every training surface except under the cardio machines and weights (hard rubber surface).

We use a combination of puzzle mats (they offer a softer resistance to throws/falls than a wood floor), wrestling mat (best for wrestling, not so good for sub grappling) and tatami mats (best floor for jiu-jitsu/submission grappling). We also recovered our ring floor(non slip water proof surface/more padding) to allow for the amateur mma/boxing/muay thai/overflow from the jui jitsu class, that goes on there. The same surface in the cage.

All that being said, I would like, occasionally, to have a hard wood floor for the stand up portion of the training. Boxers/thai boxers like to skip on a very firm surface. Forms are difficult to train to a high level on the puzzle mat surface.

There are no easy fixes, just accommodations to your preferences. Evaluate your needs and act accordingly. Some things will have to be altered so that everything you do fits into the same space.

Good luck.

Philip Gelinas

[Ron Baker]

Aloha Sifu Hoyt:

As you're finding out, mat prices can vary from the cheap one-inchers at Target, to the Tatami-style mats here.  

One option to consider is using the lesser-priced 1-inch thick mats, and combine them with some half-inch thick carpet padding underneath.  You might need to get a little creative with some kind of borders (to minimize mat slippage).  But it's do-able.  We went with a supposedly "premium" one-inch thick puzzle mat from AWMA and spent about $900 bucks for about 800 square feet.  And now that we're doing BJJ, I wish we had invested a little more into our mats.  But instead of buying new mats, we're gonna get that carpet padding and supplement them.

Good luck, sir.

[Greg Hoyt]

Mahalo Everyone for the feedback. 
We train all ranges of combat, forms, self-defense techniques, weapon defenses, groundfighting, Judo, lots of Jujitsu (gi and no-gi).....all the Kajukenbo good stuff.  But for now we only have about 600 sq ft of training area, and we need to find a middle ground that fits our needs without breaking the bank.  GM Gelinas, you stated that it was difficult to perform pinans on the puzzle mats.....is that because there is too much give?  The puzzle mats we were looking at were offered by Get Rung. 
Anyways, thanks for the feedback. 
Greg

[ML Wise]

Greg,

I bought 70 - 1.5" mats from Orbring for around $2100.00 with shipping. They ship their mats FedEx, not by freight; it only took 4 days for my mats to arrive. My mats were $24.00 each which was much less than any other company I could find on the interent. The 1" mats are much cheaper. If you by more that 60 mats they are only $13.00 each. The mats need to be purchased in increments of five mats.

Anyhow here is a link the mats.

http://www.orbring.com/shop/tae-kwon-do_puzzle-mats.html

Good luck,

Michael Wise

[Lhines]

Put Zebra tatami mats in my dojo and they were a fantastic investment. We even built a special sprung floor under them.
I know that Zebra Mats sells used tatami after every big event that they sponsor. You might be able to get a deal.
Try here - http://www.zebramats.com/about-us/upcoming-events/

Sincerely.