Mat Thickness

[Abbax8]

Just a quick question for all the Judo/JJ people. How thick are the mats you fall on? What type/manufacturer? Are they nice to fall on or do they hurt?

Peace

Dennis

[WhiteBeltJones]

They use the "standard" mats by Zebra at my club. They come in the 4x8 rectangles. I believe they're 2" thick. We lend them out for local tournaments often.

They're not exactly cushy to land on, but you can take ukemi without too much pain.

[Jeff C.]

Gain comfort, sacrifice footwork. Gain footwork, sacrifice comfort.

We use tatami, which are rather hard, for our judo and jujitsu classes. Teaches good ukemi. ;)

The best judo surface I have been on was two layers of wrestling mat, a rather expensive way to do it, but the footwork was great and the comfort on landing was pretty good too.

Jeff Cook

[Gene Williams]

We use puzzle mats in one dojo, another has carpet, and another a wooden floor. The dojo with the wood floor puts down folding mats for mat work or ukemi.
The surface I like best is the traditional aikido canvas stretched over mats in a frame. The Aikido Center in Atlanta has a floor like that and when we visited them it was really nice. You could even do kata on it.

[Abbax8]

Thanks for the replies.

Peace

Dennis

[AndrewSimonsen]

Gain comfort, sacrifice footwork. Gain footwork, sacrifice comfort.

We use tatami, which are rather hard, for our judo and jujitsu classes. Teaches good ukemi. ;)

The best judo surface I have been on was two layers of wrestling mat, a rather expensive way to do it, but the footwork was great and the comfort on landing was pretty good too.

Jeff Cook
My one problem with wrestling mats is that if you are barefoot it is easy to hurt your toes on them becasue of the way they can sometimes simk in a little. May be just with Resilite ones though.

[Jose Garrido]

We use zebramats and have found them very good for our purposes. You can take a good fall on them and yet you can also have quick footwork on them


Jose Garrido

[Cliff Hargrave]

May be just with Resilite ones though.

:) My Resilite mats have claimed many toes.....

[rgoad]

We use Zebra mats that are structured like traditional tatami, but with artificial materials. They last longer and are easy to clean. Ours are only about 1.5 inches and I really like that. Deeper or softer can get people's toes, ankles and even knees. If you know ukemi you can fall as high as you like on these just fine.

You can do kata on them as well, no problem.

[Dlee427]

I guess we got it good. My shihan is pretty proud of his mat which cost $10,000. There are truck tires under it and it's elevated at least 2 feet. :D

[mdamignani]

I have only trained on tatami mats, they hurt at first but you get used to them. I like these because they are just soft enough to prevent injury and they are hard enough to let you know when you did a poor breakfall.
Sincerly Matthew Damignani

[Aaron T Fields]

We use Zebra tatami mats, on top of 1" wrestling mats, which are on top of a stiff sprung floor. The footing is great and the floor gives only on impact.

Our walls are lined with straw tatami on end.

I made two different springing methods on floors, and helped/consulted on another couple. Take the time, spring your floor. You can control the "spring" which will make up for poorer quality mats.

Aaron Fields
www.seattle-jujutsu.org

S

[bvermillion]

Two of the gyms I go to have puzzle mats, which suck and the other three all have Mancino Mats.

[TicTac]

My gym has wrestling mats, covered and tucked with low pile carpet. It seems to work well and looks good. Rug burn is an issue though.

[wildwills]

Rug burn is an issue though.


Yeow! I wouldn't want to explain that one to the wife...:eek:

[rgoad]

We use Zebra tatami mats, on top of 1" wrestling mats, which are on top of a stiff sprung floor. The footing is great and the floor gives only on impact.

Our walls are lined with straw tatami on end.

I made two different springing methods on floors, and helped/consulted on another couple. Take the time, spring your floor. You can control the "spring" which will make up for poorer quality mats.

Aaron Fields
www.seattle-jujutsu.org

SSprung floors are nice. The one in Aaron's dojo feels nice and firm like regular floor.

Except for the square concrete post in the middle of the floor!

[Neil Yamamoto]

Ah Rick, no complaining from you, you didn't get thrown into it! :)

[kumite]

We use 5'10' 1" thick folding mats since we have hardwood floors. You get fast footwork, but if you get thrown hard....... I've been wishing for thicker mats or at least a crash pad. I can't take being thrown all night like I could when I was 19. I come home and have Ibuprofen for supper.