How Clean is Your Dojo?

[Suhaib]

The mats in our Dojo are quite dirty. My Sensei is away at Honbu, so I have to decided to go down and clean them before he gets back.

On that note, I'd be grateful for some advice...

Does anybody know of good cleaning solutions suitable for the job? Or any "How Clean is Your House" Kim & Aggy-style home recipes? How do you clean your own mats? Ours are really filthy.

(The mats are the modern foam ones with jigsaw edges.)

Any ideas would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Osu!

[feels]

The dojo's mats are swept daily by everyone after class is finished. I assumed they are wiped down with wet rags by everyone whenever someone suggests that they look or feel dirty as well. That's weekly perhaps?

Baking soda should get rid of any odors.

But if you want them cleaned perfectly, I would suggest mopping them up with pine-sol or other industrial floor cleaner, taking the floor apart, and letting them air dry for a day.

[StarKodama]

After class we all have to sweep the dojo (we all sweep the dust to the center of the room and the lowest-ranked person vacuums it up), and after that we wipe down the floor and all the equipment we used. But the rags we use to "clean" with are gray and smelly and we don't actually use any kind of cleaning fluid, so I remain skeptical as to how exactly this makes the place more sanitary. :/ I think we do it more for the symbolism than for anything else.

Oh, and once every December, we do a big cleaning where everybody pitches in and REALLY cleans the place, every inch of it. Then we have a big party!

[seienchin]

I am interested that you have mats on the dojo floor. My preference has always been for a wooden floor. When I have trained in full-time dojo space, we have always had wooden floor, which we clean with rags every night. Once a week the rags would be taken home- by a junior belt and washed properly.
When I was hiring hall-time for a part-time dojo, it had a wooden floor, and because we were sharing with other tenants, we washed the floor at the beginning and end of training.
I think mats in a karate dojo are odd... how can you do ura? how do you spin? Don't your knees get sore?
OSU-EN2

[Lucy]

This is traditionally the job of the 'kohai'. Hanshi Arneil told us stories of when he first started training at Honbu it was the kohai's job to clean the dojo every night AND take all the yudansha's gi's and mend & wash them and hang them out ready for the next session!

My dojo is in a local community centre so its down to them to clean the hall now. Not sure what its made of but its very hard! Although i remember years ago that the lowest grades swept the floor. This does'nt happen anymore and our feet get very dirty! I also train at a dojo with mats they clean them every once in a while, particulary before gradings. I think they just use warm water.

[ksan]

This is traditionally the job of the 'kohai'. Hanshi Arneil told us stories of when he first started training at Honbu it was the kohai's job to clean the dojo every night AND take all the yudansha's gi's and mend & wash them and hang them out ready for the next session!

My dojo is in a local community centre so its down to them to clean the hall now. Not sure what its made of but its very hard! Although i remember years ago that the lowest grades swept the floor. This does'nt happen anymore and our feet get very dirty! I also train at a dojo with mats they clean them every once in a while, particulary before gradings. I think they just use warm water.

I heard the uchi desi story aswell, i think its still this way at iko1 tokyo honbu. Plus the first year uchi desi`s arent allowed to use the washing machines :) So all of it goes by hand :).

In my old dojo my shihan used to sweep the floor before he taught and he wouldnt let anyone else do it. He never explained why. I think the main reason was that he didnt trust anuone else to do a good of a job at it as he would.

Osu-EN1

[supergroup7]

I don't know about any cleaning solutions for those interlocking mats. I'd guess that one could use about any household cleaner such as pine sol to disinfect, and deodorize.

Be careful lifting the mats apart, and then trying to put them together again. Depending on how long they've been in the placement that they have been in, some will be more flatter, and stretched out than others. You will have to remember their placement as you clean them so that you do not put them in different spots. I'd suggest cleaning the mats row by row to keep them where they belong.

[boldbhoy]

We sweep/mop as required. No particular regime as yet but Shihan hopes to get to the stage to have all systematically clean the place after each session.
It is a big dojo though.
In this country with the extremes in temperature, we found that the mats have swelled a tiny bit just now (summer) which has created a couple of "bellies". We will need to lift the retaining wooden battens, then renail them.
I agree with Seienchin about spinning (especially uras) on the mats.
I think it can be harmful to knees if not careful.
Mind you, it's not as bad as an overvarnished floor though, as these
can prove quite sticky. Osu!

[schuyler]

no one in here wrestled i take it? Bleach and water is the only way to clean mats.

[feels]

I used to practice in a dance studio with smooth wood flooring. There was nothing fun about landing on your butt.

[supergroup7]

Be extra careful when cleaning with bleach.. do not mix it with any products that contain ammonia. It will make a deadly poison that you can breath in.

[koji112091]

Yeah with me not haveing a real dojo, I don't have a lot of the stuff you would have.
It was cleaned recently to remove a lot of the trash left from a pet cat in there. As for mats I never had then. If I fall, I will hit the concreate.

[vapor]

We sweeped and wiped down with wet cloths after every session..so that means that it was cleaned about 3-4 times a day!

Typically yellow belts and higher would sweep...white belts would fill the buckets with water....orange and blue grab the rags, and dip and wring out the rags, and get them ready for once the sweeping is finished.

Each person was expected to do at least 3 runs of rag wiping....and then you would line back up---by seniority (more or less), to wash and ring out the rags back in the bucket....then the white belts are responsible for dumping the buckets, wiping the floor around where the buckets were, and hanging the rags to dry.

vapor

[supergroup7]

3-4 times a day, you do that sequence?? Wowsers.. that is a CLEAN dojo floor! I envy you.

My bottoms of my feet are usually grey to black colored after I've trained for about an hour in one of the dojo that I frequent.

[vapor]

3-4 times a day, you do that sequence?? Wowsers.. that is a CLEAN dojo floor! I envy you.

My bottoms of my feet are usually grey to black colored after I've trained for about an hour in one of the dojo that I frequent.

Well, whoever is at the class does that, without fail...

and cleaning the floors with the rags isn't a casual haunch down and wipe around your feet.

Bend at the waist, both hands on the rag, and you propel yourself along with your feet...making balance and focus a key part of even the cleaning!!

vapor

[Bloke]

I rent the hall from a local Gaelic football club so its reasonably clean but I Like the idea of cleaning it as you described Vapor.

[vapor]

The cleaning method is actually very engrained Japanese style I think!!...that is how wooden floors are cleaned at temples and shrines....it is how school children are taught to clean the school floors too...

Plus, it is a small sense of satisfaction when you earn your orange belt, and can allow the newbies to handle the water!! (unless of course your are the lowest rank in the room, in which you are automatically reverted to doing that chore!)

It shows some sense of teamwork---no one is excused from keeping the dojo clean...even 3dan's are lining up next to the white belts for their laps down the mats...and also shows respect, as the lower belts prepare the cleaning materials for the higher belts....

vapor

[seienchin]

Osu Vapor - that is how I was also taught. It is also a chance to strengthen your wrists - I discovered that one can push the rags in seiken position!OSU-EN2

[DKKC]

We used to wash the floor when (and where) I started - we all ahd our own rad we would bring with us in a bag - take it out and with some water provided would wipe floors (in the manner described by vapor) before class. the warm up was just a formality after that!! :)

Now we train in a school and a local community centre - the floors are cleaned by them - at the school we have the problem of wet floors before the kids class as the cleaners don't mop up all the water properly. So we need to make sure we dry them as it's very slippery when wet.

Only have mats occasionally.

[Mindster]

In our dojo, beside the regular cleaning, after every session we sweep it.
"If somebody leave the dojo clean for you, clean it for the next one"
It's a good politic =)

PS.: Dunno if sweep is the correct word, but i think it's comprehensible

[Kris]

We sweeped and wiped down with wet cloths after every session..so that means that it was cleaned about 3-4 times a day!

Typically yellow belts and higher would sweep...white belts would fill the buckets with water....orange and blue grab the rags, and dip and wring out the rags, and get them ready for once the sweeping is finished.

Each person was expected to do at least 3 runs of rag wiping....and then you would line back up---by seniority (more or less), to wash and ring out the rags back in the bucket....then the white belts are responsible for dumping the buckets, wiping the floor around where the buckets were, and hanging the rags to dry.

vapor

We do it exactly this way too. I think it is Japanese style. Also, the lowest belt will have to clean the toilet.

[fixi]

we have a quit small dojo, with only a few practitioners. there is no nesseserity to clean the dojo more then once a week. but when we clean it, we do it all.

[StasR]

As an early uchi deshi at Young Lions Dojo I used to clean the dojo every night after training. I'd first sweep all the dust and then mop it throught out. Mats are a little more delicate, simply because they cost alot, so they must be cleaned also, preferably after every session. We used wash them down with warm water. As there were 4 of us living there, we'd devide the mat area into 4 and wash it that way. We used sugar soap solution and warm water. Once a month, normally after Saturday morning training all the students would stay back and clean the dojo. That included the training hall, mirrors, punching bags, shields, mits and all the general equipment. Sorry it's not directly what you were asking for. My suggestion, try sugar soap solution, that'll get rid of all the stains on the mats, and if you have some spare time up your sleeve, go over it with Pine-O-Clean to disinfect it. Happy Cleaning. Osu.

[hungheykwun]

our dojo is cement and its always clean becos all the dirt is on our dogi. ROFL. osu!