best dojo floor to train on

[strongman1]

Just working out which is the best type of floor to train on or type of mats as well anyone got an opinion

[Nix]

I prefer a wooden floor, unpolished.

[kyofighter]

I prefer puzzle mats.

[jcc]

Osu!

Strangely enough, I was actually thinking about this yesterday. In London I trained at several dojo, bare wooden floors being the norm. Over here I´ve been training on mats, which makes me feel less guilty about sweeping or throwing, but I´m still not sure which I prefer - each has it´s pros & cons...

Osu!

[eamoncramb]

mats are great for kumite but wodden floors are much better for katas and kihon etc....

[vapor]

I am partial to the white matted tatami...

vapor

[Aunty Ichigeki]

Heck yeah! You can't beat tatami but it's best if it's karate tatami, not judo or it sinks a little under your weight & makes it harder to move on.

[Chuck]

not fussed i like practicing kata on the gras in my back lawn guess its my fav

osu!

[senshido]

I prefer unvarnished wood, mats are not so good for push-ups and varnish can get sticky

[Tameshigiri]

I have blue carpet and tatami area in the back (puzzle mats)

But my ideal is combination of : wooden floor, unpolished, and zebra mats.

2 areas is better but if not, dojo with wooden floor and all the mats in the corner, after kihon and ido geikos you can set the mats with your students ( les than 5 min.)

OSU.

[Nix]

Varnish! That was the word I was looking for, not polish! Anyway, I think tatami or varnished wood makes difficult to practice movements in deep stances, such as zenkutsu dachi and kiba dachi. Unvarnished wooden floors is easy to slide on, but I know there are people who feel that it might get too slippery. Tatami are okay, but I really see no problem with sweeping and throwing on a wooden floor. With my weight, I get tossed around all the time, and I'm fine with it. However I remember a training session at a different dojo that included me beeing thrown for 20-ish minutes straight. It wouldn't have been so bad, if the floor hadn't been laid directly upon solid concrete. >.<

I learnt a new word today. Yay! ^_^

[senshido]

And...........hopefully, before you get swept or thrown you have been taught to break fall,

[icanribbit]

Wood is the best.
Easy to clean, sturdy, provides softer landing than concrete. Plus it looks neat

I don't like training on carpet.

I've not had the pleasure of training on tatami mats as of yet....so no comment there

I dont care too much for the foam puzzle mat stuff or any padded floor for that matter...It doesn't provide much feedback to your feet and legs because its so soft. I don't do gymnastics, so no need to have a gymnastics floor!

[Tameshigiri]

Very good point Icanribbit.

But here in USA is not if you like it or not, the insurance co. will request the tatami mats to sign you in.

Also depends if you practicing a lot Joshin Jitsu or not...

[seienchin]

I prefer a sealed (or varnished, but not sticky varnish) wooden floor.

I have trained on judo mats, puzzle mats, carpet, concrete and wood.

Wood allows you to concentrate on the karate, not on how you are going to move your foot. It also resonates so you can hear if you are stomping your feet down (reflecting lack of foot control, and vulnerability to being swept). It is always easy to pick the students from mats or concrete dojos when the grading is on wood. They have NO idea how heavy their foot landings are.

Wood teaches you more, so I prefer wood.

[Nix]

Carpet floor sounds very strange to me. Ugly, hard to clean and also I would think you'd get carpetburns. Am I not right?

[sandman]

Many years ago I trained almost exclusively on carpet. Back then I always had trouble at tournaments with wood floors - it felt slippery. Now I train more on wood, and now that I am used to it, I like it much, much better than carpet. In the dojo we have a non-polished wood finish. When I train on my own, I train in a local gym with a big aerobics area with a polished wood finish. In my house I have two areas where I train - one is a carpeted area where I work on kihon and shadow boxing - not enough space to do kata properly. And I do heavy bag and double end bag work in a small unfinished room with a concrete surface. I also make a point of occasionally training outside with my shoes on, in concrete and in grass. I think training on a variety of surfaces has helped me a little bit - I feel fairly comfortable on any of them. When I go to a tournament at least I don't have to think about the floor surface (frees me up to worry about everything else )

You are right about the carpet burns, by the way. Ouch!!!

[Martin H]

I very much prefer judo tatami, which is what I train on at the moment. I have never had any problem with the "sinking in" and slowness of movement that some have.

Hardwood floor is ok. As long as you dont have to land on it for any reason, it is superior, but if you get swept, or fall for any reason (like if you get knocked down) they are very unpleasant and could be even dangerous if you land on your head.
and if they are slippery with sweat (or just polish), it could get interesting.
It is what I "grew up" training with.

Karate tatami "puzzle mats" are a compromise, but frankly I hate them. I always hurt my toes on them, especially when walking in kihon. You can train throws and falls on them, but it still hurts a lot. It is good for fighting, but not ideal for training, if you see the difference.
My neighbor dojo uses them.

But really, I think you should pick the right flooring for the training of the day. Sadly, few of us have 3 different dojo-room (each with one type of floor) to chose between when holding a class.

[Nix]

Originally Posted by Martin H

and if they are slippery with sweat (or just polish), it could get interesting.

This is where the difference comes in with varnished/unvarnished wooden floors. If it is varnished, your feet will stick very well to the floor (too well in my opinion), but as soon as it gets wet (sweat or condense) it will be very slippery indeed. Unvarnished wooden floors is the exact opposite, when you start sweating underneath your feet you will be comfortably firm on the floor without getting "stuck" (again, my opinion).

At our old location, we had varnished wooden floor all over (come to think of it, we may have had carpet in our bag room). Our two dojo could be joined together by removing a section of the wall, giving room for two fighting areas for tournaments. When you started sweating under your feet, it would be like an ice rink. In those days, they used to hold tournaments at another dojo/club with unvarnished wooden floors (the same dojo as I mentioned before, with concrete underneath). These floors were very slippery for kumite, untill you started sweating under your feet and got a firm grip.

Originally Posted by Martin H

Sadly, few of us have 3 different dojo-room (each with one type of floor) to chose between when holding a class.

We actually are that fortunate. The main dojo has unvarnished wooden floors, the smaller dojo upstairs has polish all over it, plus we have our bag room with puzzle tatami. I prefer the first option over the other two, but I must admit that it's nice with the puzzle tatami when practicing domawashi kaiten geri - people tend to skip that when we set up bags in dojo II.

[Deaken]

I definately prefer wood floors over carpet or puzzle mats. I have traindon all three and wood is my favourite. Wood flooring is what we installed last year when we built our dojo.

Interesting feedback about the insurance. I have never been asked about the floor type, only about the contact type. The insurance companies seem to not like knockdown schools very much for some reason.