Mat Recommendations

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[Brion Toss]

Hello all,
Our dojo is in the market for new Mats. So far the leading contender is Zebra, but some of our members are concerned that these will be too hard.
At the moment we have some fairly squishy Resilite mats, that Velcro together. The Zebra proponents contend that the old mats actually have less shock-absorbent capacity, but we could certainly use experienced opinions.
Some details that might help:
•We need to take the mats up every week, as we share the space with a Tai Chi studio.
•Our demographics are on the old side, with an average age of mid-forties, and our eldest members in their seventies.
•The floor under the mats is wooden, but unsprung, and laid directly over concrete, so no extra cushion there.
•Mat stowage space is limited; we can't store pads any bigger than Zebra's.

Any thoughts?
Yours,
Brion Toss

[rachmass]

Hi Brian,

try this link: http://www.swainsportsintl.com/f_flooring.htm

this type of mat is easier to store and pick up after a day's class...

[fullerfury]

Hi Brian. Aikido of Northern Va. operates out of a gymnasium in a local church. The gymnasium serves as both a day care, basketball court, and the Aikido school. Because of this fact, the students must pick up all 56 + mats up at the end of class for storage and place them down before class each day. They use Zebra mats, as does my dojo Aikido Suimei. The flooring below the mats is standard concrete with hardwood flooring for the basketball court. In the couple of years that I trained in that space, I never had any problems with taking falls. The flooring at my dojo is over a basement on plywood and thus offers more spring then on direct concrete. But again, I find no problems with taking falls on the flooring.

-Garrett

[Mark Barlow]

Check out Flexi-Roll mats.