Thread: Dojo Floor
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Old 12-27-2004, 01:46 AM   #8
Rocky Izumi
Dojo: GUST Aikido Club
Location: Salwa, Kuwait
Join Date: Oct 2004
Posts: 381
Kuwait
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Re: Dojo Floor

Kawahara Shihan has continuously berated me for using the Swain mats on a floating wooden floor. He keeps telling me that they are too soft and results in poor Aikido. He commented that if we are using the high density foam type tatami that we should have them on a concrete floor or if we have a floating wooden floor, that the mats should be only half the thickness. He preferred my dojos with the jigsaw mats on a floating wooden floor, or better yet, when we worked on just two layers of foam-backed rugs covered with a canvas. I think he would rather have us working on a plain wooden floor with no mats. I think I may be getting too old for koshinage on those wooden floors.

I don't like the jigsaw mats because they tend to rip the skin off the knees of the beginners when they are just starting to do shikko.

I don't like the canvas covered rugs because they are too slippery in the winter in the northern climes and get too smelly in the tropics.

I guess my favorite option is Swain mats on concrete or a non-floating wooden floor.

Rock
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