stir
16th January 2003, 00:57
Hi,
I have recently been put in charge of helping my dojo find a way to put some bounce in our floor. I am looking everywhere for choices and thought I would like to ask for the opinions and/or experiences of some of you here.
We have about a 30' x 30' surface at the moment. We have very 'quick' mats that were apparently donated to us from the Kodokan. They are a little stiffer than the kind of mats that you would find at a shiai nowadays, but they do have a fair bit of give. We are convinced that it is more a matter of what's underneath them that is causing us such discomfort. I believe right now it is layered as such:
Bottom: some kind of honeycomb shaped 'sponges' layed out in a pattern. They do not have very much give.
second layer: There are actually 2 layers of plywood here, the top layer being layed perpendicular to the one underneath it. I am no engineer or carpenter for that matter, but this seems to me that it would increase the stiffness of the floor alot as the two layers would work against each other and hardly move.
Third Layer: Some kind of silver coated carpet underpadding, approximately 1/3 of an inch thick.
Top Layer: The old Kodokan mats.
Please believe me when I say it's akin to breakfalling on mats that have been layed on concrete. You get some padding from the top layer, but there is absolutely no give.
So far I have managed to find a very good article on Judo America's website as well as visiting a local Gymnastic's club and bouncing around on their floor. The Judo America dojo I believe is in San Diego and they claim to have been through over a dozen different floors before settling on old car tires that were collected from a scrap yard. The gymnastic club that I visited uses a product from Spieth Anderson (a gymnastic supply company) and it was a very nice landing indeed. (the owner was nice enough to let me take off my socks and take a few breakfalls on the surface) They basically use these sponge 'cubes' that have about 4 different layers of density in them, some of the layers are to absorb the shock, some of them are to help the floor rebound. A plywood flooring is then laid over top of the cubes and the gymnastic mats are laid down on top of this. I believe this would be the ideal underpadding for us but I am worried about cost and whether or not the dojo will fork out the money necessary.
And so I am reaching out to everyone here to please share with me the methods and materials that you use in your current setup and the experiences you have with them.
Thank you for reading this and I look forward to your replies,
ps, I originaly posted this in the judo forum, but I decided to post in here as well in case some of you don't read that forum.
I have recently been put in charge of helping my dojo find a way to put some bounce in our floor. I am looking everywhere for choices and thought I would like to ask for the opinions and/or experiences of some of you here.
We have about a 30' x 30' surface at the moment. We have very 'quick' mats that were apparently donated to us from the Kodokan. They are a little stiffer than the kind of mats that you would find at a shiai nowadays, but they do have a fair bit of give. We are convinced that it is more a matter of what's underneath them that is causing us such discomfort. I believe right now it is layered as such:
Bottom: some kind of honeycomb shaped 'sponges' layed out in a pattern. They do not have very much give.
second layer: There are actually 2 layers of plywood here, the top layer being layed perpendicular to the one underneath it. I am no engineer or carpenter for that matter, but this seems to me that it would increase the stiffness of the floor alot as the two layers would work against each other and hardly move.
Third Layer: Some kind of silver coated carpet underpadding, approximately 1/3 of an inch thick.
Top Layer: The old Kodokan mats.
Please believe me when I say it's akin to breakfalling on mats that have been layed on concrete. You get some padding from the top layer, but there is absolutely no give.
So far I have managed to find a very good article on Judo America's website as well as visiting a local Gymnastic's club and bouncing around on their floor. The Judo America dojo I believe is in San Diego and they claim to have been through over a dozen different floors before settling on old car tires that were collected from a scrap yard. The gymnastic club that I visited uses a product from Spieth Anderson (a gymnastic supply company) and it was a very nice landing indeed. (the owner was nice enough to let me take off my socks and take a few breakfalls on the surface) They basically use these sponge 'cubes' that have about 4 different layers of density in them, some of the layers are to absorb the shock, some of them are to help the floor rebound. A plywood flooring is then laid over top of the cubes and the gymnastic mats are laid down on top of this. I believe this would be the ideal underpadding for us but I am worried about cost and whether or not the dojo will fork out the money necessary.
And so I am reaching out to everyone here to please share with me the methods and materials that you use in your current setup and the experiences you have with them.
Thank you for reading this and I look forward to your replies,
ps, I originaly posted this in the judo forum, but I decided to post in here as well in case some of you don't read that forum.