PDA

View Full Version : Swain vs. Zebra mats



Patrick McKee
20th January 2002, 06:23
Does any one have an opinion as to whether the Swain mats are better than the Zebra mats? I can purchase Zebra mats for about $400-500 less than the Swain but I want the best. I have heard that Zebra's are a bit softer than Swain. This might be good since the mats are going on top of concrete and we do occasionally have some hard falls. No "body slams" but we do roll a lot. I am assuming that we need the thickest mats that either company offers but correct me if you have rolled on any of the thinner mats.

Any experience is appreciated,

Patrick McKee

Robert Wolfe
20th January 2002, 19:29
At our dojo, we have synthetic tatami from three different manufacturers -- Zebra, Swain, and the company in Belgium that was one of the first (if not the first) to produce such mats. All are good, but I like the Zebra mats best. They are the least expensive, while the quality matches or exceeds that of the other manufacturers.

Our dojo is on the lower level of an office building, with the mats directly on top of a concrete slab, and the surface is just fine for kenjutsu, jojutsu, aikijutsu, and jujutsu. (We'd love to have a hardwood floor for the kenjutsu and jojutsu, but the mats provide more than adequate footing.)

Patrick McKee
21st January 2002, 02:35
Thank you Mr. Wolfe,

That's just the type of info I am looking for.

If I buy the Zebras here in California I won't have to pay sales tax and I can get a better deal on the used mats. This would save me about $500.00 which I can spend on all the other things we need to get this training space off the ground.

Regards,

KenpoKev
22nd January 2002, 06:03
You might want to contact Mike Swain directly in Campbell and inquire if he has any used mats. I have purchased a fairly large number of them and I am exceptionally pleased with them. I also have some of the Zebra jigsaw variety, also quite nice, but different.

We use the Swains for all sorts of events, including judo, jujitsu and LE DT. Mike's warehouse is near you too.

Good luck,
Kev

Evan Pantazi
31st January 2002, 14:31
Zebra!

Jeff O
1st February 2002, 01:18
Hi Patrick,

Our 1500 sq ft dojo has had swain gold mats since 99, and they work great. We've had no problems with workmanship. We put half-inch carpet foam (pretty cheap at any discount carpet store) under them, because the floor is 1/2 inch pine wood on top of cement. The foam added very little mushiness, but does help with bigger throws like uchi mata, koshi nage, osoto otoshi, etc.

One of my teachers (Sensei Askew) has Zebra mats at his dojo, and I could not honestly tell the difference between them. I thought they were Swain when I first trained on them. If they are cheaper, I would seriously look at them.

One of our students runs a dojo in Cincinnati, and he uses Tiffin mats. They are much softer than the swain, but work just as well.

Hope this helps!

Jeff O