Mats - yes or no?

wow, thomas. breakfalls on concrete floor everyday . well my school floor is covered in mat completely, so we never had to fall on floors

 

Got a 2" wrestling mat over the whole training area, I'm spoiled

Even working standup only they are great for safety. Knees don't get as buggered up. And probably the most common injury I've seen in "no contact' is someone slipping and smacking there head on a hard floor.

Also without mats you can't train take downs & groundwork. Whic reduces the amount of fun to 1/3. Or if you are going self-defence, removes a big part of that equation.

But of course people without them make excuses as to why they are better off without them

 

It's not like it sounds... we do our series of breakfalls on mats usually. If we are working with a partner and doing throws or takedowns we don't use mats all the time.

 

I teach privately out of my garage, which is about 12' by 20'. The set up that I have is three layers of this padded foam that is carpet thin and covers the floor of the garage. On top of that I have regular carpet which provides for a little bit more stability for kicks and stand up. I think this is a great setup especially for Hapkido practice, since we combine stand-up striking and grappling, throwing, and groundfighting. I also have a couple of extra fold out mats that we use for learning the throws.

 

We don't do many throws/takedowns in TKD, the mat is mostly there for if you slip during a kick (happens quite often, especially for begginers), and whip your head on the ground, so that you can get back up.

You should definately get used to hard surfaces, but I don't think training of them regularly would be safe in the long run.

PL

 

without mats i would be accident prone lol

 

I guess I'm not the only one that does breakfalls, shoulder rolls and take downs on concrete.
Now that really hurt!
But anway's, mats are luxury items to me, and in the past it was only used for the kids, and begginers, but once you hit the advance level, you can start kissing the concrete!
I would rather perfer the floor than the mats, because in real life situation, outside you won't have mats cushioning the impact if you fall.

 

well, if you dont use a mat and are learning a new move, something could go horribly wrong which is no good for a martial artists carrer. Mats are good for training the technique without killing yourself. however when it comes to sparring or training with moves you know well, go mattless. its more effective and really makes you feel like you can prepare yourself for the real deal.

 

In real life there could be broken glass on the ground or other obstacles. Do you train with broken glass on your training area floor?

I guess it really comes down to, how close to reality you are willing to get. When we did training exercises when I worked at the jail we didn't have our mock inmates (other officers) get high on meth and attack us, because it's not safe. But in all reality a great percentage of people that come to jail are high or drunk.

Lately I have been teaching throws to my yellow belt student and we probably do upwards of 40 throws a night to each other. If we did not have mats I would probably cut that training down considerabley.

I can understand if someone doesn't have the money, resources or the space to have mats they should train with what they have. But, I think there should be a fine line between what happens in reality and what you do in your training.

 

I think mats allow you to test out things like throws and takedowns in a more realistic manner.

The person initiating the takedown etc can 'go for it' yet still have someone to try the same level of execution with again and again.

Lau Gar does not often put training partners in this situation.

 

Um, was that supposed to be part of your training? That sounds very sadistic on the part of the people who are supposed to be teaching you.

 

There are no mats at my class- it can be quite painful on your feet and if we're doing throws or someone falls . I found the best way to take care of your feet before class is to apply lotion- no ideas on falls though (just try to land as best as possible).

 

Thier take on it is its 'realistic' and when I say being thrown to the floor it is in the context of working with a partner trying techniques on each other and practiscing locks, disarming all the other good stuff, not just random brutality, lol.

The most painful to date has to be a hanbo technique that involved cracking it against people's shins when they attacked you, now I'm not a kickboxer and always wore shin pads in Kung Fu sparring, so my shins HURT!.

lol.

 

One of my classes uses mats, the other doesn't. I like the mats for warm-ups - sit ups hurt less on them as you're not bashing your back against the hard floor, but I don't like sparring on them, as we can't wear shoes and I keep on hurting my feet when kicking people (e.g. if they move forward as you kick and don't connect quite as expected!). I never realised until I started on the mats how much trainers protect my feet!

 

Oh, you made it sound like they threw you on the floor the first day and started gangbanging you.

 

Originaly Posted by Tireces

lol
1 minutes later, lol
5 minutes later, on the floor still lol