I've just moved to a new house and want to set up a training area in my garage. It needs to be easy to dismantle. I'm looking at all the options available and getting confused as to what would be best. Puzzle mats? Roll up mats? I would mainly be using the area for taekwondo practice. The flooring needs to be cushioning enough to absorb some impact (my knees are not what they used to be.... plus it would be nice to practice take-downs occasionally). But I don't want it too soft to impede balance or kicking. Ideally, I'd like to create a 3mx3m area, but conceding that cost may dictate something smaller. I'm hoping to keep the cost under $250 if possible. I'd rather get something good in a smaller area, than cheap out and get horrid stuff for a larger area. What thickness should I be looking at? Is 40mm too thick? Puzzle mats or some kind of roll-up mat? I'm leaning towards tatami texture - yes/no?
Second hand tatami are still expensive, around 80 quid a mat (100cm x 50 cm) on a good day, jigsaws are OK, 40mm is good for grappling on, thinner mats arent that much cheaper, amazon regularly have them at 20 quid per metre squared. So 180 pound for what you require, which is around 240 US.
It's a question of how thick versus how soft. If it's soft, the thicker it is the more of a pain it is to move around when your feet sink in and it doesn't necessarily provide great shock absorption on a small surface area like a foot. What I personally found best for mixed work was something a guy had rigged up in his own garage; a combination of hard-ish quarter inch rubber weightlifting mats laid over used wrestling mats. It allowed for shock absorption while spreading the pressure of your feet so you wouldn't sink so much. Certainly more expensive to do a double layer, although his matting was all bought used, but it seemed to avoid the detriment of each by combining them.
If your garage has a concrete floor, I would recommend painting it with a concrete sealer and/or garage floor paint before you put the mats down - this will help keep control of concrete dust.
Never - Never- Never used improvised safety equipment. The worst injury I ever got was caused by an improvised floor mat. I was doing some ground work using some kind of insulating foam mat as a floor mat. I was sitting on the floor. My partner stood up to walk around me. As he stood the foam shifted under his weight. His ankle twisted. He fell vertically onto my head with his full body weight. My neck/spine compacted then whip-lashed forward under the force. Took a year to recover. Given the force of the accident i consider myself lucky. If you are throwing/falling use a mat desighend for throwing e.g Judo / aikido/ bjj or wrestling mats. Do not use mats desighend for karate / tykwando as they are not intended to protect from the impact of heavy falls. Judo and Bjj mats often have a different surface. The BJJ mats tend to have a covering that allows more movement on the floor but a little less grip under foot. Judo mats have more grip under foot but this makes them a little harder to move on if you are on the ground.
