Home made grappling mats

[Lacrymosa]

Hello all,

I'm getting a little tired of having to shell out $7 for a day pass at my local YMCA to get access to mats.

I've been seriously thinking of making my own mats. Of course, the cheaper the materials, the better.

Anyone out here with practical experience with making mats? Any information/pointers/instructions/material advice would be greatly appreciated.

[John Bennett]

Honestly, I've calculated this out several times over the years.

It costs the same to build them as it does to buy them.

I know this isn't what you wanted to hear, but it's the truth.

You can however save a good chunk of change by picking them up yourself instead of having them delivered. Find the retailer nearest you. Find a friend with a pick-up truck. Road Trip!

[duchman]

i have a gym to train at but i wanted some mats for at home for god knows what reason.

i buyed them from a old judo teacher, mats looked new for only 0 guilders a mat. jast cant make them for that price

[Underdog]

That's my advice: The brazilians don't have mats, at least not the type we are able to see there in US and here in europe. But, boys, they do roll!!, by far the most common "tatame" used in brazil is a makeshift one made by laying on the floor a strate of rubber obtained from old inner tubes from auto tires (obviously cutted into small pieces) when they reach a 2-inches high laying, they cover up the whole floor with pvc covers used to cover trucks, securing them to the edges of the floor.

Cheap as hell and functional to the most.

[Lacrymosa]

I've been doing my homework on this matter, and I find John to be right on the money. Initially, I planned on making grappling mats by dissecting a vinyl tarp as the surface (that's the cheap part). The expensive part is the foam padding. So far, I'm looking at around $45 for a 3' x 3' mat. So covering a 9' x 9' area would be a bit costly.

I think it's time to bite the bullet and buy some regular mats. Thanks for the info.

[JaredExtreme]

Our academy is at a Karate School, we roll on hard rubber squares, like the kind elementary schools use on playgrounds. It's hard not having mats at first (especially during takedowns), but it teaches you how to land correctly, and your feet and back get tougher.

[Dio]

Get about 5 frineds and go to your local highschool. Walk in during school hours and just act normal. Then make your way to the wrestling room and you can all steal the huge roll up wrestling mats. Those things take at least 4 people a mat to carry. They will fit on the back of a pick up truck. They will stick out the end becuase they are so big but just drive slow.

You might have trouble finding a room that is big enough to roll out one of the mats but you can always get a big knife and cut to fit.

[Hookah Smokin Caterpillar]

Dio, you're brilliant!

[Karlinhos]

lac,

a friend of mine made his with a canvas outer shell (as oppose to the vinyl type) and instead of using foam, he used sections of carpeting, maybe 3 layers. then he glued the canvas to the stacked carpeting (so the canvas wouldn't separate and shimmy around). smoothed it out. layed books over the whole thing so it stuck. let it dry for a day or two and then sewed the outer edges shut. the damn thing works like a charm!

[Lacrymosa]

Thanks for all of the advice......

...but I FOUND THE SOLUTION.....

I found something that may work perfectly for me. 10' x 10' mat surface for $100 (plus tax)! It's not exactly a home made method, but it was the find of the month for me

I strolled through K-Mart yesterday on the way to work where I went through the exercise ailse to buy my wife some small weights (for her jogging sessions). I spotted something that I think may work very well:

They were exercise mats........a 2'x5'x1'' pad for $9.99. I bought two of them yesterday and tried them out. They work like a charm and I estimated that the 10' x 10' surface that I was planning on covering will only cost about $100 with this method (mind you, keeping them together may be another project).

Anyone looking for a cheap solution should check it out......at KMart......who knew?

[GuardMaster]

lac:
Can you actually fall on these mats?

[Lacrymosa]

I practice ukemi for a few minutes on these mats and they're relatively decent enough to work with throws. The nice part about it is, since they are relatively cheap, I could "double up" the mats together, making the cushion thicker for harder throws.

Regardless, it's a definite upgrade to the threadbare carpet me and the boys have been rolling on.

[Dhalsim]

Weve always made our own mats. Buy the tarp, get foam for free in odd shapes from carpet store in the throw away pile outback, and buy contact cement(that is the most costly part). It can be done!