places to roll

hey guys just thought id throw this out there...

i was taking bjj and judo for a short period and really enjoyed it. unfortunately im on hold from it due to a new job interfering with the schedule available. what im wondering is if any of you guys have any suggestions on where to go with friends to just roll and work out. the place i trained at doesnt have any open mat type times and i cant think of anywhere else that would have a mat that would let us work out. the local gyms and such would not allow us i would think, although i really dont know.

any suggestions?

If you have any connections to a college, high school or jr. high maintenance or athletic crew you could see about using their wrestling mats on off-hours.

If you have some experience, you could approach a health-club and tell them that in exchange for letting you use a room (if they have mats) a couple times a week, you'll make one class per week an "open" class that they can advertise and have their members attend with you instructing.

You can get some mats and put them in someone's basement or garage.

I donno how much this is gonna help u but, it worked for me. If anyone u know has a basement. U can pick up the interlocking puzzle foam mats for pretty cheap. forgot the site I saw them on but they had a 10' x 10' area or maybe it was 12' x 12' for like $100. which is way cheaper than buying traditional folding mats. I found them using a simple yahoo search.

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Posted by StevenSeagal

I donno how much this is gonna help u but, it worked for me. If anyone u know has a basement. U can pick up the interlocking puzzle foam mats for pretty cheap. forgot the site I saw them on but they had a 10' x 10' area or maybe it was 12' x 12' for like $100. which is way cheaper than buying traditional folding mats. I found them using a simple yahoo search.

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+1 u and ur friends chip in .

thanks guys, i stopped by some gyms and i think i found one that will work. i wish i had the space to just buy mats but i dont and my friend lives in an apartment as well.

and that is a great suggestion to try to teach a class to offset the class but believe me i shouldnt be teaching anyone...

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Posted by fullerene

If you have some experience, you could approach a health-club and tell them that in exchange for letting you use a room (if they have mats) a couple times a week, you'll make one class per week an "open" class that they can advertise and have their members attend with you instructing.

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I just wanted to comment on this. This will not likely happen because there is too much liability for the health club. My University used to let me use the fitness room (which was covered in tatami mats) to train. I was by myself too. There were several other martial arts groups that used it here and there too. That was the case until a guy was put into a coma and another guy had his neck broken. Now you can't just sign the room out. You need references, credentials and probably your own insurance.

The whole issue with liability, I think, would prevent you from teaching a class in a health club.

IMO, I do not like the puzzle mats. They are not very thick and have too much friction as well as places to catch your toes and such (where the mats interlock). I've used them before (when visiting other dojo) and came to the conclusion that I would never use them myself or train at a dojo that used them. It wouldn't surprise me if a dojo that used these would have a high incidence of staph.

The best mats are the tatami mats that are used in most judo and aikido clubs. They are pricey, but you can get used ones cheap (or in my case free). Just get to know people that own clubs that use these mats. The gym at my university uses them for stretching mats. They upgrade them every couple years. I've been a member there for years so I just asked the athletics coordinator if I could buy some used ones from them at a cheap price. She just gave me a bunch for free. I only took four mats, but they had about 10 total (the rest were really beat up). Six to eight mats would be all you need to have enough room to roll without problems. Four is enough to practice techniques.

So don't be afraid to go around to schools and clubs and ask them if they will be upgrading their mats any time soon. Some places just throw them out and would either be happy to give them away to you or sell them to you very cheap. All you have to do is clean them and maybe to some minor repairs.

I can't say how common it is, but I've done that at a gym before and I know other people who have as well.


And anyone who's doing live sparring or even certain types of drills (like head-first throws) with people who dropped in from a health club shouldn't have volunteered to teach in the first place. Like any MA instructor, you need to be cautious about what level student is doing what. That doesn't eliminate risk, but it mitigates it. Every health club has insurance and has members sign waivers as well.

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Posted by Rush

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Posted by fullerene

If you have some experience, you could approach a health-club and tell them that in exchange for letting you use a room (if they have mats) a couple times a week, you'll make one class per week an "open" class that they can advertise and have their members attend with you instructing.

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I just wanted to comment on this. This will not likely happen because there is too much liability for the health club. My University used to let me use the fitness room (which was covered in tatami mats) to train. I was by myself too. There were several other martial arts groups that used it here and there too. That was the case until a guy was put into a coma and another guy had his neck broken. Now you can't just sign the room out. You need references, credentials and probably your own insurance.

The whole issue with liability, I think, would prevent you from teaching a class in a health club.

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My university is the same way. We have a combat room covered in one half springloaded floor and the other half in wrestling mats. Random people used ot be able to sign it out but its gotten strict since a judo Brown belt cracked his leg there.

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Posted by fullerene

And anyone who's doing live sparring or even certain types of drills (like head-first throws) with people who dropped in from a health club shouldn't have volunteered to teach in the first place. Like any MA instructor, you need to be cautious about what level student is doing what.

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I totally agree and I don't doubt that it is doable, but I figured the complications involved would make it undesirable for a club to do it. Mind you I am not aware of any given state's laws regaring such incidents, but I would hazzard a guess that they are different.

Just to clarify, one incident that I mentioned was a result of sparring (coma) and the neck break was a grappling related incident.

do they not allow use of the rooms for grappling at all or just not to sign out the room for an open class sort of thing. i have no intention of trying to teach anyone but got the impression from a gym that i could use the room to work out with my buddy although to be honest i was perhaps not totally upfront about our intentions. i mentioned we would be practicing and needed mats to do so and of course this 19 yo girl i talked to may not of understoood what that included....

a lot of gyms that teach kickboxing, bjj, etc have open mat nights at least a couple times a week(at least around milwaukee they do) so you might want to give that a try. plus if you attend the open mats theres a good chance you can get some free advice and such from the instructors there.