Martial Arts
Mats

A martial arts floor must provide a safe space for the person , preventing a fall from causing damage or injury. However, the floor is also an element that influences the athlete’s performance. Therefore, choosing the right martial arts floor is a very important decision that must be made taking into account a series of criteria that directly influence both the athlete’s safety and performance.

The first thing you should consider when choosing a floor for martial arts practice is to know what objectives or functions it must fulfill.

Considering that martial arts are sports disciplines in which there is a lot of projection and falls , the perfect pavement must fulfill these 3 main functions:

• Shock absorption. The floor must be able to absorb impacts and reduce the force transmitted to the body during falls, jumps, or impacts. This helps prevent injuries to joints, bones, and soft tissues.
• Injury protection. A suitable martial arts floor should minimize the risk of injury. It should have a soft, cushioned surface that reduces impact in the event of a fall or impact.
• Performance enhancement. Furthermore, the perfect floor for martial arts should allow athletes to perform movements in a controlled manner, providing optimal grip on the floor and good execution.

• Good Cushioning. The floor we choose should offer good cushioning to absorb impacts and prevent injuries during sports, reducing stress on the joints when performing movements such as jumping, falling, and rapid movements. This way, we offer good protection to the athlete. In this sense, thicker and denser floors offer greater cushioning and, consequently, greater protection for the athlete.
• Good stability. To ensure proper movement control during martial arts practice, the floor must offer good stability. This is achieved with a good balance between cushioning and firmness. Keeping in mind that the firmness of a floor depends on its density, that is, how compact the material is, the greater the density, the greater the hardness and firmness. Ideally, the floor should be neither too hard nor too soft, since if it’s too hard, it can cause a strong impact when falling, and if it’s too soft, the athlete loses balance and finds it more difficult to control their movements.
• Good grip. The floor must offer good traction to allow for quick and agile movements, while ensuring the athletes’ stability. Ideally, a floor should offer a non-slip surface and provide good grip during sports, facilitating quick movements without compromising stability.
• Good durability and resistance. It’s important to choose a floor that offers good resistance and can withstand continuous use without deteriorating. This way, we’ll achieve a floor that maintains its properties for longer.
• Easy maintenance. The floor must be easy to clean and maintain to prevent rapid deterioration. Some materials are better than others in this regard. For example, martial arts flooring made of EVA foam is highly stain-resistant and easy to clean, resulting in a very hygienic and durable material.
• Installation and portability. Flooring that is easy to install and can be disassembled for transport offers many advantages, which is why it is the most commonly used flooring in martial arts centers.

In martial arts, the most commonly used flooring are interlocking foam mats. The excellent characteristics of this type of flooring allow for safe practice, as well as high performance and durability. That’s why we always recommend it to our clients.

But it’s important to choose the right tatami mat for each type of martial art. We must choose the thickness that best suits each type of martial art, keeping in mind that the most commonly used thicknesses in these disciplines range from 2 cm and 2,5 cm to 3 cm and 4 cm.

In general, we can establish a simple rule for choosing the perfect thickness of a tatami for martial arts:

Therefore, tatami flooring for martial arts with a higher risk of falls and impacts from takedowns should be thicker.

To help you choose the right tatami mat for your martial arts center, we’ve created this table to guide you through your selection based on each type of discipline.

We show you some spaces where our interlocking foam mat is installed: