Mats in the dojo

[Dana Sheets]

Halford,

Generally I can apply your metaphors to the topic at hand - however this time you've become totally inscrutable to me. Are you implying that if folks learned how to fall well enough they'd have a mat whever they go? Or are you implying more of a "to each his own" mentality"? Or are you somehow implying that mats are inefficient and there is another better way that only needs to be discovered.

Please clarify.

thanks,
Dana

[Halford]

Since you asked, or did you?, I have used mats and I have used floors, some of wood and some of concrete,and grassy ground and other types of ground,terrain. The point in training in any of these is to find out if you can do something with them without killing yourself in the process, of course, and to gain some kind of confidence in daily life. When you enter the dojo, you enter another world, and when you emerge, the question becomes,"What do you bring from the dojo into the world?" To put it in another way, two men were making a journey to a place and had to cross a river, or let us say, a pond, a lake, a sea, and to facilitate their voyage to get to the other shore, they constructed a raft and after a strenuous trip reached the other shore. What did they do when they reached that shore? They left the raft and proceeded into the mountains,etc. They did not carry the raft any further along. Now, suppose they had to cross many rivers and seas, then should they abandon the raft they once constructed to get across one river? Well, some individuals, perhaps, Native Americans, made canoes and so was born the portage. If you look at it all this way: large,heavy rollout mats are great for the dojo that needs them, for others, a simple, light portable mat is fine, and for those who walk the grassy planes(plains) of their lawns or parks, they need only police the area, as someone suggested. We would not, for example, lug and tug a huge, rollout mat to a park with nicely trimmed and soft grass would we? That is why,also, when we walk we do not roll out carpets(unless they are red and we are VIPs and if we were the latter, someone else would roll them out for us),but we wear shoes, sandals,etc. Shoes are tools and so are mats. Let us use them for the purposes for which they were made. But there will come a time when both the shoes and the mats must be discarded.

[Gerte]

Sheesh - I can't even imagine grappling without a mat.

I suppose for most stuff on the ground it could technically be done, but the risk of injury seems high. I am right with Dana - most of the guys in my class can control my fall when they throw or sweep me - but I just don't have the strength to show them the same consideration. Nevermind that ANYONE can screw up when learning a new technique.

I would think some limited grappling with advanced students might work w/o a mat - but I personally would NOT train consistently at a dojo that didn't provide one. I'm sure I'll be called a wimp, but my body takes enough of a beating in class. I don't need to add a hard floor into the mix!

[Dana Sheets]

Thanks Halford. That's much more clear.

Gerte - welcome to the forums! It is asking alot of folks to fall for years on hard floors. And as someone recently pointed out to me - the risk of head injury, especially for kids - goes way up! And it doesn't take much matting to soften the blow a great deal.

Dana

[Halford]

Well, falling exercises are more than just falling down! The idea is not to fall continously on hard, dangerous surfaces, but if and when you may have to do so, you want to survive and so you learn on reasonably comfortable mats in reasonably comfortable surroundings with a bunch of people:trainees/trainors,etc. who have your welfare in mind as you progress. The old judo ukemi was a workout in itself which, I suspect most dojos these days do not indulge in! Usually,breakfalls were done as warmups when you stepped onto the mat, after helping to unroll it,if it was, a huge rolled-up affair and re-rolling was done at the end of class(another good workout or cooldown). The conditioning received by the body in Ukemi cannot be underestimated and I should point out that the gis were not the rather flimsy ones used nowadays and not karate gis either. The tatami were thick but even slow a good body slam would be felt,etc. Mat work, or grappling on mats is another matter. No one would expect a beginner to land smoothly on a cement floor without some previous training and exercise or would they?

[Halford]

to leap, fall, tumble, etc. when they do martial arts,such as, kalaripayattu. Thought I'd mention it since everyone should read the topic on the Karate Girls of India.