Many physical arts are practiced among people around the world, and some of these physical arts such as gymnastics, martial arts, or combat training call for some protective surfaces to prevent accidental injury during a session. Most often, these protective surfaces are soft and impact-absorbent, meaning that any person who collides with them is unlikely to suffer from bruises, fractured bones, a concussion, or worse. On the floor, martial arts mats, foam carpet tiles with interlocking pieces, gymnastics practice mats, and more may be used. These mats will allow a person to tumble, land, or fall on these mats without serious injury, and they are standard fare at such places as a gymnastics competition, a police academy training session, military training zones, and martial arts classes. Even gymnastics cheese mats may be used, and these gymnastics cheese mats get their name from how they are wedge-shaped like a slice of cheese. A person may find wholesale gymnastics cheese mats or floor foam mats online and get a regular supplier online, such as searching “gymnastics cheese mats wholesale San Diego CA” or something to that effect. What are these mats capable of?
Where Mats are Used
Who is using these mats, and for what purpose? As mentioned earlier, gymnasts nearly always make use of these mats, both for practice sessions and for an actual event in front of a live audience. These mats are important to use since their tough, foam-padded bodies are flat and easily allow a gymnast to tumble across them or do back flips, land on them from a height, or in the case of a mishap, simply fall onto them. These mats are used by all gymnasts, such as the members of a high school gymnast team or someone who is training for the Olympics. Such mats can be taken out of a storage closet and laid across the surface of a gym before a practice session, for example. Such mats may also be found on either side of a narrow beam for walking.
Meanwhile, many contexts for martial arts also call for these floor mats. A karate school may use them, not to mention the close-combat training areas for a military compound or a police academy. In these areas, students or cadets are being taught how to perform close martial arts, and that includes grapples, throws, tackles, or knocking someone down. These actions could result in bone fractures, concussions, or heavy bruising on a sheer wooden or concrete floor, so these practice foam mats are laid out to prevent serious injury. A drill sergeant would be unhappy if their trainees had to quit a practice session early due to a fractured bone, after all. Even large, tough trainees or instructors might suffer a serious injury if they fell or were thrown onto a hard, bare floor. So, these mats are universally used. Practice sessions like these may include other soft surfaces for a similar reason. An instructor may hold a sort of padded shield in front of them and instruct a trainee to repeatedly kick and punch it.
Karate is traditionally performed on wooden floors, but a trainer may set out a series of interlocking foam tiles for a training class. These tiles are small but can fit together like puzzle pieces to cover as large an area as the class needs, and these tiles may have patterns printed on them to resemble a wooden floor.
Taking Care of Mats
These mats are simple in construction and use; the don’t even have any moving parts. But basic care should be taken so that they last longer and aren’t damaged. Such mats should be stored in a cool, dry area such as a closet in a high school or a martial arts studio, and larger ones have creases so that they can be folded up. People should keep sharp objects or hard-soled shoes away from them, or risk tearing their protective vinyl covers. Food and drinks should be kept away, since spills will make a mess and the mat may become dangerously slippery. Finally, although people sometimes do this anyway, such foam mats should not have cars parked on them to contain the oil drips. Such mats weren’t designed to endure a car’s immense weight.