Mats for the new hotbox

What's up guys, So kevin just moved out here to philly and we got my saint joes jiu jitsu club started up as the philly hotbox. beyond stoked.

So we've always had our own mats from collecting dues from the students. But some of them got stolen and not enough are paying their dues. And now we have more students coming to roll since its a hotbox and obviously it's free for them.

So we are in need of mats. Any suggestions? Cost effective. We've always bought folding mat sections with the student dues. But thats getting too expensive. Im thinking some puzzle mats. Anybody know the best place to get a deal? Suggestions on dimensions/thickness? It'd be nice to still be comfortable doing takedowns which is my concern with puzzle mats.

Thanks guys

I put an ad on craigslist and within less than 2 weeks I had someone contact me. I got a $300 folding mat for $75. Its worth a try but probably not a great solution. I'm looking forward to seeing more replies on this myself.

The Gracie's put out an awesome instructional on how to make your own mats just like the ones they use at their headquarters. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehb7tfvrXe8

Get rung has mats for a decent price and check out dollamur's ebay store. they always seem to have a deal going.

Thanks for that video on the gracie mats! What a cost saver!

yea i'd love to make those gracie mats, but that's kinda permanent. We share our space so we need to break down the mats every night.

That's too bad you have to breakdown your mats every night, we made our mats in Hartford like the Gracie mats and they've worked out great. One of our guys has some blue folding mats at his house that I don't think he uses. I'll speak to him and see if he's willing to sell 'em :). Gives me another reason to make the trip down there to visit.

A buddy of mine used that to set up his garage as a mini gym. Theyre super comfy to roll on.

Thanks for all the input everyone. We'd love to have you down here, we also have to find time to make it up to Hartford eventually.

There is a company that sells reconditioned wrestling mats. They redo the tops of the mats after a tournament or something then sell the mats for like $300. Keep in mind that this isn't a full sized wresling mat, rather like half a mat. The one gym I go to shares room with a karate class so we have some tear down to do after our class. The price included shipping. When it came in new the mat needed a lot of cleaning and mopping, they put some kind of powder on it when it's new.

If you google reconditioned wrestling mats you will find several vendors. I believe we got a resilite two sided mats. Each mat folds in half, so several 10x10 mats can be moved around. I don't know your funds, so, we waited and got ours on a special. You may have to wait awhilefor a special to come up. After high school wrestling season ends and the tournaments are over in hershey, pa, mats may become more available if you can wait.

Other than this, Ollies bargain outlet has the puzzle mats on sale from time to time.. Think the nearest one to you would be Cherry hill Area.

My next run to south Jersey I may look you guys up so I can learn some stuff.

get a craigslist notifier app for android or ios and set up a search for just "mats" it will catch some random fitness equipment but its the best for finding mats. Mats go very fast but there can be some amazing deals. I got two 13'x36' wrestling mats with a perfect surface for only $750 on an auction posted on craigs (the sellers thought they were 13'x16"!).

You can get 10x10 wrestling and dollamur mats for 200-400 on craigs. Ill 2nd Josh on dollamur's ebay store, they have deals from time to time.

I have also heard that mats at comps get sold for cheap sometimes.

you can get puzzle mats super cheap at SAM's club and double them up to make them 1" thick or tripple for 1.5". I think 12x24 doubled up (300sqft) will run about $450, Thats what I have but I got more than half my mats on criags so that size cost me under $400. I posted them here a while back with links and pics. Just one layer is only good for light drilling. Doubled to make 1" is the minimumn for rolling from the knees and Id go 1.5 for starting standing.