When and Where to Use Some Foam Floor Mats
Many sports in the world today involve falling on, rolling on, or landing on the floor, such as gymnastics and many martial arts. In most applications, a soft surface will be used to absorb the impact of landing, for both convenience and safety. Gymnastics mats are a fine example of foam floor mats, as foam floor mats like these prevent injury during a performance. Gymnasts may use foam floor mats for practice and an event alike, and martial arts also call for some foam floor mats and other padding to keep everyone safe. Even police training academies, martial arts schools, and military training zones will make use of impact-resistant materials to prevent accidental injury. These various crash mats and floor padding mats vary in size and color, but the idea is the same.
Mats for Gymnastics
Many Americans are familiar with gymnastics; where a gymnast, often women and girls, will leap through the air, land on the ground, perform somersaults, and more to show off their dexterity and strength. For both practice sessions and a real event, even in the Olympics, padded floor mats must be in place to prevent injury. A hard wooden or concrete floor may easily cause bruises, bone fractures, or even a concussion or worse if someone were to tumble or fall onto them, so precautions are taken. Many American high schools involve gymnastics teams, and these students will have access to padded floor mats in or near the gymnasium. They, or their teachers, will store padded mats there and take them back out and lay them down for use. Such mats may vary in size, and they may have the school’s emblem printed on the cover fabric.
Martial Arts
These padded surface are also quite useful for combat training in many different forms. Many Americans practice martial arts such as judo, karate, Tae Kwon Do, and more for sport or exercise, and people often fall down or tumble while doing this. Here again, someone might get badly hurt if they land on hard floors, so mats are set up. Such mats may or may not be laid down for tournament matches, but they will certainly be there for practice, and may be found at any martial arts school or in a fitness club that offers martial arts classes.
Police academies and military training grounds will also have mats like these, for much the same reason. Even large, well-muscled men in training might suffer a bone fracture, bruising, or a concussion when they fall on hard ground, and a training instructor would not be happy about a cadet losing practice time due to an injury. Similar soft surfaces can also be used for kick, punch, and tackle practice, such as handheld pads that one trainee holds while the other strikes them. These handheld pads might be used in other combat training applications too, such as a karate school or a self defense class. Some participants might even wear padded body armor or partial helmets to ensure no one suffers a serious blow.
Caring for Mats
Crash mats and foam floor mats don’t have any moving parts or run on electricity or fuel, and they are quite simple items. Just a padded interior, and tough fabric on the outside to act as a case. They may still need some basic care, however. For one thing, no sharp objects or hard-soled footwear should be allowed near them, since such items may tear the cover and allow the padding to spill out. Further use of the pads may tear the hole wider, and call for repairs or replacement of that fabric. And in general, food or drink should not be allowed near these foam floor mats, since spilled edibles might stain them. Spilled substances might also make the surface too slick and cause someone to slop or get hurt.
It may also be noted that while some people use padded mats as a place to park a car to contain that vehicle”s oil drips, this is bad idea. Such mats are not designed to endure the enormous weight of a motor vehicle. They are only designed for people to stand on or fall on.
