[domeffire]

Darlington, County Durham, GB.

We have a choice of two halls in which to practice - in a turn-of-the-20th century school building.

Each floor is 2-inch thick oak parquet laid on concrete.

Such fun for the knees and ankles........

Ho hum.

It is either that - - or no Kendo.
Which would you choose?

Bill

[leoto5Fm]

Indoor Basketball softness. It was so nice going to a new dojo and doing fumikomi after 7 months of wooden floor...
Ahhhh, It comforts the foot as you stamp the shit out of it!

[VipInoLo]

Vinyl composition tile...It's as hard as a rock and not good for fumikomi ashi nor or joints. Believe it or not our sensei loves it!

[conurgenceDen]

Favorite floor was Noma Dojo which was wood suspended on car springs,
and rippled when everyone was moving [wipes tear from eye..sniff].

Now I have to put up with a beautiful wooden floor in a purpose-built budokan.

[Blellurgews]

Yeah my all time fav was Noma dojo flooring as well! Hope the Kendo God is punishing whoever made the decision to tear it down!!!! The most smooth floor you would have ever found! The two dojos I practice at now have a lamenated wood floor, which isn`t too bad! Have also practice on plastic mats at exercise gym for Atagi Sensei dojo, and done dance hall flooring etc for demo / Obukan and Jazzerciser builing!

[gogoleanylinkfo]

We had a rather drab grey vinyl laid over our nice shiny honeyed wooden sprung floor. Admittedly we need never worry about splinter and cracks again and it has such great traction now I find it difficult practicing on normal wood. But the pictures look pants when you see that grey, boo!

[celddiskend]

sad but true, we do kendo in trainers on a marble floor.
it restricts the footwork a lot, but the bounce from the shoes makes it a new experience.

[ZwHRoTTn]

We used to have a nice floor. Linoleum with wood underneath, it was pretty nice (and bouncy), a bit like the floor Dwez is describing. But the municipality tore the place down (how could they ). Our current floor is bad (I wouldn't say terrible, my knees still work). It's concrete with some rubber layer on it. It absobs enegy, it really does. It seems make move forward fast a lot harder. Some of my dojo mates have seen worse, but I haven't (lucky me)

[ariniaxia]

Our dojo is an old elevated wooden plantation style schoolhouse, nice old wooden floor with big gaps between the boards (but not all the way through that we can see the ground beneath.

We can stomp the hell out of the floor! *BOOM*!!!

But then, we also deal with the splinters...

Beggars can't be choosers....

[mdUzAMbG]

It tool me ages to find a wooden floor in Hamilton as all the sports halls have tiles.

The major consideration is whether it's sprung. The more experienced guys may be OK on non sprung, but when it comes newbies, they'll end up with they're kneecap popping off like champaign corks!

The second consideration is the surface. For example; tile floors seem to sting the bottom of my feet on fumikomi and those high tech rubber floors are fine once in a while but are so forgiving that if you learnt on it you never have any incentive to not put heel down first in kumikomi.

good luck dude!

[Imiweevierm]

Thanks dude. The YMCA allows us to practice but only informally. If there is something else going on in the aerobics room we are SOL. In order to grow, I need a location that will guarantee us floor time.

All the community centers in Tallahassee have that hard rubber basketball gyms. They're the cheapest choice. That's why I asked. With only a group of 4 people it's difficult to get athletic gyms to rent space when they could fill a room with 40 hotties doing yoga or that zumba crazyness. Then you also have to convince the gym manager that hitting people with sticks is safe .

[genna]

hey dwight, this is our dojo floor:

http://picasaweb.google.es/kenwakaik...56956642273298

probably the best wooden floor /parquet in spain though a bit, just a bit slippery, if youre not used to it. but very even and well mantained!

[GECEDEANY]

hey dwight, this is our dojo floor

You bastard. That floor looks awesome.

And you will address me as MR.SCHRUTE. Do not toy with me. I hold a purple belt in Goju ryu. I can raise and lower my cholesterol.. With my mind..