where you train,

[painstain]

what is your dojang like? floors, temperature, interrior? what do you like and dislike about it the most.

the one i teach at is a bare concret church gym with little insulation and no windows. hot in the summer cold in the winter.
where i train one school is similar to the one i teach, the other is the main facility for our divission. it has gymnastic padding and almost bare white walls with the korean and american flags.

 

[Gemini]

Our entire floor is padded with the hard TDK flooring that's very different from what I've seen in most Japanese schools. I don't like wood floors, but prefer concrete for movement. Only down side is ground work. Ouch. We also have AC, which I hate. It makes me stiff. When I open my own school, dealing with ambient temperature will be part of the training.

 

[Swordlady]

The dojo where I train has a padded mat. The top layer is made of canvas, which is badly ripped in several places and sewn (we're replacing the canvas soon). I'm not sure what exactly is under the canvas; I think it's something like the mats gymnasts use. Whatever it is, it is forgiving enough for the rolls and breakfalls we do. We just need to be careful during YSKR practice, since an errant swing of the sword could cut another tear on the mat. I was responsible for at least a couple of them...whoops...

Unfortunately, the dojo does not have central air. It tends to get VERY hot, even with the windows open and the fans running. It was pretty bad yesterday, there were wet spots all over the canvas from people sweating profusely.

It does have some kind of heating system, but the dojo still gets a bit cold in the winter.

 

[donna]

Ours is a small industrial shed, with full height roller doors each end, zebra mats on concrete. No aircon, no heating, very dirty. The main rollerdoor opens straight to the carpark and we often have to chase inch ants and spiders off the mat before we begin.

 

[John Brewer]

We train in our churches fellowship hall. It's pretty big, when we started we were in a small room. The floors are carpeted, but not very padded. Another ouch on the take downs, but we are getting mats soon. The space is air conditioned but it's usually off. When we test and sometimes when we train the heaters on. That's a killer in summer, but if it doesn't kill you it makes you stronger I guess.

Respectfully,

John

 

[bluemtn]

We have a window a/c unit (only ONE), and no padding other than cheap thin carpet. It's held in a church, has support beams from floor to ceiling. It's a big class 99% of the time, so we run out of room at times. Falls are definitely no fun! At least there's heat for the winter, though!

 

[tshadowchaser]

I train in a part of building once used for storage. Its hot in the summer and very cold in the winter. There is overhead heating but that is only good to keeping the pipes from freezing ( when it works) , The place is dusty ( can't keep the dust out for some reason) and if we open the back door sand and more dust blows in from the unpaved parking lot in the back.
The floor is patched concrete and the walls are concrete blocks.

 

[gixxershane]

where im at, we have a carpeted floor, that sits on a wood flooring.. so this is not too bad to do falls on.. we have some protible matts to do ground work on and for the kids to learn break falls..

our walls have wepons and pictures on them, and we also have the technique sheets hanging on the walls..

no ac for summer, but that is ok for the fact that we have windows.. we have heat for the winter.

not bad all and all.

 

[Carol]

My school just moved to a new facility so everything is new, and very nice.

We have two studios inside. Both rooms have very good quality mats. This is something I really appreciate a lot. Less wear and tear on the joints. When I started, I had (and still have) some nasty back problems. It was very difficult for me to stick with any exercise program for very long. At my school, I could...and....lost a lot of weight and got a lot stronger....both of which made my back issues a lot easier to deal with

The school is air conditioned, but even with the AC at a comfortable level, the rooms get hot quickly. Our class is vigorous, and there are a couple of jokes about steaming up the windows. We are allowed to wear uniform tee shirts in the summer.

In our old location, which was on the second floor, heat never seemed to be an issue. Heat seemed to be more of a problem in the cooler months than in the summer. We'd sometimes face 80-90 degree temps in full canvas gis. I'm glad I haven't broken my nose...prolly another benefit to good mats..because I've passed out enough times that my instrutors politely scold me for pushing myself as hard as I do.

So yeah. Mats are good. I like good mats

 

[JC2005]

where I train used to have wooden floor with a mirror in the front, we had some renivations over winter break. now its all padded with two really long mirrors in the front and our student creed on a big poster in the back with our student motto above it. there are two doors to the training floor one on the left one on the right. the room tempertaure is usually around 68 degrees at the beggining of class but you know how it is when 25 people are all working there butts off it heats up pretty quick, I like the old way better becuse it felt more like an actual japanese dojo but the new way has a lot more room and makes for more people in class and more people to train with at once=]


JC2005

 

[fnorfurfoot]

I teach in the aerobics room of a YMCA. The floor is wood, but it has a kind of bounce to it for the aerobics people. There are mirrors covering an entire wall which is good and bad. I like it in the sense that I can face away from the students if I need to and I can still see everyone. Also, my students can watch their form when performing moves. But I hate the fact that anyone under the age of 10 watches themselves at all times; sparring, drills, or when they are sitting and are supposed to be watching someone else.

 

[crushing]

My TKD class is in a middle school cafetorium with tile flooring, but with easy access to the wrestling mats for takedowns and groundwork. It is heated in the winter, but no AC in the summer. When the middle school has a conflicting function in the cafetorium, we can usually move to the gym that has a nice wood floor.

The HKD class that I just started is held in the instructor's bicycle store/repair place. The bikes are moved to the sides and a couple mats (maybe 8' x 8' total) are used. I think there is heat but no AC.

 

[HKphooey]

We have inch think padding on the floors. Makes things much safer for takedowns, but you have to get used to it if wearing footwear. We usually use the AC if it gets too hot (we are on the second floor over a restaurant). The front the room has mirrors the length of the room.
The square footage is just right for the student count. The only thing we do not have (that I miss) is a hanging heavy bag. I like the hanging bags so much better than the Century floor bags.

 

[IcemanSK]

The room I teach in is the "Dance room" of a community center. It has a wooden floor with give to help protect the knees. It has mirrors on 2 walls & windows to the outside on the others. It can be temp controled, but I keep it slightly warmer than some like (74-76 degrees in summer). I want em to sweat

 

[bobster_ice]

what is your dojang like? floors, temperature, interrior? what do you like and dislike about it the most.

My dojangs ground is padded, the temperature is around 25 degrees and it is well decorated with pictures, training equipment and old weapons.

I dislike the fact that sometimes when we are training really hard, it gets really hot and there is no air conditioning.

 

[Grenadier]

The dojo is new, since we opened up this location in the 3rd quarter of 2005.

We have a very nice HVAC system in place, and it can cool things off very quickly and efficiently in the hottest of Deep South summers, and warm things up quickly and efficiently in the winter.

The floors are concrete, with a layer of "hardwood" that's actually made from a synthetic composite. It looks like hardwood, feels like hardwood, but immune to the things that can chemically assault hardwood. No problems using harsher cleaners to mop the dojo floor! Best of all, we don't have to worry about it warping, or stains getting absorbed into it.

While falls are hard to take (obviously), we do have a number of jigsaw mats that the students can quickly piece together if we need to practice throws, falls, or ground work.

We have the full front of the dojo covered with wall to wall mirrors, which comes in handy for the students.

The office space and spectator areas are carpeted.

 

[Ceicei]

Where the studio was, we had heavy mats and cinderblock walls. The walls are painted with Kenpo crest and school logos. Although we do have A/C in the warehouse, it doesn't work well in the summer. We use industrial fans. Heating is fine in the winter time, even though the mornings can be quite cold while warming up the place.

Currently, we had to move to temporary quarters while waiting for the building of our new facility. We are currently using a dance hall. This place has a wooden floor (it is hollow underneath) that vibrates with every move we make. We do roll out the portable mats here.

- Ceicei

 

[fireman00]

The dojang was initially a tractor trailer repair shop - the owners have done an excellent job of converting the building into a school. The concrete floors are covered in dense 3/4" foam, both rooms have a/c but I'm a big fan of training in unfavorable conditions - makes it more realistic.

 

[Kacey]

My class is in a dance studio that began life as a racquetball court - mirrors on one short end, covering most of the wall up to about 8 feet high, and a dance barre down one side (very useful for stretching). The floor is wood, and appears to be the original racquetball floor, but refinished. We have folding mats we can put down for falling and throwing. The class is getting too big for the space, but if I move it, it would go to the other building at that Y, and when we were there (in the basement of the senior center/child care building, instead of the main building, where we are now) we didn't get nearly the number of new students. Hopefully, it'll get big enough at some point to move into the gym - or at least half the gym; I've shared gyms with aerobics classes and basketball games before - with a curtain, it's not too bad.

 

[trueaspirer]

The floor of my dojang is wood, and the walls are wood paneling. We have some air control, but its not top notch. On the long wall is a row of mirrors, stretching almost from one side to the other. On the side wall that faces the street, there are windows. It is along that wall that we have punching bags. The other long wall is broken in two, because the middle is the opening for people to enter the dojang proper from the main area. On the right (facing the wall) of that wall there are shelves for gear bags, pads, etc.
That, in brief, is what my dojang is like.:asian: