Your dream gym/ training area

debra.donovan

Hey guys,

Without getting into a huge explanation about this other than the main sports building www.ul.ie/universityarena/
on campus in UL is going to get a very large extension soon and as such UL Kickboxing & MMA might have a new home in the coming years. I will be submitting a proposal for what kind of a new home the club would like to enjoy, even though I’m finished this year and probably will not get the chance to make full use of it.

Here’s what I’d like to hear from all of you:

If you had the opportunity to ask for the martial arts gym of your dreams of what would you ask for? Describe the martial arts gym/area of your dreams. Remember though that the Arena already has all the cardio and weights equipment, 50m pool, sauna, steam room etc. that one could want so there is no point in asking for what is already there.

Try to be as specific as possible because I don’t think an opportunity like this will come around again for this club and I would like to try to see the club set up in a more appropriate space.

Thanks
Debra

bjj-fighter

* 32ft x 32ft Cage
* 24 foot Boxing Ring
* 25ft x 25ft Bag Training Area
* Two Private Training Mat Rooms
* 3,000 sq feet of Mat Area
* 2,000 sq feet of Cardio & Weight Equipment
* Men’s and Women’s locker rooms
* Spectator Mezzanine

Took that straight from Big john McCarthy's Ultimate training Facilitie's website

hardCopy

I'll have one of these please. Complete with signed and blood-stained octagon mat of course

bjj-fighter

Yeah randy Coutures is great.Him and Bas's new Legends gym looks great aswell and the list of great instructers is crazy http://www.legendsmma.com/

HammerHeadGym

Yes I particularly like the camoflague ring. I deal for blending in against, in my camo shorts, in case there are enemy recon planes overhead. Sorry, I'm just not a fan of camo outside of a jungle combat area.

Nice specs bjj-fighter, but you forgot to ask for solid gold taps and diamond studded, drinking chalices for the water. Remember UL stands for University of Limerick rather than Unlimited mooLah.

hardCopy

bjj-fighter wrote:

Yeah randy Coutures is great.Him and Bas's new Legends gym looks great aswell and the list of great instructers is crazy http://www.legendsmma.com/

Complete with legendary membership fees of course.

bella1

sbgnorthside cage ring bags mat area cardio weights area sauna ,bjj mma judo thai what more could you want.??????:D

HammerHeadGym

Actually Debra, if you could elaborate on how much space is available, we could probably give you a better layout plan but for my money;

Punchbags:12 heavy bags, 4 hook/uppercut bags, 4 long bags, 4 top and bottom bags.

Training area:3 seperate mat area's, a ring (each 24 square feet).
A cage would be nice but I don't see a university springing for one, for both financial and moral reasons. Maybe if the matted areas, were in corners, they could pad the walls as well, which would allow people to practise cage like techniques without the university having to risk 'bloodsport' type headlines.

Conditioning equipment:4 x 8lb medicine balls, 4 x 12lb medicine balls, 4 x 16lb medicine balls. Those medicine balls are standard type, also the same ones from dynamix. who can be found here www.medicineballs.com/ along with their excellent training manual.
A plyometric ramp www.biggerfasterstronger.com/p_pDetails.asp?pID=416&category=14&subcategory=40&size=0&search=&page=
A variety of plyometric boxes www.biggerfasterstronger.com/p_pDetails.asp?pID=371&category=14&subcategory=47&size=0&search=&page=
24 skipping ropes.
And a complete set of kettlebells. Great for complete martial arts fitness and core strength.
A few sets of olympic rings, for muscle ups.
I know the college might have some of this stuff already, but it'd be nice to have your own, especially if they don't.

Sparring:24 pairs of thai pads, 24 pairs of shin guards, 24 pairs of focus mitts, 24 belly pads, 24 pairs of bag gloves, 24 pairs of MMA gloves, 24 pairs of 16 oz gloves. 6 Judo gi's.

Oh yeah, don't forget the gold taps and diamond chalices.

Roper

I was going to say there that SBGN isn't far off that- just doesn't have the camo ring covers:D

Nothingcompares

Well SBG Northside has got it close to spot on but if money was no object

Cage
Ring
Basketball court sized mat area
Second mat area
Heavy bags
Squat rack with Olympic bat and weights ( a couple maybe )
Ceiling Ropes
Climbing wall
Monkey bars
Pull up bars
Rings
Basic gymnastic equipment
Area to make assault coures
Showers, sauna, plunge pool
Changing rooms with lockers
Kitchen
Protein shake smootie bar
A steep hill outside

hardCopy

HammerHeadGym wrote:

Actually Debra, if you could elaborate on how much space is available, we could probably give you a better layout plan but for my money;

Punchbags:12 heavy bags, 4 hook/uppercut bags, 4 long bags, 4 top and bottom bags.

Training area:3 seperate mat area's, a ring (each 24 square feet).
A cage would be nice but I don't see a university springing for one, for both financial and moral reasons. Maybe if the matted areas, were in corners, they could pad the walls as well, which would allow people to practise cage like techniques without the university having to risk 'bloodsport' type headlines.

Conditioning equipment:4 x 8lb medicine balls, 4 x 12lb medicine balls, 4 x 16lb medicine balls. Those medicine balls are standard type, also the same ones from dynamix. who can be found here www.medicineballs.com/ along with their excellent training manual.
A plyometric ramp www.biggerfasterstronger.com/p_pDetails.asp?pID=416&category=14&subcategory=40&size=0&search=&page=
A variety of plyometric boxes www.biggerfasterstronger.com/p_pDetails.asp?pID=371&category=14&subcategory=47&size=0&search=&page=
24 skipping ropes.
And a complete set of kettlebells. Great for complete martial arts fitness and core strength.
A few sets of olympic rings, for muscle ups.
I know the college might have some of this stuff already, but it'd be nice to have your own, especially if they don't.

Sparring:24 pairs of thai pads, 24 pairs of shin guards, 24 pairs of focus mitts, 24 belly pads, 24 pairs of bag gloves, 24 pairs of MMA gloves, 24 pairs of 16 oz gloves. 6 Judo gi's.

Oh yeah, don't forget the gold taps and diamond chalices.

This might be a strange question, but why only 6 judo gis?

bjj-fighter

SBGNS Looks great!I saw pics in the Irish Fighter Magazine.Any Idea when Mario Sperry is coming over there?

HammerHeadGym

hardCopy wrote:

This might be a strange question, but why only 6 judo gis?

I only want 6 people doing Judo at any one time.

Nah, i just think people should get their own clothing and a small number of gi's would encourage this. It's a hygene thing really. Sparred too many guys in those communal gis over the years.

arybvtcw0eolkf

It seem's people here have pretty much the same idea of what their ideal Martial Arts gym/club should look like.

In that case, I can not recommend Andy Ryan's SBGn (www.sbgnorthside.com) highly enough.

It absolutely rocks and isn't a million miles removed from the photos posted about, aprt from the camo!.

OP, check out Andy's place, even talk to the chap for idea's for your club because Andy appear's to have got it just about right.

hardCopy

HammerHeadGym wrote:

I only want 6 people doing Judo at any one time.

Ha, I fugured as much.

HammerHeadGym wrote:

Nah, i just think people should get their own clothing and a small number of gi's would encourage this. It's a hygene thing really. Sparred too many guys in those communal gis over the years.

Makes sense now alright

debra.donovan

HammerHeadGym wrote:

Actually Debra, if you could elaborate on how much space is available, we could probably give you a better layout plan but for my money;

I really have no idea about what the monetary or space constraints are at present. I just know that we have to get some ideas into the sports administrator ASAP in order to have any chance of achieving any part of this.

One thing which will probably happen is that this will be a communal area for all the martial arts clubs in UL (Aikido, BJJ, Karate (Shotokan), Tae KwonDo, Capoeira (at times)) so they will also have their say in the matter. I think they would all be in favour of a matted floor area but some of the other equipment would not suit their needs.

At the end of the day however if we don't ask for it there is no chance that we will get the space/equipment that we want or need. At present I am trying to put together a proposal that would be the best for the club.

Also guys if you can think of anything that would mean that by having these facilities in the Arena they would get extra revenue then tell me cause I’d defiantly add this to the proposal.

Hardcopy, I would love to be able to ask for that type of extraordinary gym but you know as well as I do that it's more than likely not possible. I'd love if they would spring for flat screen TV's but that's not too likely.

Nothingcompares wrote:

Well SBG Northside has got it close to spot on but if money was no object

Cage
Ring
Basketball court sized mat area
Second mat area
Heavy bags
Squat rack with Olympic bat and weights ( a couple maybe )
Ceiling Ropes
Climbing wall
Monkey bars
Pull up bars
Rings
Basic gymnastic equipment
Area to make assault course
Showers, sauna, plunge pool
Changing rooms with lockers
Kitchen
Protein shake smootie bar
A steep hill outside

Nothingcompares the outdoor pursuits club will have a climbing wall somewhere in the same facility, there is already some basic gymnastics equipment there and Showers, sauna, plunge pool Changing rooms with lockers are all there. All in all most of the basic stuff is already there. It's no wonder that UL is called the sporting campus. Once this next phase of building is complete it should be absolutely awesome!!

Thanks guys for taking the time to answer and if you have any more ideas let me know.

Mark Hamill

debra.donovan wrote:

Also guys if you can think of anything that would mean that by having these facilities in the Arena they would get extra revenue then tell me cause I’d defiantly add this to the proposal.

The only way a martial arts area in a college is going to bring in outside revenue is if outside martial arts are enticed to rent space there. So I'd suggest a large as possible matted area as well as matted walls, some general punching bags that can be used by any martial arts (maybe one of those martial art dummy things too), some general conditioning equipment that can be used by anyone (olympic rings, ceiling ropes etc).

While getting some shin pads/gloves out of it might seem nice, remember if its a communal area, these will be probably communal aswell and using someone elses sweaty gloves isn't nice:D .

We've had a meeting about something like this in UCD and cost was a big issue, but it doesn't need to be expensive. If you take the mats you use now and put them all down in wooden frame and cover them with a single sheet you now have a permently matted area without having to buy new mats. (the sheet shouldn't cost too much, but I don't know how much wall mats are).

PeakOutput

i know nothing about what equipment you should get but from a proposal point of view you should get all the clubs together and come up with equipment that you will all be able to use then have each club come up with a smaller list of specialist gear also if all the clubs go together with one proposal it will seem more professional and less like everyone is asking for their santa lists

one list of expensive equipment is going to look more achievable to the head of sports guy than 10/12 lists even if some of the gear does appear on all the lists