Kitting out a new gym

paul moran

Kitting out a new gym
After many years searching.....

we have just agreed terms to move our classes to a 3000 sq/ft warehouse in Deansgrange and I was hoping for some help from those who have already taken the plunge with their own gyms? We will be running our Kung Fu, Tai chi, weapons and San shou classes from here and hope to also rent out the space for any mma instructors interested in running their classes or moving their operation to our new academy.

I am going to floor part of the unit with wood for my Tai chi classes and for aerobics etc and the rest will be a 20mm foam jigsaw mat.

The best deal I have seen for the jigsaw mats so far has been from www.protecboxing.com. Has anyone had any dealing with these guys or any other contacts for this kind of matting?

I am also looking to put matting on one or two walls (or at least part of them) and am looking to do this with some old judo mats and perhaps buy a grapping cover to go over them and along the floor, which will also have judo mats on top of the jigsaw mats mentioned above! Can you guys suggest how I can fix these to walls without destroying the mats or can you advise me on a better way to do this rather than using the judo mats?

I hope to put up a load of bags and balls and want to put up a bunch of good solid brackets. Has anyone got a contact for these and also for someone to fit them correctly? I have so many brackets fall out of the wall and nearly kill kids training in my time boxing;-)

I would ideally like to put chin up bars and rings as well as some cardio and weights in the new place? What would you advise I invest in I was thinking of a rower, bike and elliptical trainer as well as a good solid bench and smith machine with the free weights and bars to go with them? What else would you invest in? Where would you advise I go for the weights, Cardio equipment and rings/chinny bars?

If my budget stretches far enough I might invest in a boxing ring? Any suggestions as to where I can pick one up?

General advise! If you have any suggestions or can advise me on pitfalls to avoid while moving, I would really appreciate any advise!

Cheers lads,

Paul
__________________
Paul Moran
Yang's Martial Arts Association
http://www.ymaa.ie

Black Swan

Recommend not installing wall mirrors. They are more distracting to students than useful. They also form bad habits of LOOKING at themselves, when they should be focusing on their opponent. Not only that, there will be no mirrors in tournament sparring or forms, and certainly none during self-defense on the street.

colly10

Blue_Lagoon wrote: »

Recommend not installing wall mirrors. They are more distracting to students than useful. They also form bad habits of LOOKING at themselves, when they should be focusing on their opponent. Not only that, there will be no mirrors in tournament sparring or forms, and certainly none during self-defense on the street.

Do you not think that they are usefull for shadow boxing, there are no mirrors in my gym which I think is a loss. Without a mirror I can't really see what my footwork is like and can't see how well im guarding myself as I throw a punch, it's difficult to know if your leaving yourself open to a counter without them

Black Swan

colly10 wrote: »

Do you not think that they are usefull for shadow boxing, there are no mirrors in my gym which I think is a loss. Without a mirror I can't really see what my footwork is like and can't see how well im guarding myself as I throw a punch, it's difficult to know if your leaving yourself open to a counter without them

Fair enough. We use instructor feedback for this, not mirrors. It's a judgment call. There are trade-offs no matter what you do when instructing MA. There are no perfect systems, only striving for perfection over time.

Once again, we think that the assets of "artificially" seeing yourself in a mirror are overcome by the distraction potential. Until we removed our wall mirrors, I can remember many a time telling students to "Stop LOOKING at yourself in the mirror and focus on your opponent!"

EDIT: There may be a compromise in having a mirror someplace in your dojo/dojang/gym that could be covered up when not in use? But a wall of mirrors as found in many a training facility that is always exposed we would not recommend.

colly10

Blue_Lagoon wrote: »

Once again, we think that the assets of "artificially" seeing yourself in a mirror are overcome by the distraction potential. Until we removed our wall mirrors, I can remember many a time telling students to "Stop LOOKING at yourself in the mirror and focus on your opponent!"

I see where your coming from, id assume the ideal would be to have them in an area away from where they are sparring, that way they can't be distracted by them but can use them when away from the sparring

TKD SC

Hi Paul,

I'd strongly suggest you try to have a chat with Barry (Roper who posts here, but banned at the moment I think!) as he is in the process of going through a move to a bigger better gym and would probably have a load of answers for all your queries. I know he is getting a boxing ring also, along with mats etc etc etc. www.ko-martialarts.com should have his contact details on the site...

That would be my first port of call anyway to talk to him as he is nearly at the end of the process and has everything fully ordered and awaiting delivery at this stage...

Simon

Black Swan

colly10 wrote: »

I see where your coming from, id assume the ideal would be to have them in an area away from where they are sparring, that way they can't be distracted by them but can use them when away from the sparring

Fair enough. In addition to sparring, we have experienced some problems with forms (e.g., poomse/kata), in that students sometimes develop a habit of LOOKING at themselves in practice. These students too often will LOOK in the direction of the mirror and produce a form error either during group practice, grading, or a local tournament in a facility that has nearby wall mirrors.

Martin25

The free standing heavy bags and the Bob dummys are pretty good pieces of equipment. One or two quality heavy bags is enough as they are overated,maybe the long banana type is good as well for the low kicks.
Lots of focus mitts and shields are versatile and dont get boring.
A good top and bottom bag is great as it gives diverse feedback as well.
A good quality bench press and smith machine, leg press, are great as are kettle bells and free weights
Good luck
Martin

Capital P

I've used protecboxing when kitting out parts of my gym, they are very good to deal with. Their delivery rates are reasonable.

yomchi

Why is Barry banned?

Just my opinion on wall mirrors. I find them very useful for shadow boxing and if your style has patterns or kata's they are exceptionally useful for being able to throw your eyes on yourself as you perform.
So go for them if you can, they can also make your place look bigger

Killme00

Jon wrote: »

Why is Barry banned?

he's not banned from SDMA, he's just in non internet land for a while

Roper

Just testing to see if I'm banned. If this appears then I'm not. Can't remember where I'm banned from anymore.

I wouldn't add much to what others have said. We're importing our kit from the US mainly as a lot of what we'll have is specialist gear but wrt getting good quality low cost Irish gear irishlifting.com is really the best there is out there.

--amadeus--

I don't know if any of you have seen the thread but myslef and Unpossible are kicking around some ideas and I was wondering if anyone had a ballpark figure for kitting out a gym? Two separate training areas that already have wooden floors and mirrors, around 1500 sq foot training space, no cardio or weight equip but mats, bags, shields, mitts - everything from scratch basically

Thanks

Khannie

If you don't mind me asking Roper: Where are you getting your bags from? I'm looking around for a 5ft leather bag (finally going to buy one after ages of flutin') and I'm finding them horribly expensive.

Martin25

We have spent about £7,000 or more, kitting out our gym with the basics.
Martin

Roper

Khannie wrote: »

If you don't mind me asking Roper: Where are you getting your bags from? I'm looking around for a 5ft leather bag (finally going to buy one after ages of flutin') and I'm finding them horribly expensive.

Think I'm getting them from Thailand. If you want to jump in on the shipping when I am give me a shout. Thinking Fairtex.

paul moran

Hello Lads,

Sorry to resurrect an oldish tread.

But I thought I would give an update on our Gyms progress...

Well we are up and running just a small bit of decorating and once my bank balance is looking a little more healthy we will be adding to our gym equipment, but essentially our two training areas are complete.

We have a fully tatami matted room with padded walls and a girder full of punch bags for our San shou training and to rent out to all the grappling styles out there.

We also have a room for our Kung Fu and Tai chi classes and this room has a padded floor (not slam safe but nice on the joints). We have a padded wall in this room for the kids to bounce off and to practice there straight kicks.

Apart from the training rooms we have a chillout-waiting room and kitchen and male and female changing rooms with showers.

I can already see expansion plans into the units next door but I think I'll just enjoy the new place as it is after a summer of hard work to get it ready.

I'll be updating the website over the next week with more details but for now take a look at the attached leaflet and check out our new ad in next weeks Irish Fighter.

Cheers, oh and thanks to all those who offered me advice when I was planning the move.