Combat sports

Boxing

A turnkey boxing gym fit-out is organised around three zones: the ring, the bags, and the floor area for movement. A conventional boxing ring anchors to the slab, which means being able to drill it and knowing what it is made of. Where that is not possible - leased premises, raised floor, underfloor heating, listed building - a free-standing boxing ring carries the loads on its own frame and comes apart without leaving a mark.

Erecting a ring is not just assembling it: it takes levelling, rope tensioning, corner and post padding, and checking the tension of the canvas, which must be firm without being hard. A ring put up too quickly shows within one session: the ropes slacken in a few weeks and the whole thing works loose. As boxing ring installers we hand over an assembly that is set and checked, not merely bolted together. See our installation page for that stage.

The punch bag rig is the other structural point. A sixty-kilo bag swinging is not a resting load: it works a purlin dynamically, with leverage. We check the load path before drilling, and propose a free-standing rig where the roof structure will not take it. It is a part we regularly build to measure, to the height and grid of the unit.

On the floor, boxing puzzle mats cover the movement and warm-up zones: interlocking tiles, density suited to standing use, joints properly dealt with. Puzzle matting has the advantage of coming apart and being replaced tile by tile, which matters in a busy gym where wear is never uniform.

MMA

MMA gym design combines the constraints of stand-up striking and ground work, and it is that combination that makes it particular. The cage is the centrepiece, and the first choice is its level: a floor-level MMA cage sits within an existing floor without a platform and needs less height; a raised cage serves competition and spectators but demands volume and access many units do not have.

A standard-format MMA cage rarely fits an existing unit without compromise. We therefore size it on the actual floor: diameter, mesh height, gate position according to circulation, anchor points according to the slab. It is a typical case of bespoke product design, followed by workshop manufacture with assembly marks.

Installing an MMA cage turns on levelling and mesh tension. Slack mesh forms a pocket that traps an arm; over-tensioned mesh breaks its fixings. Between the two lies a narrow band, reached during erection and checked periodically thereafter. See installation and maintenance.

MMA wall padding and protection complete the picture: they go where bodies actually land, which is at corners, at columns and at the foot of the wall - the three points people forget. We cut them to the room rather than butting standard panels together, because it is the gaps between two panels that cause injury.

Judo

Judo demands the most exacting absorption of the eight, because throwing is the rule rather than the exception. Judo tatami has to absorb a whole body falling from shoulder height, hundreds of times a session, while staying firm enough that footing does not sink - matting that is too soft injures ankles as surely as matting that is too hard injures backs.

The surface must be continuous and stable: tatami that works loose during randori creates an edge, and the edge is what injures. We lay either interlocking tiles with bevelled edging, or on a recessed system where the dojo is built for it, the latter giving the best comfort but requiring a recess in the slab from the structural stage.

Bespoke dojo design also covers what surrounds the mat: a bowing area at the entrance, a changing room that lets people change before stepping onto the tatami, and storage for mobile matting if the hall is shared. The discipline has its customs, and a dojo that ignores them is a dojo nobody inhabits. That dimension is dealt with from the space design stage.

Brazilian jiu-jitsu

BJJ shares judo's tatami but uses it differently: fewer falls from height, far more time spent on the ground, and a much higher density of practitioners per square metre. That changes two concrete things: absorption can be slightly lower than for judo, but abrasion resistance and surface hygiene become decisive.

Martial arts matting intended for BJJ is therefore chosen on its surface: a grain that does not burn skin during ground movement, a material that genuinely cleans and withstands daily disinfectant. It is an operational question as much as a comfort one, and it governs a gym's attendance in the medium term.

Bespoke dojo design for BJJ favours a continuous surface and peripheral clearance: ground fighting drifts, and a buffer zone between mat and wall prevents hard contact. We size that zone according to the number of pairs training at once, a figure only you know.

Karate

Karate is practised standing, on footing and pivots, and its demand on the floor is almost the opposite of judo's. It needs a firm surface that does not sink under footing and allows the foot to rotate without gripping or sliding. Thick judo tatami is uncomfortable and tiring for it: practitioners say so immediately.

The surface is therefore chosen on density rather than thickness, favouring high-density martial arts matting, or a firm sports surface where the hall is shared. In a hall split between karate and judo the compromise is real: we state it plainly rather than gloss over it, with the option of a removable zone where the timetable allows.

Space is sized on kata as much as on kumite: a practitioner performing kata occupies far more area than a fighter, and the hall is sized on the more demanding of the two. Bespoke dojo design for karate also allows for mirrors, useful for technical work, and a clear wall for lining up. See space design.

Taekwondo

Taekwondo stands out for height: high kicks, jumps and spinning techniques occupy a volume many converted halls do not offer. Clear height is therefore the first criterion, before the floor, and it is what we measure first during the survey.

On the floor, the sport combines dynamic footing with falls from low height: medium-density martial arts matting in interlocking tiles generally answers well. As the competition area is defined by colour, we mark or lay the zones in the regulation shades where the hall hosts gradings or competitions.

Peripheral equipment matters as much as the floor: pads and paddles need storing, electronic chest guards need sockets and a charging point, and wall padding goes higher than in judo, precisely because of the high techniques. Bespoke dojo design for taekwondo takes those three points into account, none of which appears in any catalogue.

Kickboxing

Kickboxing takes its zoning from boxing and its floor from karate: a ring or a marked area, bags, and a firm surface allowing footing and pivots. It shares a hall well with English boxing, which makes it a good candidate for mixed gyms - provided the floor is chosen for both.

Striking equipment is more varied than in boxing: long bags for low kicks, heavy bags, free-standing bags, pads and shields. The bag rig must therefore allow different hanging heights and wider spacing, because a roundhouse kick sweeps a path a hook does not. We size the rig on actual use, and build it to the grid of the unit where nothing standard fits.

Wall padding goes both lower and higher than in boxing, to cover low kicks and high techniques alike. As always it is corners and columns that need the attention: a well-fitted flat panel is worth nothing if the adjacent corner is left bare.

Wrestling

Wrestling is, with judo, the most demanding discipline for absorption: throws, lifts and whole-body falls, at continuous intensity. A wrestling mat is traditionally in one piece, high-density foam under a tensioned cover, and that continuity is not a detail - it removes the joints, and therefore the edges and the trip hazards.

The tensioned cover requires a perimeter tensioning system and specific upkeep: it is cleaned daily and re-tensioned periodically. It is equipment whose operation matters as much as its installation, and we set out the protocol on handover rather than leaving it to be discovered.

On layout, the central circle and passivity zones are marked on the cover at regulation dimensions, and a clear protection zone must be kept around it. Bespoke dojo design for wrestling allows for storage: a rolled wrestling mat takes up considerable volume, and a shared hall must have decided where it goes between sessions. See space design for that stage.