Top Jiu-jitsu, Grappling & BJJ Mats – Best Picks UPDATED DECEMBER 2023 – Train at Home!

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We have all seen the YouTube videos of the greats like Rickson Gracie training/teaching on his home mats in his garage.  Also, many of us, like police officers, work odd hours and can’t make it to regular class as often as we would like.  With home mats we can drill with a grappling dummy or run through an hour of solo drills to keep our games sharp and stay fit.  Besides gi and/or no gi attire an argument can be made the second most valuable training tool a grappler will ever purchase is home mats.

Because there are a lot of mat choices with a dizzying array of pluses and minuses we have tested out dozens of them and compiled our list of the top mats heading in to 2024.  This analysis should help make your choice a bit simpler.

Top 10 Mats

1. Dollamur – FLEXI-Roll – Tatami Mats – #1 All-around Mat

If you live in a hot and humid area like Florida and your training area is going to be out in a garage, which is not air-conditioned, then these Dollamur FLEXI-Roll mats should be at the top of your list.   The reason is Dollamur treats them with a Bio-Pruf anti-microbial which is extremely germ resistant.   This means you will have to worry about those pesky skin infections to a much lesser extent.  

These mats measure 5ft x 10ft x 1.25 inches thick.  Just like the Z Mats discussed above you do not need to put these mats together to train.  Simply roll the mat out and you’re good to go.  However, because they are only 1.25 inches thick you may not want to go flying triangle crazy.  

The mats are textured so they don’t get overly slippery.  Which is nice for summer training with no AC.  

The color choices of the Dollamur Flexi-Roll Martial Arts Tatami Mats are limited to red and blue.  

Shop at Amazon.com

2. Meister X-Thick Interlocking EVA Foam Mats – Best Puzzle Mats

If you’re looking for the versatility of puzzle mats with the safety and cushioning of roll-out mats, we love the Meister X-Thick Interlocking Foam Mats. Available in five different color options, these are the thickest foam tiles on the market, so you should feel free to practice big takedowns and flying submissions on these at-home mats.

Coming in at 1.5 inches thick, each interlocking tile measures 2 feet by 2 feet, giving you the ability to fit these mats in any room in your home, regardless of its shape and dimensions. What’s more, the surface of the mat is waterproof, so cleaning up after a sweaty training session is no problem.

Many reviewers report that these mats are surprisingly high in quality, and with packages ranging from 16 tiles for $259 to 36 tiles for $539, we think these provide phenomenal value.

Shop at Amazon.com

3. Gold Medal Sports Wrestling MatBest Wrestling-Style Mats

For high-end, professional-quality mats at home, we recommend the Gold Medal Sports Wrestling Mat. Similar to the mats you’d find in any college wrestling room, these are 1.25 inches thick and designed to hold up over plenty of training sessions – including takedowns and flying submissions. The mats are marked with a standard wrestling circle and starting position.

The mats come in two halves that together make a 10-foot by 10-foot square – perfect to turn a small room into a personal dojo. The pieces are joined together by a velcro strip down the middle, ensuring they won’t slip apart. 

While we love these mats for their professional quality, the fact that they are roll-out mats makes them less versatile than puzzle mats and might be somewhat cumbersome to put down and take up. Additionally, some reviewers report that these mats are less durable than they would have expected.

Shop at Amazon.com

4. Zebra 10’x10’ Puzzle Mat Package

Zebra’s 10’x10’ puzzle mat package includes nine puzzle mats that click together and twelve border strips that create straight lines on the edges of your training area.  

Each individual puzzle mat piece measures 39.375 inches x 39.375 inches x 1 5/8” thick. Made of dual-density EVA foam these mats are durable and provide the cushion needed to train takedowns.  Though to drill high velocity throws safely we recommend you also get a 4” thick crash landing mat. 

These mats are one color on one side and another color on the opposite side so you can create colored borders, checkerboard patterns or solid colorways as you choose.  You are given a choice between black/grey tiles or red/blue tiles.  

Visit ZebraAthletics.com

5. Fuji Home Roll Out Mats

The reputation of Fuji’s mats is well known.  Each rollout mat is 5 feet x 10 feet.  So, using the math skills the seven-year-old me swore I would never need later in life, two mats fitted together will give you a good 10 foot x 10 foot training space.  At 1 3/8 inches thick they are great for grappling but might be a bit thin if you are drilling a lot of high-velocity throws like Osoto Gari.  

If you are yearning to release your inner Picasso the color choices are a bit limited.  Blue and/or black are the only available colorways.  

Fuji’s roll-out mats are made of closed foam and topped with vinyl which makes for a very durable mat.

The cost for one 5’x10’ mat is $259.  If one buys two mats for $518 to create a 10’x10’ training space Fuji will throw in a roll of mat tape for free.  

Visit FujiMats.com

6. Polar Aurora Thick Folding Gymnastics Exercise Mat is a 2’ x 10’ x 2” foldable mat

These mats are the only folding mats that made the list.  This design may suit your needs if you want to be able to quickly lay down/pick up the mats but the roll up style of mats leads to storage issues.   Because each of these mats is made of four 4’ x 2.5’ x 2” thick panels they fold up into a very compact form factor when stored away.  When unfolded these mats extend to 10’ long x 2’ wide x 2” thick.  

These mats are made of a high-density, eco-friendly, foam that is soft enough to throw on but is not too soft so your feet sink too deep in to the mats which may lead to knee injuries.  These mats are covered in PU leather which is extremely easy to clean but does get slippery if you are training in a humid, non-air-conditioned area.  

These mats also have Velcro latches sewn in on both sides of the mats so you can secure multiple mats together if your training space permits.  

The Polar Aurora Thick Folding Gymnastics Exercise Mats also give you the widest variety of colors combinations and styles.  With ten color combinations such as black/green, blue/green, red/black, rose/black, pink/purple and blue amongst others.  

For more information, check out Amazon.com

7. WE SELL MATS 4 foot x 10 foot x 2 inch Exercise Mat

These WE SELL MATS are made of a crosslink polyethylene foam core which is covered in a heavy duty vinyl.   These mats fold up which makes for a compact storage package.  However, the lines where these mats fold create a bit of a groove in the mat when laid out in the floor.  So, we would recommend these mats if their primary purpose is solo drills, drilling reps on a grappling dummy, and controlled drilling with a live partner.  We do not endorse these mats for full-on sparring sessions because it is possible for a foot/toe to get caught in the grooves of the mat which might result in an injury.  If the intended use is sparring we recommend one of our other mat options.  

On all four sides of these mats are hook and loop fasteners which make it easy to connect multiple mats.  This allows the user to cover just about any floor of any size.  

There are multiple colors to choose from: black, blue, purple, pink, green/blue, and green/red/yellow/blue.

For more information, check out Amazon.com

8. ProsourceFit Tri-Fold Exercise Mat

When unfolded this mat measures 6 foot x 2 foot x 1.5 inches thick.  This is too narrow to be of much use as a grappling floor mat.  However, it is perfect to run along the walls of your home dojo to prevent your head from punching any unnecessary holes in your drywall after your training partner overindulges in the ol’ pre-workout powder and stacks you with more enthusiasm than expected.  We would recommend attaching heavy duty Velcro to the wall and the back of these mats and you’re good to go.

These ProsourceFit mats are covered in an easy-to-wipe clean vinyl.  They come in black, blue, grey, pink and purple.  

For more information, check out Amazon.com


9. IncStores 1” MMA Interlocking Foam Tiles

These mats are ideal for bjj, mma and any other type of combat sport training.   These foam tiles are 1” thick.  This means they don’t take up as much storage space as the thicker mats when stored away.  Depending on the area you have to cover you can choose tiles which are 2ft x 2ft or 3ft x 3ft.  Both sizes lock together securely.  We had no problems with the tiles coming apart during training.  You can also choose various tile packages ranging between one tile up to 25 tiles (which would cover 225 sq ft).

These tiles are made of non-toxic high-density foam.  This means they are light weight, durable and come with a one year limited warranty.  As long as you use them indoors they will last for years.

For more information, check out Amazon.com

10. We Sell Mats 4 Inch Thick Bi-Folding Crash Landing Mat

If drilling takedowns, throws and standing sweeps is part of your training plan we can not recommend having a crash pad to supplement your floor mats highly enough.  At 4 inches thick your training partner will wholeheartedly thank you for having this mat after you hit your 50th osoto-gari repetition.  

The mat measures 4 feet x 8 feet x 4 inches.  It folds in half for easy storage and portability.  Throw it down on top of your floor mat, hit your takedown reps, fold it back up, and store it store it away.  

This crash mat is composed of sponge-core foam for extra cushion, a vinyl top and mesh sides.  

You have the choice of black or blue (insert bruising related Dad joke here) mats.  

Again, we can not recommend having a crash mat highly enough. 

For more information, check out Amazon.com

FAQ about Home Mats:

Tatami Or Smooth Mats?

When deciding whether to get smooth or tatami (textured) mats you have to weigh three main issues:

(1) The potential for mat burn vs the potential for creating a slip and slide in your home.

Tatami mats are mats which have a textured surface.  Some company’s  tatami mats are rougher than others.  Depending on the technique being drilled, mat burn will become a part of your life if drilled on a tatami mat.  As an example, if you are drilling single leg takedowns the top of your back foot drags across the mat as you step through.  Do that a few dozen times in bare feet on a tatami mat and athlete’s foot will be the least of your irritations.

On the other hand, smooth mats are, well, smooth.  Mat burn becomes less of an issue but a sweaty, smooth mat, in bare feet creates an ice like situation which may lead to some videos that top 500,000 views on YouTube.  

Thus, some relevant questions may be: are you practicing inside your air conditioned house where sweat puddles can be lessened? Or are you going to be drilling out in the scorching, hot, garage where you break a sweat just looking at the mats much less training.

2) Are you a gi or no-gi practitioner 

We recommend tatami mats if you are gi-focused.  Counterintuitively, gis seem to stick more to  smooth, sweaty, mats than tatami mats (the textured surface of the tatami mats creates mini channels so less of your surface area is contacting the mat as you shrimp around).  Also, your gi gives most of your body protection from the mat burn issue associated with tatami mats.  

If your focus is no-gi you should consider smooth mats.   When you are training in shorts mat burn can become a real nuisance if you are on a tatami mat. 

(3) Are you going to be drilling a lot of throws or will the majority of your drilling be centered around ground techniques. 

Sweaty, smooth, mats and bare feet can lead to a lot of slipping and sliding.  Therefore, we recommend tatami mats if you are going to be drilling a lot of throws/takedowns.  The added texture/grip of the tatami mats lessen the chance of injury if your feet were to slide out from underneath you at an inopportune moment.  

Final Thoughts

In our opinion the best all around mats, for most people, are going to be lightly textured tatami mats like our number one rated Dollamur FLEXI-Roll mats.  

A number of the members of the team at Grappling Insider have used the same Dollamur mats for almost daily home drilling/practice sessions for over ten years.  The mats are as good as day one except for a few chunks which were eaten by a family of mice which managed to infiltrated the home security system (aka an extremely lazy cat named, ironically, Maxi).

Anyway, hope this helps your decision making process and best wishes for another decade of great training. 

How To Properly Clean Your Home Mats?

No discussion of home mats would be complete without covering how to clean your mats.   Cleaning your mats is vital because unclean, sweaty, mats will quickly become a hotbed for bacteria, viruses, and fungi.  Ringworms, staph, HPV, athletes foot, mold, mildew and herpes simplex are all common dirty mat issues.  So clean mats are a must!

The good news is cleaning your mats is easy.  In short, there are two steps:  

First Step

Remove any loose surface debris.  Use a broom or vacuum to get rip of any dirt, dust, hair and flaked off skin cells.  

Second step

Disinfect the mats.  Lightly cover the surface of your mats with a disinfectant using a spray and/or mop.  Make sure the disinfectant you use, whether it be natural (tea tree oil and hydrogen peroxide both have significant disinfectant capabilities) or synthetic, is antibacterial, antiviral, and antifungal (both Dollamur and Zebra make cleaning solutions specifically engineered for grappling mats).  Next, use a mop to spread the disinfectant evenly across the surface of your mats.  If you don’t want to use harsh chemicals you can also use UV light to disinfect your mats.  Germbot is an interesting UV light disinfectant system that avoids messy chemicals altogether. (thegermbot.com)

Remember to be especially thorough cleaning any cracks in your mats.  As this is where the crud muck and critters like to hide and ferment.  

I would recommend cleaning the mats about one hour before each training session begins.  This ensures your mats are going to be 100% clean and it gives the mats time to completely dry off before training commences.  

If you consistently follow these techniques and tactics you will avoid any pesky infections which could interrupt your training.   


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