The 7 Best Wrestling Mats
Updated by · How we research
Roll-out, folding, puzzle and air wrestling mats for home practice, compared on cushioning, seams and storage. Meister FlexFloor leads for its printed circle. When users buy our independently chosen editorial recommendations, we may earn commissions to help fund the Wiki.
The mats in a high school wrestling room are built and impact-tested to an ASTM standard, and their makers sell them direct, often after a wait of several weeks. Mats sold for homes skip that testing, so the choice comes down to foam, seams and floor space. This list is for families, young wrestlers and small clubs that practice at home.
Editor's Notes
October 27, 2026, by Ezvid Wiki Editors:
The Meister FlexFloor now leads this list. It's a full square with a printed circle, a tough vinyl skin and halves that join without tape, which is the closest thing to a school room you can roll out at home. Every mat from the earlier version is gone from the store we link to, including the Resilite, Dollamur, AK Athletics, EZ Flex, Envirolite and Happybuy models, so we started over.
Those wrestling brands still sell direct, and they're in the special honors for anyone who can wait a few weeks. The list also goes wider than before: folding panels, puzzle tiles and an inflatable square are what most families use for drilling, so they're here with honest limits. Plain workout mats are not; for those, see our yoga mats and puzzle mats lists.
The National Wrestling Coaches Association's mat-safety advice and a mat seller's side-by-side guide to roll, folding and puzzle mats shaped the ranking, along with coaches' notes on which seams wear out under daily practice.
Earlier notes
October 8, 2020:
This list was left fairly narrow, as we wanted to cover mats that are designed specifically for wrestling, since the smooth surface is made to work with wrestling shoes and minimize mat burn. If you were interested in a broader discussion of exercise mats, you may want to visit our list of the best exercise mats. Also, keep in mind, the recommendations on this list are for home use, so if you're looking to outfit a school's wrestling room or hosting a tournament, you will likely be better served to contact manufacturers directly to ensure you are meeting all of the safety requirements.
That said, a number of these mats meet ASTM certifications for impact, including the Resilite Jordan Burroughs Signature Series, Resilite Remnant, AK Athletics Roll-Up, Resilite LiteWeight, Resilite One Piece. If you are looking to practice full takedowns or throws, we highly recommend you select one of these mats instead of the others.
If you plan on storing your mat between uses, as opposed to leaving it rolled out on the floor, we would also advise against the Resilite Remnant or the Resilite One Piece. These are both made of rubber nitrile foam, which is about 60% more shock-absorbent than the polyethylene foam the other mats use, but it's also much heavier, making it difficult to move them between uses.
The Happybuy Home Gym and EZ Flex Home offer less protection, but with their reasonable pricing and easy storage, they can still be great for younger, lighter wrestlers. All of these mats would also be great for low-impact drills, so if you just want to get a young athlete started, they're all perfectly suitable choices. Just be sure they wear their headgear to prevent cauliflower ear.
Special Honors
AK Athletics Home Roll-Up Mats AK Athletics, an Ohio maker that builds school wrestling mats, also sells roll-up home mats in the standard square size with a printed circle, and roll-up wall pads to go with them. They're made to order and shipped direct, so plan ahead. akathletics.com
Dollamur Home Wrestling Mats Dollamur, a long-time supplier of competition mats, sells home mats in half and full squares, including tape-free versions. They cost more than most home roll-outs, but they come from a company that builds competition surfaces. dollamur.com
Resilite Home Mats Resilite, whose mats fill many U.S. high school wrestling rooms, makes custom home mats and wall padding to order. Expect a lead time of several weeks. resilite.com
Home Mats And Competition Mats Are Different Things
It means you should judge it on what's published: the type and thickness of the foam, how the pieces join, and the cover.
School and college wrestling mats are made to ASTM F1081, a standard that sets limits on thickness, tensile strength and shock absorption for competition surfaces. The makers coaches name most, Resilite, Dollamur and AK Athletics, build them to order and sell direct. None of the home mats on this list claims that standard.
That doesn't make a home mat unsafe for drilling. It means you should judge it on what's published: the type and thickness of the foam, how the pieces join, and the cover. The National Wrestling Coaches Association warns that foam thickness alone doesn't tell you how well a mat absorbs a fall, and it suggests asking a maker for impact-test results before buying for a club.
Coaches who run daily practice tend to favor the heavier, older-style mats for durability, and they report that tape-free hook-and-loop joins are the first thing to wear (IndianaMat forum). For a few sessions a week at home, that wear is slower, but check the strips now and then.
Roll, Fold, Puzzle Or Air: Type, Thickness And Floor
Roll-out mats are the closest to a real wrestling room. They come as two halves that make a 10-by-10-foot square with a printed circle, roll up for storage and stand on end. Folding panel mats are made for gymnastics; they store fastest but have seams and no circle. Puzzle tiles cost the least per square foot and grow with the room, but their joints can open during scrambles. Mat seller Greatmats lays out the trade-offs in its comparison of home workout mats and its storage guide. For more tile choices, see our puzzle mats list.
For thickness, about 1.25 inches handles basic drills, and 1.5 to 2 inches is better for harder takedowns and throws, according to Greatmats. A home circle is printed about 8 feet across, far smaller than the 28-foot circle used in competition, so it marks a starting area rather than real boundaries.
Mind the floor underneath. Bare concrete adds no give, and thin carpet over concrete is no better. Folding mats and tiles can creep on carpet, and roll-outs need a flat, clean floor to lie smooth. Keep the mat away from walls, or pad them.
Keeping A Home Mat Clean And Safe
Wrestling spreads skin infections. The CDC lists contact sports such as wrestling, and shared surfaces, among the risk factors for ringworm. The NWCA says regular cleaning, drying and disinfecting cut down on mat-borne skin problems.
After each session, sweep or dry-mop the mat, wipe it with a cleaner made for vinyl, and let it dry fully before rolling or folding it. Don't soak it, since water that gets into seams can stay there. Check the surface for cuts, gouges and exposed foam, and replace a section that's torn, because a split cover traps sweat and grime.
Soft-soled wrestling shoes protect skin on textured or puzzle surfaces and keep street grit off the cover. Inflatable mats need their valves checked and a patch kit on hand. And with kids, an adult should be in the room: a mat softens a fall, but it doesn't replace coaching on safe technique.
How we researched this
We compared 20 mats sold for home wrestling, from roll-outs and folding panels to puzzle tiles and inflatables, using makers' specs, the ASTM competition-mat standard, National Wrestling Coaches Association safety guidance, a mat seller's buying guides, coaches' forum discussions and owner feedback. We checked every brand for recalls with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and found none for mats. We found no independent lab tests of home wrestling mats.
Sources (11)
- ASTM F1081: Standard Specification for Competition Wrestling Mats
- NWCA: Wrestling mat safety
- CDC: About ringworm
- Greatmats: Comparing home workout mats
- Greatmats: Wrestling mats
- Greatmats: How to store home wrestling mats
- IndianaMat forum: Best brand of wrestling mats
- AK Athletics: Wrestling mats
- Dollamur
- Resilite
- CPSC SaferProducts
Frequently asked questions
Is a 1-inch mat thick enough for wrestling?
For stance, motion and light drills, yes. For takedowns and throws, 1.25 inches is a sensible minimum and 1.5 to 2 inches is better. Foam type matters too, since dense cross-linked foam absorbs more than soft foam of the same thickness.
What's the difference between a home mat and a competition mat?
Competition mats are built to the ASTM F1081 standard and sold direct by makers such as Resilite, Dollamur and AK Athletics. Home mats are lighter, cheaper and easier to store, but they aren't tested to that standard.
Do I need mat tape?
Mats that join with hook-and-loop strips or flaps don't need it. Taping the edges can still help keep a roll-out from curling and stop the halves from drifting, and athletic mat tape is made for vinyl.
Can I wrestle on a yoga mat or gym mat?
A yoga mat is far too thin for takedowns. A 2-inch folding gym mat works for drills and light work, but it has seams and no circle. See our yoga mats list for those mats' real uses.
Can I put a wrestling mat on concrete or carpet?
Yes, but the mat does all the cushioning on concrete, so choose a thicker one. On carpet, folding mats and tiles can shift, so a roll-out or a rug pad underneath helps. Thin carpet over concrete adds almost nothing.
