A number of years back when first getting involved with the sport of All Star Cheer, I learned the importance of the spring floor.
Spring floors are floors that are meant to absorb shocks and provide a softer feel when on top of them.
These types of floors are considered the best kind of floor for a variety of activities – competitive cheer, gymnastics, and even dance.
Spring floors enhance performance and greatly reduce the possibility of a variety of injuries from occurring.
If you were to simply walk across a spring floor, you would notice a significant “bounce” in your step.
They do feel really cool to be on!
For All Star Cheer, with the floor being 42’ x 54’, the spring floor is made up in this fashion:
- Each spring floor consists of just under 2500 springs
- Each spring has 5 components to it
- On top of the springs are 2 layers of plywood – the most proper being Baltic Birch – which are layered in such a fashion so that their seams are staggered, allowing for ultimate stability
- The 2 layers of plywood are connected with a system of Velcro squares that have to be installed on the panels of plywood prior to them being assembled
- After completing the assembly of the floor, matting is placed on top of the layers of plywood that allows for the activities the floor is being assembled for to take place, with All Star cheer, there are 9 mats
Obviously, the size of the floor will dictate the quantities of exact materials one would need.
As you might imagine, assembling a spring floor, regardless of size, is no easy task, particularly if you are putting one together for the first time.
When we first opened Cheer UP Athletics, we had 2 of our best carpenters (from my contracting business) putting our spring floor together for 2 weeks and the last several days I had a crew of up to 6 people aiding with the construction – it was a monumental endeavor!
Thankfully, the finished product turned out great.
Spring floors, if originally built with good quality materials and are well maintained, will last for years and years.
Every so often, the spring floor should be reset (mats come off, plywood taken up, and springs checked to make sure that everything is in place and functional) in order to help ensure optimal performance.
This act of preservation is critical in helping to guarantee the longevity of the spring floor.
If you were to ask any athlete whose sport can take place on either a spring floor or a dead mat (a floor that their sport may sometimes take place on that does not have springs underneath it), as to which type of floor they would prefer to practice/compete on, the poll will not even be close in favor of the spring floor.
In many sports such as All Star Cheer, almost all competitions are held on spring floors, so practicing on them is critical.
With some types of competitive cheer (different variations of town or school cheer for example) dead mats are much more prevalent.
Whether spring floors are ingrained into the culture of a particular sport or not, one thing is for certain, there is a vast difference in the feel of being on one vs. not and the benefits of utilizing a well put together spring floor (if they are anywhere close to being applicable to your specific sport) cannot be overstated enough.
