How to Clean a Wrestling Mat: The 10-Minute Daily Routine

The mat is the one piece of equipment every wrestler touches every day. It takes sweat, skin, shoe dirt, and tape from every practice, and then it sits in a closed room overnight. A clean mat isn't a once-a-week job. It's the last ten minutes of every practice.

Here is the routine Indiana programs run with COMPEL. It takes one sprayer, one mop, and about ten minutes for two full mats.

What you need

• SAFEGUARD concentrate
• A 1/2 gallon pump sprayer
• A 48-inch mop frame with microfiber pads
• A dry dust mop or shop vac

The COMPEL Mat & Turf Kit puts all of it in one box.

Step 1: Clear the mat

Pick up tape, water bottles, and anything left on the surface. Run a dry dust mop or a shop vac over the whole mat. Hair and grit left on the surface turn into mud the second you add liquid.

Step 2: Mix one sprayer

Pour 1/2 cup of SAFEGUARD into the sprayer. Fill it to the 1/2 gallon line with water and pump it up. One sprayer covers two NCAA mats, 42 feet by 42 feet each.

Step 3: Spray and mop in sections

Start at the wall farthest from the door. Mist a section about 10 feet wide, then mop it with the microfiber pad before you move on. Work toward the door so nobody walks on a wet mat. Keep the spray light. You want an even film, not puddles in the seams.

Step 4: Let it air dry

No rinse. No second pass with clean water. Leave the room and let the mat dry on its own. SAFEGUARD continues to work after the surface dries, so what you put down is still there when practice starts the next day.

Step 5: Wash the pads

Toss the microfiber pads in the wash with 1/2 cup of SAFEGUARD and your normal detergent. A dirty pad pushes yesterday's dirt across today's mat.

The rest of the room

The mat gets the attention, but it isn't the only surface in the room. Add these to the routine:

• Every day: spray headgear, shoe soles, and bags with the same sprayer mix, then wipe with a microfiber.
• Every practice: athletes cleanse with ASSURE before practice and ARMOR after. No sink, no rinse.
• Every week: wall pads, singlets, towels, and mop pads through the wash with 1/2 cup of SAFEGUARD per load.

Mistakes that undo the work

Mopping from a bucket. By the second mat, the water in the bucket is dirtier than the floor. A pump sprayer and a clean pad put fresh solution down every time.

Too much liquid. Water that sits in the seams and under the tape lines stays there. Mist, mop, and move on.

Mixing products. Never mix SAFEGUARD with bleach. Check your mat manufacturer's care guide before you add any cleaner to the routine.

Nobody owns it. If the job belongs to "whoever's last out," it doesn't get done. Name one person, a manager or an assistant, and post the routine on the wall.

Post the routine on the wall

We built a one-page Wrestling Room protocol and an 18 x 24 poster for exactly this. It lists who does what, when, and how much to mix. Download the Wrestling Room protocol and hang it by the door.

SAFEGUARD is a surface and fabric cleaner. If your program's protocol requires an EPA-registered disinfectant, keep using it. COMPEL runs the daily routine around it.