I just competed at the West Coast BJJ Tournament in San Francisco. The tournament went really smooth, the only thing that sucked were the mats. Everyone from the white belts to the black belts were sliding on the zebra mats.
I train at AKA and they use Swain mats which have a much better grip.
I hope if there are any tournment promoters reading this please do not use Zebra Mats because I do not want to play slip and slide while I have some one in the cross-body.
Zebra Mats are good to train on. But you are right. They don't have great grip for standup, not to mention that if you don't take care of the creases then you could catch a toe or ankle in their.
When they become "familiarized" with training, zebra mats don't offer much of a sliding surface, they're actually decent. I haven't had the same problem as you, but I also have not used the Swain mats.
TTT
Zebra Mats and Swain Mats are the same. Tatami mats like that when they are brand new are slippery. I have grappled on Zebra Mats many times. The Pan Ams are Zebra Mats and worked fine every time. I use Zebra Mats at my tournament and everyone has very positive comments. New mats of that style are more slippery at first.
Greater Midwest Submission Hunt: Minneapolis, MN will be Saturday December 4th.
actually I love zebra mats and havnt had the problem of sliding. been training and competing on them for 3 years.
I have to agree w/ SP, the zebra mats were slippery at first but then broke in nicely. I like them because they dont give like most mats so that ankle/toe twists dont happen as often.
I have never used them, but they don't look very good IMHO.