At table tennis the floors can be slippery too, and they keep a damp mat/cloth available in-between games for wiping of shoe soles. Give that a go and see if it helps.

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The floor is swept on a daily basis however the dry cold air (Toronto-Canada) of January - March) is so dry the floor ends up being clean, but very slick. We usually wet mop it before playing with a wet towel, but that only seems to last for about 2 games, then we are back to the dry slick floor. Different shoes may be a way around it, but it is very frustrating abd somewhat dangerous.

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Adz - a good point about the soles of the shoes.  I have had some which have been pensioned off as garden shoes, and the soles over time can go dry and brittle with age.

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ARGH!!!!!

I just wrote a great reply to this and the damn browser crashed!!!!

Right, a quick summary........ You need to get a shoe with a mixture of rubber compounds in the soles. Some companies refer to "wet rubber" which is a stickier type of rubber that really works well on "sealed" or treated floors. I've played on them and they are horrible for grip with standard shoes, but when you change to something with a wet-rubber style finish (Asics Sensei's, Prince MV4s, Hi-Tec 4:Sys) then they tend to work very well to grip on this surface.

If you can get a shoe with a combination sole (the sensei's or the 4:sys) then they tend to be great for all surfaces, where as the traditional soles are crap on treated surfaces and the all "wet rubber" soles wear out too quickly and become smooth on the bottom as the wet-rubber tends to be a softer compound which wears quicker.

At least the browser didn't crash this time!!!!

Adz!

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dpiedra - the floor could be slippery for other reasons too, eg

• not swept daily (staff think it is ok and it is a time consuming job)
• tread on the shoes a bit shiny and need a clean and rough-up.

At some courts I have actually swept the floor after noticing the fluff on the floor, and put a lightly damp old towel, out of the lost property, to bag the floor to get off the residue of dust (this happens in windy weather).  Many players and school kids do not have shoes specific to squash and carry in a lot of crap in on the tread.

If it is a sealer on the floor, it is to help keep the floor a light colour so the dirt does not become engrained into the timber boards. Sanding the floor will shorten the life of the flooring.

Just an thought

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