Martial Arts Shoes

Most Students of the Martial Arts train barefoot when they are indoors. And, most martial art systems train 80-100% of the time among four walls and on a soft mat. So, for many, training without shoes isn’t much of a challenge.

In the Martial Science, we spend 80-100% of our time training outside. We still help the barefoot training system of belief and motivate students to do the same – even when training in the park.

Why will have to you go shoeless? Because wearing shoes just does not look cool with your uniform.

Okay, I do believe that shoes serve a aim and a lot of shoes do not look as foolish as a pair of over-cushioned running shoes (Tabi and Five Fingers for example).

I do however, prefer being without shoes. I love to run barefoot, hike, climb and in general just not wear shoes at all. In fact, I spend with regards to 75% or more of my time without any shoes and prefer to stretch this into my sporting activities. I am not the only one.

* Abebe Bikila, Olympic marathoner, won the initial of his successive gold medals without shoes.

Research barefoot running in Google and you will get a lot more hits on shoeless wonders like Abebe. For example, Michael Warburton published an online paper titled, “Barefoot Running.” Warburton points out that the extra weight of shoes is worse than a few pounds around the waist. Extra weight means more energy is spent. As part of your stride, weight on your feet must adjust to a ceaseless increase and decrease of speed.

Research shows that two 10-ounce shoes will make you more than five percent less efficient. That is good to know – specially when you consider the micro-movements the body has to make to keep from suffering an ankle injury.

Internal, External and Spatial Awareness

Next let’s talk when it comes to proprioception and don’t worry if you haven’t heard that word before – neither has Microsoft.

Proprioception (pronounced PRO-pree-o-SEP-shÉ(TM)n), from Latin proprius, meaning “one’s own” and perception) is the sense of the relative position of neighboring constituents of the body.

Let us associate the senses with Mind, Body and Spirit and break them into three categories (only for the sake of learning this concept):

01 External (sight, taste, smell, touch, hearing and balance) – Body

02 Internal (senses that help us to grasp pain) – Mind

03 Spatial (sense that shares feedback in relation to our world) – Spirit

Proprioception is a sense that helps us to verify where the limbs of our body are located in relation to each other and space around us. It likewise helps determine if we are moving at the rectify speed or using the rectify amount of force.

In the Martial Science – we consider Spirit to represent life-spirit and fundamental interaction with the living world around us; people, nature and animals.

We get feedback from the world around us in order to adjust and improve our lives. Well, your body needs to do the same thing in order to function properly.

If you did not have proprioception and I put a blind fold over your eyes, you would just fall over. The police test proprioception to see if an individual has had too much to drink. This is because you lose this sense when you have had too much alcohol. That is why they ask you to walk on a straight line without looking at your feet. Without proprioception, we must look at our feet in order to walk.

If you watch a baby move his hands around attempting to grab for something, you will detect that his hand movements stutter as they begin to learn how to create hand and eye coordination. Every time that they reach for something new, they are creating new data and feedback to build on.

The skill to spun a sword or catch a Frisbee both require that you have a very specific SENSE of the precise positions of your limbs, your muscles and joints involved. The development of this skill has to reach level 4 of the natural learning process:

1 You are incognizant of your incompetence (you don’t recognise you don’t know)

2 You are consciously incompetent (you know you don’t know)

3 You are consciously competent (you ought to think as you act)

4 You are unconsciously competent (you may act without thinking)

Let us assume that you are a martial artisan that would like to have natural cat like reactions. Not only that, but you want good timing, and to be competent to kick with deadly accuracy.

At first, you are going to be incognizant of the fact that you can not kick in the right manner or with precision (1). Then you see somebody kick the way you would like to and begin to perceive that you do not presently have the accomplishments you desire (2). With numerous training, you may kick a bag or target on command (3). Finally, with years of practice, you may kick without thinking. You react naturally (4).

This sense ought to reach autopilot so that you may then focus on other important areas of performance, such as contemplating substitute strategies, looking at your surroundings or punching while kicking.

A more innovative way to label proprioception is to call it motion intelligence. This is of course with the faith that proprioception is focalized on feedback. When the body moves, info is sent to the brain for further investigation, calculation and adjustments.

There’s more to it than meets the eye and foot coordination.

Studies researching ankle injuries suggest that our reflexes play a larger role in staying injury free. When you wear larger shoes, you are not going to have as much development around the core areas of your foot and ankle. Shoes alone could be the cause of galore ankle sprains, knee injuries and back pain.

Here is a quiz. Pain caused by ankle sprains has to do with:

A Strength

B Endurance

C Flexibility

D Balance

The rectify answer is D – remainder / proprioception.

Having a strong ankle, physical endurance or flexibleness will not save you from an ankle sprain if you have not also invented the neuromuscular scheme to react naturally. Shoes just do not support us with this development as much going barefoot does. Imagine wearing a shoe on your hands.

Going barefoot helps to improve proprioception because you may feel more of your feet, invent more muscle memory and thence increase probabilities of reacting naturally. The more you may FEEL the better, as this will fabricate more signals and thence more data. In the end, that = more balance.

It all happens so fast and on such a micro level that it is not something we may consciously adjust to in the now.

Since most martial artists already train barefoot, I am proposing that you also do the same when you are in the park training, or lounging around the house. If you want bettered kicks, you need to begin from the ground up. The more often times you kick and train barefoot – the better.

NOTE: You will have to train with shoes too if you suppose to recognise how to move in a real life circumstance (we do not go barefoot in the mall). Balance is key – but before you put on the iron man suit – consider training what is inside it first.

Join our Live-In Martial Arts and Adventure Camp in either California or Thailand. Short and Long Term Programs available. Attend the camp for the weekend, 1-2 week, 1 month or each year camp for get certified to an instructor status. For more information, please visit the link below.

http://www.theninjacamp.com/

Martial Arts Shoes Image

Martial Arts Shoes Image

Martial Arts Shoes Image