Most Students of the Martial Arts train barefoot when they are indoors.
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 support the barefoot training philosophy and motivate students to do the same – even when training in the park.
Why should you go shoeless? Because wearing shoes just does not look cool with your uniform.
Okay, I do believe that shoes serve a purpose and some shoes do not look as ridiculous as a pair of over-cushioned running shoes.
I love to run barefoot, hike, climb and generally just not wear shoes at all.
I spend about 75% or more of my time without any shoes and prefer to stretch this into my sporting activities.
Abebe Bikila, Olympic marathoner, won the first of his consecutive gold medals without shoes.
Research barefoot running in Google and you will get a lot more hits on shoeless wonders like Abebe.
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.
With some training, you can kick a bag or target on command.
A more modern way to label proprioception is to call it movement intelligence.
When you wear bigger 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 many ankle sprains, knee injuries and back pain.
Shoes just do not help us with this development as much going barefoot does.
Going barefoot helps to improve proprioception because you can feel more of your feet, develop more muscle memory and thus increase chances of reacting naturally.
The more you can FEEL the better, as this will create more signals and thus more data.
Since most martial artists already train barefoot, I am suggesting that you also do the same when you are in the park training, or lounging around the house.
The more often you kick and train barefoot – the better.
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