| Locate Fine MMA Grappling Footware | | | | of the foot, I did a direct full force kick with the point of |
| If you do any sort of martial arts grappling, you know | | | | contact centered on the toes. The joint suffered, the |
| that protective equipment is of the utmost importance. | | | | toe swelled up to double its regular size, and only pure |
| Anybody who has the stones to go into a sparring | | | | blind luck kept me from having an injury. |
| match without a cup on, wont be standing for for long. | | | | OK, so kicking wooden dummies in bare feet is a |
| Theres protective gear like the heavily-padded foot | | | | foolish idea.... |
| gloves that I wear when Im instructing, so I dont do a | | | | I went looking for things to save me from my own |
| spinning kick and unintentionally take someones head | | | | senselessness and found martial arts sparring shoes. |
| off if they happen to miss a block. But the protective | | | | Now, those sparring shoes are different from |
| equipment I want to extol the virtues of today are the | | | | tournament foot pads. Theyre light enough that you |
| martial arts sparring shoes. | | | | wont develop compensatory habits to adjust for the |
| I use the martial arts shoe for two extremely precise | | | | weight and while they don't have as much protection, |
| reasons. The first is that after I did a series of practice | | | | its the difference between kicking a wooden dummy |
| bits against a wooden sparring dummy, I walked out of | | | | with your bare foot and kicking it with a pair of tennis |
| the gym with several bone-deep bruises in my feet. | | | | shoes on. |
| Now, bruises are the price you pay for any contact | | | | On top of that, they greatly improve traction on the |
| sport, including mixed martial arts. Even a little extra bit | | | | ground, and stability when doing workouts and drills. |
| of padding would have kept me from limping funny for | | | | Given how much I like Kung Fu styles, and how |
| two days. My buddies and colleagues were making | | | | acrobatic they are, that extra traction was much |
| fun of my little tentative steps to avoid putting weight | | | | appreciated. While its not fun to be tossed on your |
| on the tops of my feet from a particularly painful | | | | posterior by a sparring partner, its less fun to do it on |
| bruise almost a fracture in the bone. | | | | your own because you slipped. |
| The foot has so many tiny bones. And almost no flesh. | | | | Also, to be honest, it was good to come home from a |
| almost no fat. No protection. Weak bloodflow. At least | | | | training session in the dojo without feeling like I was |
| mine do. Pain sticks attached to my legs! | | | | being a whiner because my feet were hurting. Trust |
| I suppose Im a slow learner. Later that month, I did the | | | | me, these things saved my marriage my wife was |
| same exercise and about destroyed my big toe when | | | | making fun of my new dance steps when I was busy |
| I miscalculated the distance to the wingchun wooden | | | | beating the crap out of my feet and whining about it |
| dummy on a kick instead of contacting it with the arch | | | | when I had to take out the garbage. |