Gripping with the Feet

[Harutomo]

Wow, fingers, my hobby. Some people with ingrown nails have problem with this principle. Do they need plastic surgery before start practicing seriously?
Without shoes and or on the mat you should be careful. I rolled my thumb under feet because I catched mat in same moment when I got low kick. Now I have it crippled for third week. So shoes always on, in sparring especially, fingers are very woundable.

EDIT: Excuse me, I must say that I mostly train in forest, so it is different matter.

[ironpalm]

Gripping with toes is part of HG as I was trained. It's part of rooting.

Also was told not to train barefoot on a cold floor as the cold can enter the bottom of the feet and create sickness or problems later in life with your feet. I don't wear shoes in training because it's a nice hardwood floor, so I wear socks which keep my feet warm in the winter and allow me to grip the floor with my toes. I go barefoot in the summer.

[Daifong]

Right,

If I am on a concrete or tile floor I'm wearing shoes, period!

Hardwood or carpet, definitely barefoot, Linoleum, depends on if it's over wood or over concrete...

Mats, it's difficult to find a mat that's kind to a trainee's feet, at all. Toes might even need to be taped, especially for any kind of sparring situation...

I have a friend who has trained in a building near the San francisco Bay for many years, he always brings two pairs of training shoes, in case it's sunny, meaning the floor is dry and smooth, or foggy, meaning the floor is damp, and so will be comparatively tacky...

For sunny days, he wears his low-topped raquetball shoes, then on foggy, humid days, he wears the Jing Mo boots (with recycled tire-tread soles)!

Ok, whatever we wear on our feet, or not, whenever we want to "root", it certainly helps to grip the ground with our toes!



Best,

Michael

[dreamgraphix]

Get yourself some very slippery shoes and try to work out on a linoleum floor or tiled floor and practice your stances and sets. For maximum benefit throw some flour or chalk powdar on the floor then practice your sets. You'll fall alot at first but then you'll learn how to grip the floor with your feet and you will notice a huge difference in your training. Even the toughest kung fu players find that they have muscles they never knew they had as they will become very sore. I preffer to do everything i do on the a slippery floor and i always grip the floor and pull inward with the feet. It makes for a very strong foundation, amazingly strong legs and explosive movement power.