I'll say it again - I'm on team removing FEET before fighting. No feet = heel hook immunity, no shoes comin' off. Can't step on broken glass if you have no feet. Checkmate, Ramsey!
Have you ever watched grapple Baki? A character called Doppo Orochi has his hand cut off in a street fight. He is happy as he can now hit harder without having to worry about breaking his fingers.
In 1977 I left my shoes in the rainforest on an island. I've been barefoot (except for bicycle and stores) since then and the drug dealers in the next building over leave me alone. I challenged Tom Cruise to a footrace, no shoes allowed, between La Brea and Highland in Hollywood, 3am, his choice of date. No reply...yet. Running barefoot is a thing. I run much faster barefoot than with flip-flops. Thank you for this, Coach. (yes I wash my feet often)
This is why I've been transitioning to wide toebox barefoot shoes. It's a bit of a process but it's more comfortable after a while. And it makes you walk on the balls of your feet which is a better habit for fighting anyway.
Love to hear this message getting out more; I have to do work everyday to try to fix my feet from years of shoe damage. Really hampers my martial arts. Boo to modern shoe design.
Food for thought. I live in Southeast Asia and I can’t fathom always wearing shoes indoors. I also use the treadmill at home barefeet, and it looks like i’ve been doing myself a favor the whole time
Sounds good, but you can't avoid all fights. You can get jumped out of the blue, without warning with little or no time to react. It has happened to me, and i have seen it happen. Avoid unnecessary fights, but also be aware some fights are unavoidable.
Part of getting older. At 44 years old myself, my body move more or less the same as always. My mind and heart are still just as into the martial arts as ever. Its my joints and injuries that wont follow the same positive way. 🙃
@@RamseyDewey no, but I wonder if they feel "unarmed" in bare feet, after all their talk about shoes as weapons... Posted that comment before I got to the party where you mentioned savate. But honestly though - I can't believe this channel reviewed the differences in shoes in a variety of combat sports... Who does that?? It was totally fascinating, unexpected, and exactly why I subscribe... The ven diagram of subjects that cross on this channel is great!
Wasn't Savate a streetfighting art before it was sport? So it was designed for shoe-fighting with whatever shoes sailors were wearing or on the streets of Paris or wherever Savate was practiced.
sshhh, the guy that plays around with combat-sports for a living doesn't want to hear about how the rest of the world has to live. (it's Ironic that he has trained in Bourgeois Savate (the combat-sport)). I love the guy, but there are times when his level of privilege really shows. Violence is the real thing, but violence leaves people dead or maimed (obviously we can't do actual violence when we're trying to get better at violence, because we all end up dead pretty quick). So we create "martial arts", which are supposed to be close simulations of violence in which we can practice concepts and ideas to try to find better ways to enact violence without nearly as high a likelihood of death and life-crippling injuries (fencing is a great example). "Combat Sports" are a simulation of "Martial Arts" where the ruleset is expanded to make it safer and more entertaining (usually having undue, artificial limitations and having a condition of success other than "not dying" (points, KO, submission, ect)). All simulations lie, because the subject being simulated is too complex or dangerous to be carried out repeatedly and learn from it. The value of a simulation lies in how close to the real thing it is, while still being able to be repeated often enough to gain skill/understanding in the subject being simulated. Savate is an example of something that can either be a martial art or a combat sport, depending on what ruleset you work under. "Pugilism" is a martial art (striking with the fist + legs and throws to cause serious injury (on occasion, weapons), in an effort to conclude violence as fast as possible with as little risk to yourself), while "Boxing" is the combat sport. You cannot safely compete with martial arts, because competition incentivizes a certain lack of control, and without artificial measures in place (in your ruleset) to protect the combatants, death or serious injury for one or both is likely (look into the origins of "boxing" (a lot of people died or where crippled for life), and the history of "martial fencing" competitions (a lot of people got seriously hurt (and historically, killed), and so now most tournaments require ridiculous amounts of PPE to even enter and other rules to protect the competitors, and Olympic Sport-Fencing is even further removed)).
I've been using zero-drop wide-toe-box shoes for many years. Not perfect, but so much better than standard western shoes. I did use the vibram five-fingers shoes for a year or two but they're just not practical in cold weather where you need wool socks. Great spring through early fall, but not easy to care for and hard to get for those of us whose second toe is longer than our big toe. :(
For what it's worth, there are wool toe socks. But if it's cold enough that you're wearing wool socks, you probably want a traditional sock style anyways
I started working the door in bars starting in Baltimore in 1988. I also worked for Broadway Services in Baltimore where I was in various psychiatric hospitals and institutions and was a PPO, a personal protection officer, at John’s Hopkins. I generally worked the ER and the temporary psychiatric holding rooms (rooms with the rubber walls). The police would drop people off to us, often leaving them in cuffs, for us to remove. They would tell us that there was a reason why they were in those cuffs, as the doctors would want to immediately take them off. The police would toss us the keys and say , “we will be back for those, and good luck.” It became quite interesting at times. About 9 years ago, I went back to working bars. I think it’s time for me to go though, because I am getting a little tired of dealing all this nonsense. Ha! I don’t know what kind of fights people on line are always talking about. But, I have seen untold numbers of bar fights. I have taken hundreds of people out of those bars. Sometimes, the festivities continue out into the parking lots. Sometimes, groups are involved. I have certainly seen a few shoes come off in my day. Girls loose their heels in a fight rather quickly for example. Ha! But, you are right about being barefoot. One should definitely train barefoot and be barefoot whenever possible. It’s good for the soul. See what I did there? Also, get a tetanus shot.
I really love your criticisms of the self defence industry. Like the way it's built on fear and paranoia is really gross, and the sort of person it inspires often seems more like a threat to me than anything else.
I agree. I've both fought and taught full contact traditional Chinese martial arts with no protection, and it's really frustrating trying to convince people that what they know about defending themselves is not what they've been told or seen on movies.
A lot of self defence experts are basically turning people into Travis Bickle wannabes, convinced there is evil behind every corner and you should be prepared for the worst. What is worse they sell illusions of being undefeated because you have learned how to kick the groin,put the fingers in eyes and learn some disarm drills so you will be able to defeat boxer, wrestler or guy with knife. Also they charge way too high money for their lessons in comparison to people teaching sports like BJJ or MT( at least i observed that in my country).
I also agree. My youtube feed can take a strange turn once in a while, being that I'm subscribed to a few martial arts youtubers, it'll suddenly take a turn over to the tactical pen guys that carry 10 weapons on them at all times, excluding a gun.......... now what the heck kind of situation is going to warrant the need for 10 weapons. At that point, they seriously just need a bat belt. They need the batman utility belt. It's just so outlandishly ridiculous that it's mind boggling. Not only that, but they don't realize that it leaves them extremely vulnerable, and most likely a target. If there's 5 guys that see that you have a bunch of weapons on you, and your in an isolated area that makes you vulnerable. Your tactical pen and pepper spray probably won't be enough. Youl probably be without any of it in the end. Than theres also the question of your assailant being a better grappler than you. If they wrestle you down, well than there is a very good chance of them taking your weapon, or one of them and using it against you. There's also the legal end of it. If you get into a confrontation with someone, and they swing at you, well here in Canada, you can not pull out your destruction and malice pen and start jabbing them with it, while a well trained punch would do more damage anyways. If the persons unarmed, and you throw a pebble at them, your being charged, not them. Ironically the saying goes that the best self defense weapons a person can have are patience, stoicism, kindness, understanding, selflessness when needed, and if really needed, a good pair of running shoes. Than there are the shakespearian actors of yore. They reenact these terrible situations where they break the choke with thou move, and thy knee lands into the bee hive, and thy foe is now buzzing and groaning, and everyone lives happily ever after. No. No, it doesn't go that way. If your a 120 pound person with long hair, your face poke break probably won't work, if it does, they probably won't be in a position to take a perfect knee, and even if they do, their not letting go because they probably have an adrenaline dump to, and they probably have your hair or clothing, and it's just turned into a case of grappling. Which is why I say, the best women's martial art for self defense would be any form of grappling, especially something that already has a mix of Tachi waza, ne waza, and wrestling like sambo. Like Ramsey mentioned in one rating test. I love catch wrestling, but its more dependant on physical strength and conditioning. Even bjj with a good bit of wrestling in it, which is basically simular to sambo. Most damage iv ever taken from a smaller person, was when i was sparring with a young woman, and I was working on my jab more than anything, just keeping her back and set up. I was going a bit slower and easy I can admit. I thought we were being casual. She had other plans. I was trained to fight southpaw, so I had my right foot forward. She was in orthodox. Which leaves both of us vulnerable to the outside as we know. She timed out my jab and slipped into it, obviously taking my vulnerable outside, and i was just expecting her to go for a basic trip up like Tani otoshi, since she had my hips. I rememeber instinctively feeling ready to defend against it once we went down, because we drilled this a few times. They obviously try pull themselves into mount once you hit the floor, so as soon as you do, you try counter that. She didnt just trip me up though. No, she got a wide base, squatted me up, 230lbs, just a tad off the floor, and sent me backwards. This was on just regular inch thick foam puzzle mats. I wasn't knocked out, but I was done. Done for many minutes. The best self defense weapon in my opinion is right under our feet and shoes. If hittong someone with your fistbdiesnt work, then hit them with the planet. She wasn't from our gym. Came in from a different city. Our coaches were friends. Hard reality is that maybe a hard and good head kick would of phased me, but her punches didnt do alot. Smaller people need wrestling and bjj. Get out of bad positions, choke people out, and slam them.
It’s easy to scoff at self defense when you live in Shanghai. Try saying that spending a half a decade in any major American city. It’s like grand theft auto zombie apocalypse
Haha joke's on you Ramsey, I wear my ice skates everywhere I go. When I get into street fights, my badass spinning heel kicks become deadly slashes 💀⛸💀 Lol good talk coach. I vastly prefer the foot to the shoe in many cases.
I just realized the secret of the Florida Man’s power: we’re CONSTANTLY either barefoot or in flip flops, and half the time our flip flops either blow out or just fall off. Also, if we kick they’re guaranteed to fly off probably at the opponent’s face and hopefully cause a momentary flinch response
I think this is underrated. I rarely wear shoes, usually protective boots when I have to cover my feet, and had to learn the hard way: many people never SCRUB their feet, as they *will* become leathery and cracked if properly used -- exfoliate those dogs and it solves many problems that crop up. Mitigates the "blackfoot" issue, too.
I've watched most of your videos but somehow missed the cowboy fashion one....how long ago was that. And thank you for the video. All my street "fights" have been in my work clothes where I wear boots so I've never even gave shoes coming off any thought
You should watch king of the streets. In some of those fights a shoe comes off...But it's probably 5% of the time... It's not as frequent as you say it is.
Most people train without shoes so if anything people should practice in shoes to fill in that gap. I never been to a karate or muay thai gym where you keep shoes on, only boxing & wrestling involve shoes which make sense for “the street” not to discredit barefoot styles like Judo or kickboxing but footwork is completely different without shoes & learning how to fight in shoes is important for “the street”
@@DADRB0B55 When i began doing Savate after few years of MMA and MT i quickly noticed some important things like pivoting your foot which feels a lot different without shoes, the same with doing steps, doing pointy kicks, so yeah, everyone should try fighting in shoes from time to time.
I actually run my fastest when I'm barefoot. I really dislike wearing shoes. I put up with them during the coldest months if it drops down enough (thankfully it doesn't often get that cold in TX and the hot Summer concrete never bothered me) or if I have to do some kind of work that protective wear might benefit (like weedwhacking and such), but I just like being barefoot. I'm kind of backwards, too. I often carry around some classic Chinese cotton souls to slip on when I know I might go in a shop or something because a lot of stores won't service you if you aren't wearing shoes.
Spending time barefoot teaches fighting skills. You need to be able to take in just as much information through your legs as you do through your hands. It also teaches different forms of footwork; picking your feet up, etc. Thin soled flexible shoes teach the same thing. This is why kungfu people usually wear thin little cloth slippers. Wear only wrestling shoes for a month to a year - you’ll be better for it.
I love the Feiyue shoes, wore them for almost 30 years. I did almost all my fighting and training wearing those. What's cool that in addition to being close to the best, if not the best, they are also the cheapest!
Great point about foot health. I walk around most of time with some sort of shoes, but I hate those more restricive shoes. I wear more comfy and "free/spacy" type of shoes outside. At home, I wear either slippers or bare foot.
Actually, I DID watch your previous video on how fashions have historically followed trends in military garb, and I agree that it was a fascinating video. And I agree with everything you're saying. I've been wearing barefoot shoes for a few years now, and I love it. I use shoes with no heel support, a wide toe box allowing for the spreading of the toes, and a 5mm sole, and I try to be barefoot indoors as often as possible. It has made my feet stronger and has reduced joint problems I have historically suffered in my legs. Speaking of footwear, I have recently gotten into rollerblading, and the crazy "what if" part of my mind keeps wondering what hand-to-hand combat would look like on roller blades... Quite chaotic I'm sure, but it might make an interesting thought experiment!
Ditching the Vibram Five fingers for bare feet. Ohh boy!!! Just to adjust to a barefoot lifestyle has been so hard core. It took me a decade! It started with watching Cody Lundin on Dual Survival, then martial arts at 36, at 46 I live a life that my old self would have thought impossible.
Well ,in Savate it says explicitly that shoes are weapons.Savate was practiced by bad guys from the underworld until it went main-stream.They used their boots to be more efficient against their enemies.In Shotokan ,most instructors do not know that kicks from Shotokan are actually from Savate.There is a Jesse Enkamp video about this on TH-cam.It talks about high kicks but I think it applies to Yoko-Geri too.th-cam.com/video/sQUh5tVWd-E/w-d-xo.html
I think I got it at 6:42 ........ That's fine for the health food hippy types that don't have a day job ! Some of us still have to pull on the work boots to get the job done ... LOL ! 😁
Boots are a reality of my life, if I want to wear them or not. Wearing steel capped work boots is compulsory for my work, so I have no choice in wearing them during the working day. If we remove our boots at any time, then any injury to our feet is not covered by insurance, so I really do not have any choice. Because, I am so used to wearing boots for work, I wear them, or some other form of boot, constantly whenever I go. I feel really vulnerable and unsafe if I ever go outside the front door in a pair of normal shoes or trainers. I have a few times hurt my toe when I have got it trapped in the gap between the Judo mats during randori, where the mats have come apart, not broken, but really hurting, and wished that I could wear boots for Judo, or when the other guy accidentally stamps on your toes. The most painful toe injury that I had was during kick-boxing, it was not even sparring, but paracticing kicking in turns, and once of use wasn't paying attention and kicked out of turn, so we kicked at the same time crashing our feet together, my toes were in agony for a couple of weeks, again, fortunately not broken. From these martial arts experiences I just assumed that wearing a heavy sturdy boot that will not come off, during a fight is better than wearing weaker footwear, though I will admit that my experience of real fighting is exptremely limited (fortunately).
This is probably true, but I think you may have missed a key point he threw in there: wearing boots is great if you’re in a fight, but in that case you’re doing something that’s detrimental to your health in order to be slightly more prepared in a fringe circumstance that’s unlikely to ever happen. Avoiding that type of footwear is better self defense because you’re protecting against disease and injury, that’s just less glamorous than self defense against an attacker jumping out of the bushes.
My original teacher of shotokan ingrained the dojokun in me. Avoid conflict, if you need to stop deescalate verbally if needed physically take someone down in one go. I have work shoes that look like just regular shoes but are slip resistant and steel toed. I dont depend on then even with my experience with kicking forms i dont need them. The soles of my feet are pretty calloused from my past work contracting and the years barefoot on the mat. Keep it up coach. All you warriors out there or fighters and pure self defense training remember FUNDAMENTALS. Edit: Go to the beach and train on a beach day if you can.
I've lived in Japan since 1994, no shoes on my feet for like 80% of the day. I was also lucky in that although I grew up in a rural town in upstate NY, my mother had everyone take their shoes off at the front door, no matter who it was (guests included).
Great advice I started wearing barefoot style shoes about a year ago and it's eased my back and knee pains. I could go on and on about the benifits but I'm sure people in the comments will have already covered that 👍👍
In high school i started to suffer from severe lower back pain when I started being more athletic. I spent all my time obsessively trying to determine the cause. Turns out one of them was constantly elevating your heels 2 inches off the ground. It fundamently throws off your whole body mechanics making you have to tilt your pelvis in unnatural ways and it completely obliterates millions of years of evolution/bastardizes gods creation that has made humans the best endurance runners on the planets. Even better than horses. Wearing shoes is like walking around with a blindfold to “protect your eyes”. And on the subject of horses, the whole reason shoes have heels today is because the nobility would wear high heeled boots when they rode horses, and the peasants simply mimicked that fashion. It had absolutely nothing to do functionality or effectiveness. Heres an another analogy for fun: Imagine if people thought fighters were cool and made alot of money, and when you see them they are wearing boxing or mma gloves. Now imagine that the average person starts wearing boxing gloves as a fashion statement. And then it becomes so normalized that you arent even allowed into stores unless youre wearing boxing gloves. Thats exactly what happened my friends, just with the feet. (I made this comment before watching the video)
actually: both the heel and the pointy end of riding boots are designed to easily come OUT of the stirrups, in case you fall. If you get stuck, you will be dragged by, hit your head repeatedly, worst case you will loose concience, and get hurt very badly. Plus, you can get kicked by the horse, because it wants to get rid of the heavy thing dangling on one side scaring it. It's incredibly dangerous, you want to get out of those stirrups as soon as you can, when falling from a horse.
@@celestat897 Your post is a prime example of that. I mention that riding boots have pointy end so they can slide into the stirrups and have heels so that you can ride (not sit) on the saddle, and then you play the contrarian pretending that I said riding boots lock you into stirrups and write an essay about that straw man. Not what was discussed at all!
I know! That was what I was trying to admit to! Reffering to my own comment. Feeling bad now, for taking up so much of your time... Love your videos, keep up the good work! @@RamseyDewey
I love my barefoot/minimalist shoes. I switched several years ago because I used to get terrible plantar fasciitis being on my feet all day. I kept replacing the insoles with superfeet or dr scholls. Got my feet X rayed and checked out by a specialist because I thought something was wrong with my feet, or that I needed a custom orthotic. Doc said my feet were perfectly normal, just beat down from being on them non stop especially on concrete. I switched to minimalist shoes and while it took a good bit of time to adjust (probably a year before I could wear them all day every day ), I simply can't go back now. no more foot issues, stronger ankles, no pulled arches. If I go back to conventional shoes for a day it messes my feet up for several days after. p.s. editing to say, I understand what you're saying about minimalist shoes being as good as true barefoot, we have to make compromises. I'm not allowed to be barefoot in the gym. I'm not allowed to be barefoot at work (or even open toed shoes). I can't be barefoot at the store (not that I would want to be, gross). So the only places I can realistically walk around barefoot is the street/sidewalk around my neighborhood, and the grassy areas of my neighboorhood. I don't want an infection from stepping on some nail or broken glass or rusty piece of metal lying around, and I reckon human feet weren't meant to be ground against concrete and pavement for hours a day. Oh and yeah we have those spiky balls around here lol. I'd like to get into barefoot hiking but for now the closest I can do are xero and lems boots and shoes. At least I can be confident that my ankles and feet are strong enough to not pull or strain something if I lose my shoes in a fight. I just hope I don't step on something sharp, but I think stepping on something sharp would make most people flinch.
I'm on board. No shoes. I've been hiking in the PNW for years and I don't wear boots unless it is in the winter time. Spring, summer, and fall I wear tevas while hiking. Helps regulate my body temp better, good traction, and I don't have to worry about water proofing. I can walk in bodies of water and feel the environment for better mental and physical connection to the earth. Namasta
So the flexible Spiderman shoe from the old comics and Sam Raimi trilogy is actually better than those new spidey who just wear a pair of sneakers. Interesting...
I do tkd barefoot alot. Ive had people at my other weightlifting gym look at me weird for taking off my shoes at the heavy bag. Shoes feel weird, especially the standing leg has so much traction to a rubber floor with a shoe.
All this is really funny to me for one simple reason. I mostly train barefoot. When your broke and trains in a community gym it's stupid common to find yourself barefoot. I have money to buy boxing sneakers and stuff nowadays, but I used to compete as a amateur using my friends shoes. And tha habit just continues, I still train boxing barefoot, and now Muay Thai too.
This is hilarious but I do find myself agreeing with the points being made. This is a grim approach but you guys want to know what 'real' street fights look like? Just go look at some CCTV footage or protest footage, that's what you're going to be up against. People act like you're going to be going up against one or more guys and they're going to give you a chance to get into your stance and you're going to get into this brawl situation. The information is out there if you're not squeamish but I think it's valuable information to reduce the amount of internet tough guys out there. Don't get me wrong, very occasionally sometimes that does happen, but you know what happens most of the time? People get ambushed, people fight dirty and they will take a cheap shot at you wherever possible and then run away, very rarely do you get a situation where you're in a stand up fight. If you do get into a fight, you're probably going to be outnumbered and they're going to kick the shit out of you while you're on the floor, that's reality. So you damn well be better good at fighting or running either way if you're going to make a decision in that situation. As for shoes, it's not even just shoes, I've seen footage of people going to grab somebodies shirt and their shirt just tears off lol that's another thing people don't talk about a lot when it comes to real self-defence scenarios.
To be fair, if a shoe comes off in a fight then youll have to continue with one shoe on and one shoe off, which could put you at a disadvantage. Youre probably best off either fighting without shoes or with shoes that stay on. Not advocating for the self defense industry, you shouldn't be fighting outside of competition and youre fine without shoes, but having only one shoe is definitely more awkward.
An Indian here. We had a system of no shoes inside the classroom from preschool. You always had to take your shoes out when entering the classroom. We had shoeracks outside every classroom. In younger classes we had big mats we would sit on for what people call homeroom and group discussions. All the more reason to keep shoes off. Need the floor clean. Shoes inside classrooms only became a thing around 8/9th grade. Students just stopped taking them off. It wasn't a rule being enforced by the school. It was just what were told as kids. We followed it ourselves.
I come from the streets of Los Angeles and I've actually taken guns from people twice in my life amongst others altercations and my shoes have never come off. I've also been in prison riots and my shoes have never come off. The ring and real life is different.
I gotta be honest, when I was doing judo and looked down at my feet with my toes all dislocated and sideways. I often got jealous of wrestlers getting wrestling shoes.
I did some research after your last video and it seems like that's a feature to easily remove your shoe to protect the shoe wearer from fire in certain awkward ways of the the foot they can cause more damage if a shoe is locked on
Seems like anyone who seriously trains to fight, trains without shoes anyway. Except maybe boxers but if you’re not kicking, the risk of flying shoes is minimized. I think the most underrated combat shoe for da streetz is a croc. They’re wide toed, have rubber soles for good traction, and they’re not coming off your foot while in gear. You have to actively push that strap down with your fingers to get them off.
I reckon between rolling and lifting weights at home on concrete and grass helps keep my feet...well...reasonable. Asian squats are a thing of the past nowadays though. Not without holding onto a bench for assistance.
Recommend everyone that can switch to Vibram five-finger shoes. Personally wear them every day for comfort, conditioning, and self-defense practicality. I train in mixed combat Kickboxing, why would I walk around in normal shoes? I train how I plan to likely fight if it arises. That means barefoot/barefoot shoes and sometimes slightly under the influence of cannabis. No, I am not paranoid, I very plausibly need my training. Rural Observant Left Wing and Jewish convert who speaks out against Right Wing Authoritarians. You are right Vibrams are not the same, they are as close to natural as you can practically get and function in many aspects or contexts of modern society.
I think it's a bit hyperbolic to say the shoes "will" come off in a fight as I never had it happen to me in the few little tussles i got into and I've never seen it happen in any that I witnessed in person. However, I've seen enough video of it happening to realize it does happen, and I also see a lot of people who keep their laces really loose. But I totally agree that you need to be able to fight barefoot. Before I got into more combat sports I used to do Krav Maga and they scoffed at people for training barefoot and I asked them if they slept with their shoes on or went swimming in shoes etc. Sometimes they acknowledged that I was right and sometimes it didn't compute lol. But I do think anyone concerned with self defense should also do some training in their shoes or even clothes that aren't your normal gym attire so that they can get feel for what it's like fighting in them. Also, if anyone has ever developed any bunions, they should definitely see the merit in going barefoot as often as they can. I had one on my left foot and it was rough. Still do but it's gotten a lot better
I love running barefoot. On the beach or on grass. Have you ever stubbed your toe on tarmac? Barefoot in urban areas can be a real problem. Even attract police attention, and store clerks famously don't like it either.
I am using barefoot shoes all the time, since i started my balance is much better and also the kicks. Yes you are right real barefoot is even more intensive, but this wat I cantrain my feet every day. Btw in europe we also do not use shoes at home.
The past couple years I've been learning how fucked up shoes are. 😭 Im trying to repair my feet after years of damage and it's been quite the arduous process. I can kick barefoot but I cannot squat very well barefoot 😓
Squat mobility can be fixed and it feels GREAT after. It took me about a year. I stretch my ankles in the squatting position, grabbing the sofa so I can move around without falling backwards. It's all in the tendons, so give yourself more recovery time, and get exercise to increase blood flow
Try some sort of front squat (goblet, zercher, sandbag etc). The front loading will allow you to lean back more and squat deeper. This should over time increase your downstairs mobility.
As a highly dangerous drifter with special skills I always sleep with my boots on. Cannonball is always saddled and dozing in the corner. The fungus on my toes ate the athletes foot years ago. Because athletes foot only makes your feet stronger.
Well I was a drug detective and I was prone to wearing deck shoe type shoes. You know slip on tennis shoes. Every time got got into a scrape I twisted out of my shoes. You push from the ball of your foot when you twist and it goes. My dad said that you should run barefoot over plowed ground every now and again. If you have ever been around aboriginal folks you will notice that a life without shoes end up making different shape feet.. I wear a diabetic shoe.. you can’t beat them for comfort..
In Poland we take off shoes indoor as well, I can't imagine walking indoor in shoes, its stinky, sweaty, and as far as outdoor bacteria etc goes, its just... dangerous xD And still I recently switched to barefoot shoes as I fear haluxes a little and these boots seems to be able to withstand longer
I'm curious in other countries that traditionally take off the shoes as they enter the house; how do they handle dogs in the house? Do they remain outside? Are they cleaning their feet before they bring them in?
Not washing my dogs feet, neither the cats. Their paws remain rather clean by themself and pick up less dirt than human soles. But if its rainy and i have walked in muddy forrest trails where i live i clean my own feet with the garden hose before i go inside.
i can run in alleys with rocks, and pick glass out of my foot now and again and my skin is so thick most of the time I don't even bleed. Walk around in snow without shoes, but I can never get em completely clean......
whether they come off or not depends on what you do... kinda like with everything else in life. If you tend to go about things in a less than optimum way... you're going to have less than optimum results But I do agree with you - one should not solely (pun intended) rely on having weapons on their feet at all times. Also, on another note, I haven't worn "trainers" outside of Army PT (where it was part of the required uniform) since I was 10 (over 20 years ago)... so yah, I wear boots (that lace up). Only times I am not wearing some sort of minimalist boot (my favorites when I'm out farming are my "medieval" boots I had made for me (turn-shoe with an upper stitched on), If I'm on pavement, you about need to go with a modern rubber-polymer outsoles for durability (and to protect your joints from the concrete, for those of us WHO ACTUALLY WORK FOR A LIVING)) is when I'm around the house... and I'm not "bare-knuckle boxing" someone there (looks over at the hanger sitting next to him, which is next to a pistol) (or anywhere outside of a sporting context, for that matter). I'm old enough and experienced enough to realize that fighting gets you killed or maimed, so there's no point messing around with less trying to show "who's tougher" (outside of sport). Most people don't know anything about shoes, and that allows shoe manufacturers to get away with making bad shoes.
I've actually thought about it quite a lot... That being, what kind of shoes would I even wear that won't come off is what I thought. I still don't know.l
Well you’ve convince me. I’m wearing bear feet around the house from now on. Only thing is, my feet get really bloody cold, and it’s hard to warm them up. Hopefully they’ll adjust to a new reality…
And now you've got me wondering how wearing shoes into combat sports makes them play differently from combat sports where you're bare foot. Like wasn't there some controversy in UFC1 where Ken Shamrock wasn't allowed to wear wrestling shoes which he claimed was to try and give Royce Gracie an advantage? But would really have changed things that much? What's the difference in technique where you're competing in shoes vs bare foot?
As I discussed in this video: wrestling shoes have rubber grips on the soles that allow you to bridge harder and drive with your legs with more power since there is more friction on the mat. It’s a nice bonus, but considering what happened in UFC1, it wouldn’t have been a game changer. Ken Shamrock wasn’t singled out. No one was allowed to wear shoes in UFC1.
As a freestyle wrestler, it's a big deal. A huge amount of wrestling is either shooting low or reacting to someone shooting low, and without the shoes the shots would be much slower. Stances would become more upright with less threatening leg shots. There would be increased focus on handfighting in order to open up shots from closer in, which would be necessary when shots are slower.
@@TheDevourerOfPancakeI train freestyle wrestling barefoot, while everyone else wears shoes. I think you've summarised how my style differs from everyone else's, though to be fair I've trained in a bunch of other stuff too. The reason I train this way is I want it to transfer to my next MMA/BJJ stint more readily.
In our sambo, we never wore shoes. Not sure of the rhyme or reason behind it, we were ofcourse more combat sambo based, but regardless, we would still practice just the grappling aspect of it exclusively to. It's just the way it was. I have always been a nightmare with shoes. In high-school, there wasn't a single brand of cleats that fit my feet properly. I eventually quit measuring the width of my foot. In junior high, skate boarding was popular in the area, so alot of stores had skateboarding shoes that were luckily fairly wide. However, to this day, a trick i do is buy a pair of shoes just slightly a size or two larger, simply because the end of my foot is the widest ofcourse, and 3 quarters of the way up the shoe is still fairly flexible, so I usually wet the shoes and then let them dry with my feet in them, so that they mold into that shape. Otherwise it's usually a painful trail of a few days reshaping them, and sometimes theyl even tear from the buldge on the side if their not dampened first. For a long while, I was able to find wide regular shoes, however, the ones i wear to work quit making a wide variety, so it was back to the old game. If I could, I'd wear some custom made sandals every day. Iv never been able to wear flip flops, cleats, and a few other things. I wouldn't doubt an internet search could bring up wide cleats and flip flops now, but I im past the point of worrying about them now. People wear sandals to the beach, i wear a pair of worn put old shoes with holes in them, or of course I go bare foot right away.
Tried any of the barefoot minilalist brands? Some of them make size custom made. You draw around your foot on a paper and meassure hight of foot on a few places and send it with your order.
“Asian squat?!” How dare you!!! I’ll have you know I’m a proud Slav who’s highly proficient in ancient art of Slav Squating in Adidas track suits! This is cultural appropriation and I will not stand for it!!! **proceeds to squat with cigarette in one hand and vodka in other*
how do all? when no work on would walk 10 k between 2 suburbs barefoot. after about 3 months my souls grew thick callous that i could walk around on black tar or cement footpath with no pain. was even barefooted at the astra hotel every thur, fri and sat nite with broken glass scattered about on carpet. never sustained any damage or splinter. the human body is very adaptive. taztez
I'll say it again - I'm on team removing FEET before fighting.
No feet = heel hook immunity, no shoes comin' off. Can't step on broken glass if you have no feet.
Checkmate, Ramsey!
Have you ever watched grapple Baki? A character called Doppo Orochi has his hand cut off in a street fight. He is happy as he can now hit harder without having to worry about breaking his fingers.
Btw you could walk on glass and not get die hard moment.
@@ManicOpake lol yeah, I liked the part where a billionaire clones Musashi and has him fight against a literal caveman.
@kevinjung6130 hahaha I love that show 🤣
In 1977 I left my shoes in the rainforest on an island. I've been barefoot (except for bicycle and stores) since then and the drug dealers in the next building over leave me alone. I challenged Tom Cruise to a footrace, no shoes allowed, between La Brea and Highland in Hollywood, 3am, his choice of date. No reply...yet. Running barefoot is a thing. I run much faster barefoot than with flip-flops. Thank you for this, Coach. (yes I wash my feet often)
I sincerely hope Tom Cruise takes you up on that footrace challenge! That would be awesome!
@@RamseyDewey - from your keyboard to god's ears. If he agrees to it I'm sure I could find someone to film it.
Somewhere Cody Lundane Is smiling
@@Overlooked1 - research? Cody who? Fine. Brb. O.k., Cody Lundin...o.k. Aboriginal Living Skills Schools. I will check him out, thank you.
This is why I've been transitioning to wide toebox barefoot shoes. It's a bit of a process but it's more comfortable after a while. And it makes you walk on the balls of your feet which is a better habit for fighting anyway.
Love to hear this message getting out more; I have to do work everyday to try to fix my feet from years of shoe damage. Really hampers my martial arts.
Boo to modern shoe design.
Food for thought. I live in Southeast Asia and I can’t fathom always wearing shoes indoors. I also use the treadmill at home barefeet, and it looks like i’ve been doing myself a favor the whole time
I wonder how many countries in Europe does the shoes indoors thing as well. Atleast in my country the shoes come off when entering someones house
@@lalli8152Same in Brazil, it's a sign of respect. You don't want to dirty someone else's house.
On Rokas' next ultimate fighter challenge, we will fight each other stark naked
I only fight in flipflops in DA STREETZ. if you can't fight in flip-flops, you can't fight!!!
Westerners always wear shoes, and it's bad for your feat. Eastern cultures don't have this problem.
*Chinese foot binding has entered the chat.
people should all wear Tabi boots in case you gotta fight in da streetz! LOL
With or without shoes it's much better to avoid fighting especially in street.
Sounds good, but you can't avoid all fights. You can get jumped out of the blue, without warning with little or no time to react. It has happened to me, and i have seen it happen. Avoid unnecessary fights, but also be aware some fights are unavoidable.
@@alainerookkitsunev5605 i agree
Hope your knee is healing nicely!!!
Well, my knee is still crippled, and last night I dislocated a shoulder. So, there’s that. I appreciate your positively though!
@@RamseyDeweymay God bring healing onto your body 🙏
Part of getting older. At 44 years old myself, my body move more or less the same as always. My mind and heart are still just as into the martial arts as ever.
Its my joints and injuries that wont follow the same positive way. 🙃
Ramsay: "You can't fight if you can't fight barefoot!"
Savate: 😭
Do you think the average savateur can’t fight barefoot?
@@RamseyDewey no, but I wonder if they feel "unarmed" in bare feet, after all their talk about shoes as weapons...
Posted that comment before I got to the party where you mentioned savate. But honestly though - I can't believe this channel reviewed the differences in shoes in a variety of combat sports... Who does that?? It was totally fascinating, unexpected, and exactly why I subscribe... The ven diagram of subjects that cross on this channel is great!
Doctor Scholl: "I didn't go through eight years of scholl finisishing school to be called Mister Scholl, thank you very much!"
Wasn't Savate a streetfighting art before it was sport? So it was designed for shoe-fighting with whatever shoes sailors were wearing or on the streets of Paris or wherever Savate was practiced.
sshhh, the guy that plays around with combat-sports for a living doesn't want to hear about how the rest of the world has to live. (it's Ironic that he has trained in Bourgeois Savate (the combat-sport)).
I love the guy, but there are times when his level of privilege really shows.
Violence is the real thing, but violence leaves people dead or maimed (obviously we can't do actual violence when we're trying to get better at violence, because we all end up dead pretty quick). So we create "martial arts", which are supposed to be close simulations of violence in which we can practice concepts and ideas to try to find better ways to enact violence without nearly as high a likelihood of death and life-crippling injuries (fencing is a great example). "Combat Sports" are a simulation of "Martial Arts" where the ruleset is expanded to make it safer and more entertaining (usually having undue, artificial limitations and having a condition of success other than "not dying" (points, KO, submission, ect)).
All simulations lie, because the subject being simulated is too complex or dangerous to be carried out repeatedly and learn from it. The value of a simulation lies in how close to the real thing it is, while still being able to be repeated often enough to gain skill/understanding in the subject being simulated.
Savate is an example of something that can either be a martial art or a combat sport, depending on what ruleset you work under. "Pugilism" is a martial art (striking with the fist + legs and throws to cause serious injury (on occasion, weapons), in an effort to conclude violence as fast as possible with as little risk to yourself), while "Boxing" is the combat sport. You cannot safely compete with martial arts, because competition incentivizes a certain lack of control, and without artificial measures in place (in your ruleset) to protect the combatants, death or serious injury for one or both is likely (look into the origins of "boxing" (a lot of people died or where crippled for life), and the history of "martial fencing" competitions (a lot of people got seriously hurt (and historically, killed), and so now most tournaments require ridiculous amounts of PPE to even enter and other rules to protect the competitors, and Olympic Sport-Fencing is even further removed)).
I've been using zero-drop wide-toe-box shoes for many years. Not perfect, but so much better than standard western shoes. I did use the vibram five-fingers shoes for a year or two but they're just not practical in cold weather where you need wool socks. Great spring through early fall, but not easy to care for and hard to get for those of us whose second toe is longer than our big toe. :(
Have you tried wildling they are so comfortable but they are expensive.
@@alexanderstevens145 never heard of them. Is that the brand name or is that the name of a particular model?
For what it's worth, there are wool toe socks. But if it's cold enough that you're wearing wool socks, you probably want a traditional sock style anyways
I started working the door in bars starting in Baltimore in 1988. I also worked for Broadway Services in Baltimore where I was in various psychiatric hospitals and institutions and was a PPO, a personal protection officer, at John’s Hopkins. I generally worked the ER and the temporary psychiatric holding rooms (rooms with the rubber walls). The police would drop people off to us, often leaving them in cuffs, for us to remove. They would tell us that there was a reason why they were in those cuffs, as the doctors would want to immediately take them off. The police would toss us the keys and say , “we will be back for those, and good luck.” It became quite interesting at times. About 9 years ago, I went back to working bars. I think it’s time for me to go though, because I am getting a little tired of dealing all this nonsense. Ha! I don’t know what kind of fights people on line are always talking about. But, I have seen untold numbers of bar fights. I have taken hundreds of people out of those bars. Sometimes, the festivities continue out into the parking lots. Sometimes, groups are involved. I have certainly seen a few shoes come off in my day. Girls loose their heels in a fight rather quickly for example. Ha! But, you are right about being barefoot. One should definitely train barefoot and be barefoot whenever possible. It’s good for the soul. See what I did there? Also, get a tetanus shot.
The shoes in the house thing in the US is so strange because in Canada we don't wear shoes at home
It depends what part of the country you’re in
If you can't fight with Teflon socks on then ........ You don't have balance
I really love your criticisms of the self defence industry. Like the way it's built on fear and paranoia is really gross, and the sort of person it inspires often seems more like a threat to me than anything else.
I agree. I've both fought and taught full contact traditional Chinese martial arts with no protection, and it's really frustrating trying to convince people that what they know about defending themselves is not what they've been told or seen on movies.
A lot of self defence experts are basically turning people into Travis Bickle wannabes, convinced there is evil behind every corner and you should be prepared for the worst. What is worse they sell illusions of being undefeated because you have learned how to kick the groin,put the fingers in eyes and learn some disarm drills so you will be able to defeat boxer, wrestler or guy with knife. Also they charge way too high money for their lessons in comparison to people teaching sports like BJJ or MT( at least i observed that in my country).
I also agree. My youtube feed can take a strange turn once in a while, being that I'm subscribed to a few martial arts youtubers, it'll suddenly take a turn over to the tactical pen guys that carry 10 weapons on them at all times, excluding a gun.......... now what the heck kind of situation is going to warrant the need for 10 weapons. At that point, they seriously just need a bat belt. They need the batman utility belt. It's just so outlandishly ridiculous that it's mind boggling. Not only that, but they don't realize that it leaves them extremely vulnerable, and most likely a target. If there's 5 guys that see that you have a bunch of weapons on you, and your in an isolated area that makes you vulnerable. Your tactical pen and pepper spray probably won't be enough. Youl probably be without any of it in the end. Than theres also the question of your assailant being a better grappler than you. If they wrestle you down, well than there is a very good chance of them taking your weapon, or one of them and using it against you. There's also the legal end of it. If you get into a confrontation with someone, and they swing at you, well here in Canada, you can not pull out your destruction and malice pen and start jabbing them with it, while a well trained punch would do more damage anyways. If the persons unarmed, and you throw a pebble at them, your being charged, not them. Ironically the saying goes that the best self defense weapons a person can have are patience, stoicism, kindness, understanding, selflessness when needed, and if really needed, a good pair of running shoes. Than there are the shakespearian actors of yore. They reenact these terrible situations where they break the choke with thou move, and thy knee lands into the bee hive, and thy foe is now buzzing and groaning, and everyone lives happily ever after. No. No, it doesn't go that way. If your a 120 pound person with long hair, your face poke break probably won't work, if it does, they probably won't be in a position to take a perfect knee, and even if they do, their not letting go because they probably have an adrenaline dump to, and they probably have your hair or clothing, and it's just turned into a case of grappling. Which is why I say, the best women's martial art for self defense would be any form of grappling, especially something that already has a mix of Tachi waza, ne waza, and wrestling like sambo. Like Ramsey mentioned in one rating test. I love catch wrestling, but its more dependant on physical strength and conditioning. Even bjj with a good bit of wrestling in it, which is basically simular to sambo. Most damage iv ever taken from a smaller person, was when i was sparring with a young woman, and I was working on my jab more than anything, just keeping her back and set up. I was going a bit slower and easy I can admit. I thought we were being casual. She had other plans. I was trained to fight southpaw, so I had my right foot forward. She was in orthodox. Which leaves both of us vulnerable to the outside as we know. She timed out my jab and slipped into it, obviously taking my vulnerable outside, and i was just expecting her to go for a basic trip up like Tani otoshi, since she had my hips. I rememeber instinctively feeling ready to defend against it once we went down, because we drilled this a few times. They obviously try pull themselves into mount once you hit the floor, so as soon as you do, you try counter that. She didnt just trip me up though. No, she got a wide base, squatted me up, 230lbs, just a tad off the floor, and sent me backwards. This was on just regular inch thick foam puzzle mats. I wasn't knocked out, but I was done. Done for many minutes. The best self defense weapon in my opinion is right under our feet and shoes. If hittong someone with your fistbdiesnt work, then hit them with the planet. She wasn't from our gym. Came in from a different city. Our coaches were friends. Hard reality is that maybe a hard and good head kick would of phased me, but her punches didnt do alot. Smaller people need wrestling and bjj. Get out of bad positions, choke people out, and slam them.
It’s easy to scoff at self defense when you live in Shanghai. Try saying that spending a half a decade in any major American city. It’s like grand theft auto zombie apocalypse
Haha joke's on you Ramsey, I wear my ice skates everywhere I go. When I get into street fights, my badass spinning heel kicks become deadly slashes 💀⛸💀
Lol good talk coach. I vastly prefer the foot to the shoe in many cases.
I just realized the secret of the Florida Man’s power: we’re CONSTANTLY either barefoot or in flip flops, and half the time our flip flops either blow out or just fall off. Also, if we kick they’re guaranteed to fly off probably at the opponent’s face and hopefully cause a momentary flinch response
I think this is underrated. I rarely wear shoes, usually protective boots when I have to cover my feet, and had to learn the hard way: many people never SCRUB their feet, as they *will* become leathery and cracked if properly used -- exfoliate those dogs and it solves many problems that crop up. Mitigates the "blackfoot" issue, too.
I always wear 1 size up
And walk around barefooted to places i can go barefooted.
I love being barefooted cause i grew up playing outside barefooted.
I've watched most of your videos but somehow missed the cowboy fashion one....how long ago was that. And thank you for the video. All my street "fights" have been in my work clothes where I wear boots so I've never even gave shoes coming off any thought
In English, the cooshy part inside the shoe is called the "insole".
Thank you! I have been trying to remember that word for 2 days now!
Can't say I ever lost a shoe but it can happen. But you must be prepared for any clothing malfunction.
You should watch king of the streets. In some of those fights a shoe comes off...But it's probably 5% of the time... It's not as frequent as you say it is.
Most people train without shoes so if anything people should practice in shoes to fill in that gap. I never been to a karate or muay thai gym where you keep shoes on, only boxing & wrestling involve shoes which make sense for “the street” not to discredit barefoot styles like Judo or kickboxing but footwork is completely different without shoes & learning how to fight in shoes is important for “the street”
@@DADRB0B55 When i began doing Savate after few years of MMA and MT i quickly noticed some important things like pivoting your foot which feels a lot different without shoes, the same with doing steps, doing pointy kicks, so yeah, everyone should try fighting in shoes from time to time.
I actually run my fastest when I'm barefoot. I really dislike wearing shoes. I put up with them during the coldest months if it drops down enough (thankfully it doesn't often get that cold in TX and the hot Summer concrete never bothered me) or if I have to do some kind of work that protective wear might benefit (like weedwhacking and such), but I just like being barefoot. I'm kind of backwards, too. I often carry around some classic Chinese cotton souls to slip on when I know I might go in a shop or something because a lot of stores won't service you if you aren't wearing shoes.
Spending time barefoot teaches fighting skills. You need to be able to take in just as much information through your legs as you do through your hands. It also teaches different forms of footwork; picking your feet up, etc. Thin soled flexible shoes teach the same thing. This is why kungfu people usually wear thin little cloth slippers.
Wear only wrestling shoes for a month to a year - you’ll be better for it.
I love the Feiyue shoes, wore them for almost 30 years. I did almost all my fighting and training wearing those. What's cool that in addition to being close to the best, if not the best, they are also the cheapest!
Great point about foot health.
I walk around most of time with some sort of shoes, but I hate those more restricive shoes. I wear more comfy and "free/spacy" type of shoes outside. At home, I wear either slippers or bare foot.
Actually, I DID watch your previous video on how fashions have historically followed trends in military garb, and I agree that it was a fascinating video. And I agree with everything you're saying. I've been wearing barefoot shoes for a few years now, and I love it. I use shoes with no heel support, a wide toe box allowing for the spreading of the toes, and a 5mm sole, and I try to be barefoot indoors as often as possible. It has made my feet stronger and has reduced joint problems I have historically suffered in my legs.
Speaking of footwear, I have recently gotten into rollerblading, and the crazy "what if" part of my mind keeps wondering what hand-to-hand combat would look like on roller blades... Quite chaotic I'm sure, but it might make an interesting thought experiment!
Ditching the Vibram Five fingers for bare feet. Ohh boy!!! Just to adjust to a barefoot lifestyle has been so hard core. It took me a decade! It started with watching Cody Lundin on Dual Survival, then martial arts at 36, at 46 I live a life that my old self would have thought impossible.
Well ,in Savate it says explicitly that shoes are weapons.Savate was practiced by bad guys from the underworld until it went main-stream.They used their boots to be more efficient against their enemies.In Shotokan ,most instructors do not know that kicks from Shotokan are actually from Savate.There is a Jesse Enkamp video about this on TH-cam.It talks about high kicks but I think it applies to Yoko-Geri too.th-cam.com/video/sQUh5tVWd-E/w-d-xo.html
I think I got it at 6:42 ........ That's fine for the health food hippy types that don't have a day job ! Some of us still have to pull on the work boots to get the job done ... LOL ! 😁
I'm kinda use heavy combat boots, is a good weapon. But barefoot equals to freedom and speed and power
"STOP TAKING YOUR SHOES OFF LOL" - Dale Brown
Boots are a reality of my life, if I want to wear them or not. Wearing steel capped work boots is compulsory for my work, so I have no choice in wearing them during the working day. If we remove our boots at any time, then any injury to our feet is not covered by insurance, so I really do not have any choice. Because, I am so used to wearing boots for work, I wear them, or some other form of boot, constantly whenever I go. I feel really vulnerable and unsafe if I ever go outside the front door in a pair of normal shoes or trainers. I have a few times hurt my toe when I have got it trapped in the gap between the Judo mats during randori, where the mats have come apart, not broken, but really hurting, and wished that I could wear boots for Judo, or when the other guy accidentally stamps on your toes. The most painful toe injury that I had was during kick-boxing, it was not even sparring, but paracticing kicking in turns, and once of use wasn't paying attention and kicked out of turn, so we kicked at the same time crashing our feet together, my toes were in agony for a couple of weeks, again, fortunately not broken. From these martial arts experiences I just assumed that wearing a heavy sturdy boot that will not come off, during a fight is better than wearing weaker footwear, though I will admit that my experience of real fighting is exptremely limited (fortunately).
This is probably true, but I think you may have missed a key point he threw in there: wearing boots is great if you’re in a fight, but in that case you’re doing something that’s detrimental to your health in order to be slightly more prepared in a fringe circumstance that’s unlikely to ever happen. Avoiding that type of footwear is better self defense because you’re protecting against disease and injury, that’s just less glamorous than self defense against an attacker jumping out of the bushes.
I fight with my hands. I grab them spicy chicken wings and DESTORY. They call me wingdinger
Shoes are like a cast...take the cast off and the muscles are atrophied and weak. Good analogy that was said in the book Born To Run.
I live in Sweden and here you also always take of your shoes indoors. Plenty palces in Europe where you are expected to remove your shoe indoors.
walk around the streets in full fight gear. ready for a fight at any time.
My original teacher of shotokan ingrained the dojokun in me. Avoid conflict, if you need to stop deescalate verbally if needed physically take someone down in one go. I have work shoes that look like just regular shoes but are slip resistant and steel toed. I dont depend on then even with my experience with kicking forms i dont need them. The soles of my feet are pretty calloused from my past work contracting and the years barefoot on the mat. Keep it up coach. All you warriors out there or fighters and pure self defense training remember FUNDAMENTALS. Edit: Go to the beach and train on a beach day if you can.
I've lived in Japan since 1994, no shoes on my feet for like 80% of the day. I was also lucky in that although I grew up in a rural town in upstate NY, my mother had everyone take their shoes off at the front door, no matter who it was (guests included).
Great advice I started wearing barefoot style shoes about a year ago and it's eased my back and knee pains. I could go on and on about the benifits but I'm sure people in the comments will have already covered that 👍👍
In high school i started to suffer from severe lower back pain when I started being more athletic. I spent all my time obsessively trying to determine the cause. Turns out one of them was constantly elevating your heels 2 inches off the ground. It fundamently throws off your whole body mechanics making you have to tilt your pelvis in unnatural ways and it completely obliterates millions of years of evolution/bastardizes gods creation that has made humans the best endurance runners on the planets. Even better than horses. Wearing shoes is like walking around with a blindfold to “protect your eyes”.
And on the subject of horses, the whole reason shoes have heels today is because the nobility would wear high heeled boots when they rode horses, and the peasants simply mimicked that fashion. It had absolutely nothing to do functionality or effectiveness. Heres an another analogy for fun: Imagine if people thought fighters were cool and made alot of money, and when you see them they are wearing boxing or mma gloves. Now imagine that the average person starts wearing boxing gloves as a fashion statement. And then it becomes so normalized that you arent even allowed into stores unless youre wearing boxing gloves. Thats exactly what happened my friends, just with the feet.
(I made this comment before watching the video)
I can't sit in a squat, and you call me a subhuman mutant 😢
actually: both the heel and the pointy end of riding boots are designed to easily come OUT of the stirrups, in case you fall. If you get stuck, you will be dragged by, hit your head repeatedly, worst case you will loose concience, and get hurt very badly. Plus, you can get kicked by the horse, because it wants to get rid of the heavy thing dangling on one side scaring it. It's incredibly dangerous, you want to get out of those stirrups as soon as you can, when falling from a horse.
Not what was being discussed.
@@RamseyDewey so much for "people love being right"... 😉🤣
@@celestat897 Your post is a prime example of that. I mention that riding boots have pointy end so they can slide into the stirrups and have heels so that you can ride (not sit) on the saddle, and then you play the contrarian pretending that I said riding boots lock you into stirrups and write an essay about that straw man. Not what was discussed at all!
I know! That was what I was trying to admit to! Reffering to my own comment. Feeling bad now, for taking up so much of your time... Love your videos, keep up the good work! @@RamseyDewey
@@celestat897 It's all good. Thanks for the back and forth. I appreciate the comments!
Best video thanks coach 💯
I love my barefoot/minimalist shoes. I switched several years ago because I used to get terrible plantar fasciitis being on my feet all day. I kept replacing the insoles with superfeet or dr scholls. Got my feet X rayed and checked out by a specialist because I thought something was wrong with my feet, or that I needed a custom orthotic. Doc said my feet were perfectly normal, just beat down from being on them non stop especially on concrete. I switched to minimalist shoes and while it took a good bit of time to adjust (probably a year before I could wear them all day every day ), I simply can't go back now. no more foot issues, stronger ankles, no pulled arches. If I go back to conventional shoes for a day it messes my feet up for several days after. p.s. editing to say, I understand what you're saying about minimalist shoes being as good as true barefoot, we have to make compromises. I'm not allowed to be barefoot in the gym. I'm not allowed to be barefoot at work (or even open toed shoes). I can't be barefoot at the store (not that I would want to be, gross). So the only places I can realistically walk around barefoot is the street/sidewalk around my neighborhood, and the grassy areas of my neighboorhood. I don't want an infection from stepping on some nail or broken glass or rusty piece of metal lying around, and I reckon human feet weren't meant to be ground against concrete and pavement for hours a day. Oh and yeah we have those spiky balls around here lol. I'd like to get into barefoot hiking but for now the closest I can do are xero and lems boots and shoes. At least I can be confident that my ankles and feet are strong enough to not pull or strain something if I lose my shoes in a fight. I just hope I don't step on something sharp, but I think stepping on something sharp would make most people flinch.
I'm on board. No shoes. I've been hiking in the PNW for years and I don't wear boots unless it is in the winter time. Spring, summer, and fall I wear tevas while hiking. Helps regulate my body temp better, good traction, and I don't have to worry about water proofing. I can walk in bodies of water and feel the environment for better mental and physical connection to the earth. Namasta
So the flexible Spiderman shoe from the old comics and Sam Raimi trilogy is actually better than those new spidey who just wear a pair of sneakers.
Interesting...
2:44 as a child I rid horses a bunch and I distinctively remember doing it barefoot anyway lol
I do tkd barefoot alot. Ive had people at my other weightlifting gym look at me weird for taking off my shoes at the heavy bag. Shoes feel weird, especially the standing leg has so much traction to a rubber floor with a shoe.
All this is really funny to me for one simple reason. I mostly train barefoot. When your broke and trains in a community gym it's stupid common to find yourself barefoot. I have money to buy boxing sneakers and stuff nowadays, but I used to compete as a amateur using my friends shoes. And tha habit just continues, I still train boxing barefoot, and now Muay Thai too.
This is hilarious but I do find myself agreeing with the points being made. This is a grim approach but you guys want to know what 'real' street fights look like? Just go look at some CCTV footage or protest footage, that's what you're going to be up against. People act like you're going to be going up against one or more guys and they're going to give you a chance to get into your stance and you're going to get into this brawl situation. The information is out there if you're not squeamish but I think it's valuable information to reduce the amount of internet tough guys out there.
Don't get me wrong, very occasionally sometimes that does happen, but you know what happens most of the time? People get ambushed, people fight dirty and they will take a cheap shot at you wherever possible and then run away, very rarely do you get a situation where you're in a stand up fight. If you do get into a fight, you're probably going to be outnumbered and they're going to kick the shit out of you while you're on the floor, that's reality. So you damn well be better good at fighting or running either way if you're going to make a decision in that situation.
As for shoes, it's not even just shoes, I've seen footage of people going to grab somebodies shirt and their shirt just tears off lol that's another thing people don't talk about a lot when it comes to real self-defence scenarios.
To be fair, if a shoe comes off in a fight then youll have to continue with one shoe on and one shoe off, which could put you at a disadvantage. Youre probably best off either fighting without shoes or with shoes that stay on.
Not advocating for the self defense industry, you shouldn't be fighting outside of competition and youre fine without shoes, but having only one shoe is definitely more awkward.
When the shoes slip off; the socks are a real liability for stability in a "situation".
Sorry , coach . This one , no no.
I have a pair of steel-toed shoes, because I know I need them. By law, my workplace is at risk I get something on my foot. And it already happened...
In Europe you also take your shoes off, it's really bad manners to step inside any home with your shoes on.
I basically don't use shoes anymore, last few years I've been a 100% sandals guy
Your shoes don't usually come off in a fight. They certainly can, but not generally.
An Indian here. We had a system of no shoes inside the classroom from preschool. You always had to take your shoes out when entering the classroom. We had shoeracks outside every classroom. In younger classes we had big mats we would sit on for what people call homeroom and group discussions. All the more reason to keep shoes off. Need the floor clean. Shoes inside classrooms only became a thing around 8/9th grade. Students just stopped taking them off. It wasn't a rule being enforced by the school. It was just what were told as kids. We followed it ourselves.
I come from the streets of Los Angeles and I've actually taken guns from people twice in my life amongst others altercations and my shoes have never come off. I've also been in prison riots and my shoes have never come off. The ring and real life is different.
Agree 100% about filthy indoor shoes- I absolutely cannot stand it, having been used to Asian ways.
I'll walk barefoot but keep a pair of steel toes in my bag just in case I get in a fight
Shoes indoors is a southern US thing, in the North and in Canada, everyone expects the shoes to come off indoors
I gotta be honest, when I was doing judo and looked down at my feet with my toes all dislocated and sideways. I often got jealous of wrestlers getting wrestling shoes.
Good video.
I hope you're doing well. Take care, tiu known how.
Well, you will have like -5 bee sting protection. So there is that, too.
I have detachable feet, so my shoes will never come off
Oh my this is so BASED I'm getting an overdose, in a good way!
I did some research after your last video and it seems like that's a feature to easily remove your shoe to protect the shoe wearer from fire in certain awkward ways of the the foot they can cause more damage if a shoe is locked on
Seems like anyone who seriously trains to fight, trains without shoes anyway. Except maybe boxers but if you’re not kicking, the risk of flying shoes is minimized.
I think the most underrated combat shoe for da streetz is a croc. They’re wide toed, have rubber soles for good traction, and they’re not coming off your foot while in gear. You have to actively push that strap down with your fingers to get them off.
I reckon between rolling and lifting weights at home on concrete and grass helps keep my feet...well...reasonable. Asian squats are a thing of the past nowadays though. Not without holding onto a bench for assistance.
Recommend everyone that can switch to Vibram five-finger shoes. Personally wear them every day for comfort, conditioning, and self-defense practicality. I train in mixed combat Kickboxing, why would I walk around in normal shoes? I train how I plan to likely fight if it arises. That means barefoot/barefoot shoes and sometimes slightly under the influence of cannabis. No, I am not paranoid, I very plausibly need my training. Rural Observant Left Wing and Jewish convert who speaks out against Right Wing Authoritarians. You are right Vibrams are not the same, they are as close to natural as you can practically get and function in many aspects or contexts of modern society.
If you can walk on glasses you are a magician 🤣😅😂😅🤣
I think it's a bit hyperbolic to say the shoes "will" come off in a fight as I never had it happen to me in the few little tussles i got into and I've never seen it happen in any that I witnessed in person. However, I've seen enough video of it happening to realize it does happen, and I also see a lot of people who keep their laces really loose. But I totally agree that you need to be able to fight barefoot. Before I got into more combat sports I used to do Krav Maga and they scoffed at people for training barefoot and I asked them if they slept with their shoes on or went swimming in shoes etc. Sometimes they acknowledged that I was right and sometimes it didn't compute lol. But I do think anyone concerned with self defense should also do some training in their shoes or even clothes that aren't your normal gym attire so that they can get feel for what it's like fighting in them.
Also, if anyone has ever developed any bunions, they should definitely see the merit in going barefoot as often as they can. I had one on my left foot and it was rough. Still do but it's gotten a lot better
I love running barefoot. On the beach or on grass. Have you ever stubbed your toe on tarmac? Barefoot in urban areas can be a real problem. Even attract police attention, and store clerks famously don't like it either.
Great video thanks for the upload
I spend most of my time, not wearing shoes
I am using barefoot shoes all the time, since i started my balance is much better and also the kicks. Yes you are right real barefoot is even more intensive, but this wat I cantrain my feet every day. Btw in europe we also do not use shoes at home.
Now that you point this out, I hope my shoes come off if I ever get into a fight, because my Muay Thai training is only barefoot 😅
The past couple years I've been learning how fucked up shoes are. 😭 Im trying to repair my feet after years of damage and it's been quite the arduous process. I can kick barefoot but I cannot squat very well barefoot 😓
Yeah to my understanding we modern humans dont even walk like people should because of our shoes not to mention how they squish our feet
Squat mobility can be fixed and it feels GREAT after. It took me about a year. I stretch my ankles in the squatting position, grabbing the sofa so I can move around without falling backwards. It's all in the tendons, so give yourself more recovery time, and get exercise to increase blood flow
Try some sort of front squat (goblet, zercher, sandbag etc). The front loading will allow you to lean back more and squat deeper. This should over time increase your downstairs mobility.
As a highly dangerous drifter with special skills I always sleep with my boots on. Cannonball is always saddled and dozing in the corner. The fungus on my toes ate the athletes foot years ago. Because athletes foot only makes your feet stronger.
Well I was a drug detective and I was prone to wearing deck shoe type shoes. You know slip on tennis shoes.
Every time got got into a scrape I twisted out of my shoes. You push from the ball of your foot when you twist and it goes.
My dad said that you should run barefoot over plowed ground every now and again.
If you have ever been around aboriginal folks you will notice that a life without shoes end up making different shape feet..
I wear a diabetic shoe.. you can’t beat them for comfort..
In Poland we take off shoes indoor as well, I can't imagine walking indoor in shoes, its stinky, sweaty, and as far as outdoor bacteria etc goes, its just... dangerous xD And still I recently switched to barefoot shoes as I fear haluxes a little and these boots seems to be able to withstand longer
I'm curious in other countries that traditionally take off the shoes as they enter the house; how do they handle dogs in the house? Do they remain outside? Are they cleaning their feet before they bring them in?
Not washing my dogs feet, neither the cats. Their paws remain rather clean by themself and pick up less dirt than human soles.
But if its rainy and i have walked in muddy forrest trails where i live i clean my own feet with the garden hose before i go inside.
i can run in alleys with rocks, and pick glass out of my foot now and again and my skin is so thick most of the time I don't even bleed. Walk around in snow without shoes, but I can never get em completely clean......
The first thing I do is kick my shoes off
whether they come off or not depends on what you do... kinda like with everything else in life.
If you tend to go about things in a less than optimum way... you're going to have less than optimum results
But I do agree with you - one should not solely (pun intended) rely on having weapons on their feet at all times.
Also, on another note, I haven't worn "trainers" outside of Army PT (where it was part of the required uniform) since I was 10 (over 20 years ago)... so yah, I wear boots (that lace up). Only times I am not wearing some sort of minimalist boot (my favorites when I'm out farming are my "medieval" boots I had made for me (turn-shoe with an upper stitched on), If I'm on pavement, you about need to go with a modern rubber-polymer outsoles for durability (and to protect your joints from the concrete, for those of us WHO ACTUALLY WORK FOR A LIVING)) is when I'm around the house... and I'm not "bare-knuckle boxing" someone there (looks over at the hanger sitting next to him, which is next to a pistol) (or anywhere outside of a sporting context, for that matter). I'm old enough and experienced enough to realize that fighting gets you killed or maimed, so there's no point messing around with less trying to show "who's tougher" (outside of sport).
Most people don't know anything about shoes, and that allows shoe manufacturers to get away with making bad shoes.
Remember Bruce Willis in Die Hard 1? No shoes👣. Cheers
During 2020, I found an interesting home workout and the guy doing it said workouts done barefoot when possible are more effective.
I've actually thought about it quite a lot... That being, what kind of shoes would I even wear that won't come off is what I thought. I still don't know.l
Well you’ve convince me. I’m wearing bear feet around the house from now on. Only thing is, my feet get really bloody cold, and it’s hard to warm them up. Hopefully they’ll adjust to a new reality…
And now you've got me wondering how wearing shoes into combat sports makes them play differently from combat sports where you're bare foot.
Like wasn't there some controversy in UFC1 where Ken Shamrock wasn't allowed to wear wrestling shoes which he claimed was to try and give Royce Gracie an advantage? But would really have changed things that much?
What's the difference in technique where you're competing in shoes vs bare foot?
As I discussed in this video: wrestling shoes have rubber grips on the soles that allow you to bridge harder and drive with your legs with more power since there is more friction on the mat. It’s a nice bonus, but considering what happened in UFC1, it wouldn’t have been a game changer. Ken Shamrock wasn’t singled out. No one was allowed to wear shoes in UFC1.
As a freestyle wrestler, it's a big deal. A huge amount of wrestling is either shooting low or reacting to someone shooting low, and without the shoes the shots would be much slower. Stances would become more upright with less threatening leg shots. There would be increased focus on handfighting in order to open up shots from closer in, which would be necessary when shots are slower.
@@TheDevourerOfPancakeI train freestyle wrestling barefoot, while everyone else wears shoes. I think you've summarised how my style differs from everyone else's, though to be fair I've trained in a bunch of other stuff too. The reason I train this way is I want it to transfer to my next MMA/BJJ stint more readily.
In our sambo, we never wore shoes. Not sure of the rhyme or reason behind it, we were ofcourse more combat sambo based, but regardless, we would still practice just the grappling aspect of it exclusively to. It's just the way it was. I have always been a nightmare with shoes. In high-school, there wasn't a single brand of cleats that fit my feet properly. I eventually quit measuring the width of my foot. In junior high, skate boarding was popular in the area, so alot of stores had skateboarding shoes that were luckily fairly wide. However, to this day, a trick i do is buy a pair of shoes just slightly a size or two larger, simply because the end of my foot is the widest ofcourse, and 3 quarters of the way up the shoe is still fairly flexible, so I usually wet the shoes and then let them dry with my feet in them, so that they mold into that shape. Otherwise it's usually a painful trail of a few days reshaping them, and sometimes theyl even tear from the buldge on the side if their not dampened first. For a long while, I was able to find wide regular shoes, however, the ones i wear to work quit making a wide variety, so it was back to the old game. If I could, I'd wear some custom made sandals every day. Iv never been able to wear flip flops, cleats, and a few other things. I wouldn't doubt an internet search could bring up wide cleats and flip flops now, but I im past the point of worrying about them now. People wear sandals to the beach, i wear a pair of worn put old shoes with holes in them, or of course I go bare foot right away.
Tried any of the barefoot minilalist brands? Some of them make size custom made. You draw around your foot on a paper and meassure hight of foot on a few places and send it with your order.
@krystmarodoren7446 No I haven't. I'll keep that in mind, thanks.
“Asian squat?!” How dare you!!! I’ll have you know I’m a proud Slav who’s highly proficient in ancient art of Slav Squating in Adidas track suits! This is cultural appropriation and I will not stand for it!!! **proceeds to squat with cigarette in one hand and vodka in other*
how do all? when no work on would walk 10 k between 2 suburbs barefoot. after about 3 months my souls grew thick callous that i could walk around on black tar or cement footpath with no pain. was even barefooted at the astra hotel every thur, fri and sat nite with broken glass scattered about on carpet.
never sustained any damage or splinter. the human body is very adaptive. taztez
So basically, shoes are to our feet what wraps and gloves are to our hands.
Funny how that works.