The Martial Arts Guide – Do You Need Footwear For Your Training?
Welcome to this article about the discussion if wearing martial arts footwear during the training is good or bad. The reason I write this guide is that there are many misunderstanding in some martial art scenes. As a result many people don’t like to wear footwear and they get hurt.
What’s the reason that people don’t wear martial arts footwear during their training? The first reason is that they believe the rumors that real martial artists wouldn’t need protective clothing. Or that it’s “no real training if you aren’t fighting barefooted”.
In my opinion that’s nonsense. Even traditional martial artists are wearing martial arts footwear during their training! In fact most martial art schools have a strict set of rules which clothing you have to wear. Rules about wearing or not wearing footwear are a part of that.
Why shouldn’t you wear shoes when even the first fighters used them in their training? Secondly, what’s up with this discussion about “real fights”? In the real life, how often do we have to have a “real fight”? And you won’t be barefooted in a real fight either. Except for a scenario taking place at the beach I honestly can’t imagine a situation in which you have to fight without shoes. And if you are clever you don’t start or get into a fight at all.
I recommend you to get high quality martial arts footwear. With cheap shoes you always risk an accident – low budget footwear tends to break really often. Not training for some weeks is going to really put you behind.
I’m not saying that every martial arts requires you to wear shoes. Some techniques can only be executed correctly if you are training barefooted. The best way to find out if you should wear footwear is asking your teacher or reading about the history if your arts. Sometimes you get valuable insights about what you have to do and WHY you have to do it.
