It is interesting how certain ideas surface at the same time. Last week I receieved a copy of Ken Bob Saxton's book, Barefoot Running Step by Step. I've followed him a little for years and it was strange to watch the barefoot movement boom recently with vibrams etc.
Anyway, KenBob stresses that it is not enough to have minimal shoes - barefoot means barefoot. Proprioception - the sense of your body's position in space - is driven by the feet and shoes blunt that sense.
The same idea popped up in the Becoming Bulletproof book that I mentioned last week.
Then I saw this excellent piece from mc Mick Wilkinson Part I: Why Barefoot Running (in shoes) Is not barefoot running
It is an excellent piece and I am looking forward to the rest of the series.
There's a study being done to compare barefoot to some of the minimalist options.
ReplyDeleteThere *are* some options that, under these testing conditions, were identical to barefoot (but not VFFs).
I've thought about this before and I decided that VFFs approximate the calluses I'd have if I had never worn shoes. You can't feel through calluses either.
ReplyDeleteThis is so true!
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