Hey All, Had a search but couldn't find what I was looking for. Does anybody tape their toes (mainly the big toe on each foot) instead of wearing shoes (i find shoes restrictive). I haven't been into TKD for long and am unsure of exactly which tape I should be using (I've tried boggo standard masking tape and even elastoplast ). Does anyone have a preference for a tape to use? Maybe where to get some from in the UK? Cheers P
I'm assuming that you do this to prevent blisters, but if you want to toughen up you feet this is almost unnavoidable. My instructor told me to put medicated spirit all over the sole of your feet to toughen them up. It works a treat! Besides, tape can be very slippy so I wouldn't recomend it unless you feet really hurt. just over the big toe should be fine though. *edit. I don't know what style of tae kwon do you are doing but where I go, you don't ever wear shoes unless you have bad feet. What style do you do?
You've never seen anyone wearing shoes like these anywhere? In my experience someone has been wearing them at every place I've ever been to. I don't want to wear them because I'd like to toughen up my feet a bit and some people say it can make the twisting/pivoting action used in a lot of kicks more difficult due to extra grip shoes sometimes provide. The reason I was looking for some tape is that I have classes on consecutive days sometimes and wrenching freshly mashed up blisters the day after is pretty painful. I would like to tape them up whenever theyre mashed up and keep them untaped when they're not. I've often seen people learning ballet / dancing wearing tape on their big toes, so I don't think slipping will be much of a problem.
Martial arts shoes do make the kicks a bit harder- heck, training in any type of shoe for me is hard, i stick too much! I've always trained in bare feet, so i've got calluses and whatnot. Basically, the first few blisters are unavoidable, but if you train in bare feet frequently, once the blisters happen, tear open, and heal, you'll be set... that's if you keep up training on them, though. Once I get the all-nasty and ever-so-painful blister, though, I put antiseptic on it, then neosporin, then a band-aid, then medical tape, making sure that the end of the taepe was on the TOP of my toe, so that during training it wouldn't come unfurled. Now the only problem with taping your toe, really, is the danger that the tape and whatnot will slip off if you get too sweaty. That's basically the only downside- i've never ever had a problem with slipping with my big toes wrapped. But yeah, once you get over that first-time blister, and as long as you keep training in bare feet, you shouldn't have to deal with it again. hope that helped. -kat
I don't know if I'm just lucky, but I never have foot problems. I train barefoot four or more times a week for 1-2 hrs per session and it just never happens. My advice, that has at least worked for me: Never train in shoes. Your feet sweat, get soft, get worse. Go barefoot wherever possible. Take your shoes off wherever possible: at work, wherever. Wear leather not man-made shoes, they breathe and don't make your feet sweat so much. Wear cotton socks not synthetic, same reason. Let your feet "dry out" before training instead of starting running barefoot when they're nice and soft with sweat from wearing trainers. Basically, trainers are terrible for your feet. Wear them for running and that's it. Mitch
When I get a bad blister and ripped to shreds feet, I use zinc oxide tape. It's very thin and doesn't crumple up. The simplest use to protect the ball of the foot is to do a strip all the way around the foot, then one stuck to the bootom of it, up the gap beween the big and 1st to and onto the top, and then another around the foot. You can coax it into shape and it will stay like that. But don't do it too tight because it doesn't stretch. I only do it after I've had the blister, to protect until it heals. You can cut it to get it off one day, and re-use it the next with an extra wrap of tape to hold it in place. The other problem I have is that the hard skin around my heels sometimes cracks, leaving an open split that is rather painful. I usually repair that with superglue!
Last week I wore my tkd's because of terrible blisters so I did in fact see someone. But my point was that people (usually) only wear them when their feet are bad. I do find them restrictive, it's harder to slide your feet when doing patterns and the turning circles on the bottom only make a slight bit of difference when kicking.
I taped my big toes for a while because they were "peeling" and it was painful. I also tape my feet and ankles. The skin on my hands and feet tears easily and I'm usually lined up on the canvas-like nylon bag which causes a lot of burns (I've bled all over the bag before...didn't realize it...it wasn't pretty ). I've been taping my hands during hands drills until I can get some bag gloves. I tape my ankles for support. I've found that cloth tape works great. I get mine from the local dollar store and I have no idea what brand it is since it's just in a basket on the shelf marked a buck. It doesn't stretch and it's not slippery. It also doesn't come off very easily if it's wrapped correctly (I mean when you're sweating). My instructor started buying it too because it's such good tape and really inexpensive. I'll have to find out where they get it from. People at our school only wear shoes if their feet are injured (cuts, blisters etc...), during demos and on slippery mats. Kelly
You should get some of these to protect your hands, the will also toughen up the knuckles (eventually)
Philip, you probably just need to take it easy until your feet toughen. Shouldn't take long. I'm sort of surprised you are getting blisters from working out in bare feet. Where are you blistering & why? I see MA people with all kinds of nasty feet, cracks, splits, pealing, ick. I started sanding & lotion routine on mine and now have zero problems. I used to have pealing in the summer pretty bad. The trick seems to be sanding off of the heavy calouses, keeping the feet smooth and free of hard spots. Then applying lotion. For sanding I use a bar with 120 grit paper on it. The neutragena (sp?) foot lotion works well too. Doesn't take much effort either, I only do this about once every week or three. On tape, I'm recovering from a broken big toe and do have to tape right now. It sux. In addition to being restrictive the edges of the tape roll a bit and now it's sticky. Taping is OK (necessary) when recovering from injurys, but IMHO is best gone asap.
I get the blisters on my big toes, they cover nearly the whole area of the ball of my big toe. Then if I train again, they tear off, which can be pretty painful. I think the problem is that I have very rarely ever had bare feet for anything other than sleeping or holidaying on the beach, so my skin on the feet/toes is pretty soft.
This used to happen to me when I trained at a particular sports hall with a certain type of floor. The floor was of a different type to my usual training venues and because my feet weren't used to it I used to get blisters on the pads of my big toes. My advice would be to go barefoot wherever possible - at home and in the dojang. If you have blisters then cover them with tape (micropore is quite good) but only whilst training. If you tape them over all the time they will remain soft and healing will take longer. I find that after a few days the pain in the blister goes away and then I can train quite comfortably - you might find that the blistered skin peels off in the middle of class but it isn't painful just gross! By training barefoot your feet will harden up and you'll find this becomes less of a problem. I've heard that white spirit works but I've never tried it myself. I've only ever worn trainers for demos on grass or when I have a foot injury (I have in the past broken bones in my feet) but I hate wearing them. They are restrictive when trying to kick (can't turn your bottom foot properly) and it's hard to slide in and out of stances. There was someone who had verrucas in my class (eugh) and he wore trainers until they went away. During that time his technique suffered because the trainers didn't allow his feet to move in the same way. Suck it up!
My feet are the same as yours. I even have trouble walking on grass if it's a little rocky. My girlfriend is jealous of how soft they are. I can remember when I first started training, I had a few nasty blisters, but I can assure you that your feet will get used to training barefoot. When I have to tape up my toes, usually from catching them on the floor (ouch!!!), I use good old white cloth tape. Mostly because I'm too lazy to try different kinds. But it is a pain when it starts to curl around the edge and starts sticking to the floor.
No STOP!!!!!!!!!! Do NOT use White Spirit!!!!!!!!!!!!! That will KILL your feet. Use Surgical Spirit. That's what I use, it's toughens up your feet and kills any germs. It kinda smells like root beer too (they use to sell it at McDonalds).
so wearing shoes is not good? I found them to be helpfull stopped me from smashing my toe nails...unless I am doing something wrong. I got mine from a martial arts shop in China Town, I apperently was ripped of ah silly me. Tans
The other day I was told that it is better to wear synthetic socks because cotton produces more sweat. I belive that this was told to her by a shoes sales person.
