Barefoot Training

Ankle Dorsiflexion:

It doesn’t take much searching the internet to figure out that barefoot training is one of the hottest topics in fitness and sports performance. The theory that most people are working under is that by training barefoot, you strengthen the muscles of the foot by not allowing the athlete to rely on shoes to provide the sole structure for the foot. Many see the world renown distance runners from Africa running barefoot with no injuries and feel that if it’s good for them, it’s good for every athlete.

While there is some validity to all of this, it is a stretch to say that it is good for every athlete, especially those in the western world. If you have never trained barefoot, it is not smart to suddenly do everything foot as an athlete’s foot structure will not stand up to the increased stress. But, that is a debate for another topic. Barefoot training does have it’s place in sports training, though.

Hiding Compensation

Forcing an athlete to train without shoes is extremely beneficial when trying to find and expose their compensation patterns. Today’s shoes are designed to be soft, supportive, durable, and good looking. Shoe companies go to great lengths to achieve their goals.

Most shoes today have a large heel lift, similar to an athletic looking high heel shoe. This is not exclusive to any one brand. Many of them try to sell you on the value of large spring-like mechanisms in the heel that are supposed to make you a better athlete. Unfortunately, they really serve to either cause or reinforce a dorsiflexion restriction.

There are a lot of shoes with motion control properties. These shoes are designed to help prevent an athlete from over pronating during gait. This is great for the athlete who needs support and help with control. But, when it comes to training, they do nothing to help an athlete learn to control their pronation while training.

Unless your athletes are wearing old school Chuck Taylor’s, they are likely hiding an athlete’s compensation patterns or helping them create new poor patterns. So, barefoot training helps you expose an athlete’s problems and helps them see what they’re doing and learn how to support and structure their foot. It also forces them to work a full range of motion and push up against the dorsiflexion restriction that you’ve been working hard to correct.

Keys to Training

There are several keys to improving foot mechanics with barefoot training.

Make sure your athletes keep an arch in their foot. Many athletes try to get around their dorsiflexion restriction by over pronating. Training barefoot makes this easy to see. Encourage them to keep a high arch while training. This will teach the muscles of the foot to work together and will force the athlete to maintain a neutral ankle joint and work against their restriction.

Encourage athletes to use their toes to help stabilize their foot. The big toe is extremely important for performance, but many athletes don’t utilize it enough. While training barefoot, you can force the toes to work hard and contribute what they were intended to do.

Keep their feet shoulder width and straight ahead while performing most exercises. This is the most functional position for most exercises and force an athlete to work hard to correct their dorsiflexion restriction.

Be selective with the exercises that you choose to train barefoot. If you ask an athlete who has never trained barefoot to suddently run, jump and lift without shoes, you are only asking for pain. But, if you start with simple and straightforward exercises with a light load, you will be fine. As an athlete progresses and gets better, feel free to add load and move onto more complex exercises.

If barefoot training causes pain, modify the exercise or stop all together. This is a simple one that should go without saying, but it is amazing how many coaches still believe in the “no pain, no gain” theory.