Take off your shoes, train barefoot. On concrete. From Ground level, not off things (Or at most, 2 feet.)


I've always been a strong believer that there is no better way to drill proper technique than barefoot, because doing it anything BUT perfectly hurts like hell

Then tell your feet to shut up.
Barefoot training will be uncomfortable at first, because theyre so dependant on your shoes arch support, and believe it or not, shoes are bad for you(so ive read), and it would be good to start the barefoot training now

Barefoot training will hurt at first, I should know, Jeremy started me on barefoot but it got easier and is easier to get around even wearing shoes now

Haha, sorry man. I couldn't help but laugh. I can't tell if that was just a fail, or if you are actually support bare feet, because your analogy was strong support for it.

Anyways.

Brett nailed it. Silence. You want to look for silence. When you have a quiet landing, you have a low impact landing. And low impact landings are your very first priority.

As for the bare feet issue... I personally like training barefoot and think there are a lot of positive benefits to it, however, I don't advocate telling everyone to train barefeet because its 'superior'. We do have shoes, they are good tools we can use. Its your choice.

Theres always more than one way to skin a cat...(is that an outdated expression now?)

Barefoot is a great way to learn it, but start on grass.
Running up the stairs 2 or three at a time while being silent is great.
Hold a cup(not glass) of water in your hand, then jump from a low surface without spilling it.(helps control momentum)
Hop up and down on one foot, without letting your heel hit the ground.
Hop on one foot absorb the shock to a quarter squat, hold, balance, then hop again.

Always, like they have all said, Try to be as silent as possible.


There's really not much evidence pointing either way about shoes and the incidence of injury. I am by no means an expert; but, Ive reviewed about every barefoot study i can find for my classes and most use an outdated study done in Haiti as evidence. Said study has some holes in it though.

But Common sense wise:
We were made without shoes, so it must work(for a physiologically sound person at least).
Also shoes increase the length of the lever arm at the ankle, which would logically increase the likelihood of ankle sprains.
It hurts to heel strike without shoes, so heel striking is probably bad.
 
Honestly, I hate shoes. They hurt my feet, give you athletes foot, and crutch your foot muscles.
If you are going to go barefoot, take it slow. I'd say A half hour of barefoot movement in grass a day for the first few weeks just to toughen up the skin.