Da Feets

[Catfish]

I've been spending the past 9 months or so REALLY hitting my footwork drills. I'm very confident that I've gained a step or two since this time last year.

Something I've noticed about myself, and it just might help someone else so I thought I'd share:

When starting a stage that you know you're going to be hauling booty at the buzzer, I am much faster out of the gates if I turn my toes in. If I let my toes naturally fall where they will, my feet are generally angled out. If I concentrate and remember to turn my toes in, that first step in mucho quicker. I also put my feet a bit closer together, just inside shoulder width apart, and not spread too far out. This also helps that first step. If your first step is faster, then the rest of your stage will be faster too.

Take a look at the fastest sprinters in the world, their feet turn in towards the middle when they run!

Anyway, give this a shot if you haven't already discovered it on your own.

[Steve Moneypenny]

Strangely enough I am at the same place you are, after seeing myself perform badly on a stage with many short, but quick movements i have been evaluating foot movements.. (keeping feet strait ahead or even a little pigeon toed) i remember back to a martial arts master talking about how to fix this.. concentrating on going up stairs with your toes tucked in, every day walking etc. this actually all starts with the hip muscles and the alignment of the entire leg.

I am glad to see someone getting results from what I expected my training would produce.

[Catfish]

Steve, have you tried doing ladder drills for your footwork? Very helpful indeed!

Let me know, I have several that I do weekly.

[iweiny]

what is a ladder drill?

Ira

[Ben Stoeger]

I bet it has nothing to do with running up and down a ladder...

Yeah what is it?

[lynn jones]

have a starting line and 5, 10, 15, 20 yard lines.

run to the 5yd line and back to the start line, then run to the 10 and back to the start line..etc

lynn

[Ben Stoeger]

Jeez, that sounds like a lot of work!

[Jake Di Vita]

Agility ladders work great too.

[folsoml]

A little footwork would probably go a long way for me. When I'm running a stage I always feel like I'm hauling a$$, until I watch it on video. Then I see I'm just kind of shuffling along.

[Catfish]

Sorry, wasn't paying attention here!

The ladder drill I was talking about is what Jake mentioned, an agility ladder.

You stretch the ladder out on the ground, the one I use is about 15 yards long or so, each 'box' is about 1 yard long.

My workout on the ladder is as follows:

warm up on cardio machine for 10-15 minutes.

1. sprint w/ placing one foot in each box, X 5

2. sprint w/ placing both feet in each box X 5

3. sprint moving laterally, one foot in each box X5

Separate the ladders into two equal sections.

1. one foot in each box, sprint to next section, one foot in each box X 5

2. same as #2 above, but sprint to next position X 5

3. same as #3 above, but sprint to next position X 5

Repeat.

If you're not schlacked when you're done, you're not going fast enough!

This helps with transitions from shooting position to shooting position.

[XRe]

Where does one find an agility ladder?? Sounds like I need to be working on one

[Crusher]

Where does one find an agility ladder?? Sounds like I need to be working on one

Agility ladder here

OR here:

The other place

Your normal, run of the mill, garden variety, garage stored,...............extension ladder.

[XRe]

I've never seen a ladder w/ a yard between steps, though... You talk about yours being 15 yards long w/ a yard for each box.... That's 3 feet between steps

[Catfish]

http://www.jumpusa.com/pladder.html

this ladder is similar to the one I've been using. a yard might indeed be too big for each individual step, but the total length of the one I've been using is at least 12 to 15 yards.

edit:

after checking at lunch, there are 17 individual steps, each is 18-20" long.

Edited October 4, 2005 by Catfish

[AlamoShooter]

Toes "in" with Knees over the Toes is in fact how they were desingned to be used.= "check the plans",

Damage to the equipment will be less too if the toes stay at least strait to slightly in, and if you can keep the knees over the big Toe the knee will last longer and be stronger.

? unless? 3,000 years of Oriental teaching has it wrong.