Barefoot training

since starting judo, i've obviously been training barefoot, in the past when doing CJJ i wore wrestling boots.

i'm find that my feet, ankles and calfs feel battered after a judo session and i spend a lot of the time when going for throws on the verge of cramp in my calfs.

any tips for getting around this?

obviously over time the judo classes themselves will help

Calves or feet? A lot of time people's feet are weak - in fact I did lunges fairly heavy barefoot the other day and had foot DOMS! If the muscles in the feet are weak it will also affect balance and stability.

The foot muscles can be trained just like any other muscles with exercises like:

Toe curls,
Band inversion
Band eversion
Band dorsiflexion
etc

If the calves are weak, (I would assume soleus?) the best thing I ever did for that was sled sprints, seated calf raises may also help.

For a combination of the two I also like 1 leg standing calf raises done barefoot, which will work all of the above.

well i very often keep getting cramp in my leading leg on throws

That'd be bent leg right?

You thinking soleus?

yeah well i'd think soleus due to the bent knee but it feels more gastroc, prob actually a bit of both, i never directly train soleus, havent for years and years

prob worth a try, dont have a sled though

i've actually just done judo and both my calfs have a dull ache more medially, should i be doing calf work toed out?

Could be that, medial calf is also a notorious trigger point though, if you have shit quality tissue it will tend to cramp too.

Might be worth rolling them and seeing what you find.

well i've found the answer, for now atleast

i've been doing 50 reps of various types of calf raise every workout, just bodyweight, dont seem to be having a problem now

So weak calves was the answer then...occam's razor wins again!

I saw a post by Martin Rooney talking about the importance of calf training and I am definitely in agreement, I think they are one of the few muscles most people need to do isolation on.

Here's the post:

http://asp.elitefts.com/qa/default.asp?qid=75161&tid=

and here's a question from some fat guy I found when searching for that answer that gives the same answer!

http://asp.elitefts.com/qa/default.asp?qid=45617&tid=

No damn banana on this forum....dammit!

haha i forgot i sent that email to him

Also, you may have noticed some cheeky bastard ripping off that question for his Q&A section in FO....that month was a bit short on questions