Training my Toes

[smoothsake]

Originally Posted by vapor

So are you standing on the balls of your feet when you do this?

vapor

Standing flat but as you curl your toes your heels will naturally come off the ground to move forward. I hope that makes sense.

[vapor]

Got it. That makes sense

vapor

[Martin H]

A guide and history to kicking with your toe tipps (tsumasaki):
Part 1
FightingArts.com - The Old Okinawan Karate Toe Kick: Part 1- Introduction & Execution
part 2
FightingArts.com - The Old Okinawan Karate Toe Kick: Part 2- Historical Introduction
part 3
FightingArts.com - The Old Okinawan Karate Toe Kick: Part 3- More Shorin-Ryu & Intro To Naha-te


The author is from Seido juku under Tadashi Nakamura.

[Dent]

Osu!

The use of the old Tetsu Geta are good for both training the muscles of the leg, and the joint at the point of insertion. An added, although not much known, benefit, is the strengthening of the muscles of the feet and toes.

My biggest problem with kicking with the toes is not the injury factor, but remembering to do it in Kumite. I'd say that doing some toe conditioning is probably a good idea anyway though.

Osu!

[doogfood]

People have given the same example already but here are some of the toe exercises that are used in rehab. Toes normally aren't trained to gain strength, but rather trained for motor control and endurance in most cases (in the rehab setting).

- Towel scrunches - place a towel or a cloth on the floor and keeping your foot stable, use only your toes and pull or scrunch the towel/cloth towards you.
- Toe writing - using only your ankle and toes, spell out all the alphabets with your toes. Make sure the knees and hips are kept still.
- Lifting exercise - place different shaped objects, small, light, thin, etc. on the floor and pick them up with your toes and bring them to your hand.
- Resistance band exercises - place a resistance band over the base of your toes and pull on the two sides of the band so it is taught over the toes. Then curl your toes against the resistance. Can also be done the reverse way.

There are various other ways to train the toe and a lot of such examples like standing on your "toes", or keeping tight grip with toes during kihon and kata training, are harder than the ones mentioned above but still a good exercise to do.

Also one thing to note though is to make sure you dont hit your toe joints too hard when training because this can injure your joints and also make you prone for sprains.