TKD Shoes

[tufrthanu]

Well depending on your foot problem you might. For instance I have neuropathy...which has been caused by low circulation. Dojang floors have tons of bacteria from people going barefoot...if I were to get cut it could be a very messy scene. I also wear Discipline shoes so far they seem ok the only problem being one of the glued in inserts had to be reglued. Its true that shoes can hinder flexibility of the foot...but they are also giving support to the foot. Most MA shoes are cut low to avoid this issue. Breaking will be affected due to the cushion on the inside of the shoe...however my point was more geared towards sparring...where hitting an opponent with your shoes on can be very painful. At my dojang I am allowed to wear my shoes when we spar so long as I pull my kicks a little more.

[Sam]

Also - kicking with shoes [not all shoes] would allow you to use different parts of your feet, i.e. if you have hard enough shoes you can curl the toes back and use the point ofth shoe.

[y2_sub]

Those shoes are also used in karate , for instance , we have a pre black belt student in our dojo who never train without them , the type of shoes am talking about is very light , almost like u're wearing nothing and it is allowed to wear in competition ( Kyokushin , don't know about other karate .. ) however you cannot go out the dojo's walls wearing this type of shoes , loll .

[merkury]

Personally, I'm not a fan of shoes being worn. They change so many factors, such as friction force with the floor, weight of your feet, contact points for a kick, etc.

Plus they don't allow you to develop those cool blisters/calluses on the bottoms of your feet from all of your hard work.