Do You Wear Shoes for Krav Maga?

Is Krav Maga done barefoot? That’s one of the questions you need to ask yourself before jumping on the training ground. You might have come across the “no shoe” rule in martial arts. 

However, you can wear a good pair of shoes for krav maga. These shoes will help protect your soles and keep your ankles in good shape.

Great krav maga shoes also help in achieving an amazing level of body balance, keeping your body in proper alignment with your movement.

Krav Maga stands out as one of the martial arts that permits fighters to wear shoes. However, the shoes for Krav Maga are a special type of minimalist barefoot shoes or high-performance cross-trainers.

I find it difficult to train or fight for Krav Maga without my shoes on, especially on unpleasant terrain.

Here are my thoughts. You need to wear shoes for Krav Maga, especially if there are health challenges that require that you wear shoes. 

One of the reasons why fighters are advised against wearing shoes for martial arts is because of sanitation and giving them the ability to maintain body balance.

You wouldn’t want to soil the training mat with shoes that have toured your entire neighborhood.

However, you must ensure that your type of shoes for Krav Maga will allow you to hit high-level efficiency and skillful performance during fights.

The type of shoes that you should wear for Krav Maga are shoes with great traction, strong treading and fabric material, and an ergonomic design that allows great feet to ground feedback.

Here is a detailed guide of the quality of shoes you should wear for the Krav Maga

Five Qualities to look out for while choosing the type of shoe to wear for Krav Maga

• Balance and stability
• Quality, durability, and flexible material
• Feet Grip
• Proprioception
• Comfort and style

Balance and Stability

You need good pairs of shoes to maintain your balance during Krav Maga. Your foot’s movement and position impact how balanced it can be. At the same time, shoes with poorly positioned heels give you an unstable appearance.

You will notice that during Krav Maga, you need to change your standing posture. From standing erect with your legs spread apart, to bending your knees to maintain a high-level strong posture, you need good choices to achieve this.

You must look out for the material used in making your Krav Maga shoe soles. You are safe for practice and fights if your shoes are made of pure rubber with a nice outsole pattern that maintains traction.

Quality, durability, and shoe material

Krav Maga is not as hard as the name sounds. However, it involves tough processes. Krav Maga has a list of intense training as you work your way through perfection. If you want to become good in the field, you need a good pair of shoes that can perfectly handle pressure.

This begins with the type of material that your shoes are made of. You might not find Krav Maga Leather shoes. This is because while the designers are working to achieve durable shoes, it is essential to build them to a lightweight structure. Most Krav shoes are built with synthetic leather.

Nevertheless, you must confirm the strength of the shoe fabric, its seam line, presence, and durability of sock liners. You must ensure that you get great value for the price.

Feet Grip

A lot of times, we consider Krav Maga shoes from the level of traction they offer, while forgetting how firm they should grip to our feet. Different Krav Maga shoes come with different closure types.

Some come with a lace-up closure type, some have zips, Velcro fasteners, while the rest are just slip-on. You must understand that your choice will affect your performance.

Krav Maga involves a lot of fighting techniques; boxing, wrestling, judo, karate, etc. You will have to do a lot of leg movement and kicking. You wouldn’t want your shoes flying off your feet after each kick.

Before you purchase any shoe for Krav, you should check its fitting around its toe box, down to the overall build of the shoe. It shouldn’t be too tight to offer you so much pain. Instead, it should offer a comfortable snug fit design.

Proprioception

Proprioception involves the process of achieving knowledge and perception of your body position and movement. This is one of the slightest factors that most fighters overlook.

It helps you move your feet, dodge kicks, and kick your opponent even without looking at your feet. This is because your feet align with your body’s movement.

This is important in your shoes as they help reduce fatigue, and helps you achieve accuracy and high performance.

You will find it difficult to achieve this level of awareness if you choose poorly fitted shoes. You need shoes that make it easier to realize where your feet are, even if you are trying to take a shot in the air.

Comfort and style

Comfort and style and crucial qualities you must look for when buying your Krav shoes. There is no need to experience foot pain at crucial moments of your fighting career.

The issue of comfortability usually arises when we skip the process of confirming our feet’ size. Not all shoes will feel comfortable for users with wide feet.

There are different available styles and designs for every fighter to choose from. You must go with the size that gives your toes enough space to wriggle and breathability to keep your feet cool and warm.

Getting a good style for your Krav shoes does not necessarily mean that you should choose fashionable shoes. There are barefoot shoe designs, cross trainers, and even Taekwondo shoes. Know what you want and go for it.

What should you also wear for Krav maga?

• Non-slip socks
• Compression socks
• Foot finger protector
• Shin guards

Non-Slip Socks

If you don’t wish to wear your Krav shoes, non-slip socks are better alternatives. They are equipped with a non-skid sole that not only keeps your sole safe but also offers traction.

Its grips are usually made of silicon to avoid users from slips and falls. They are like your random socks with an extra layer of protection.

These pairs of socks also keep your feet warm when you are on the training mat. More importantly, you are not violating the sanitation rules by fighting with your non-slip socks.

Some non-slip socks come with innovative designs; half toe and eco-friendly socks. The material of these socks includes combed cotton to provide sweat absorption and spandex to improve their elasticity and lightweight design.

The toeless non-slip socks give you a barefoot feeling that offers an amazing tactile feel, stability, and balance.

Compression socks

Compression socks can serve as an alternative to non-slip socks. In this scenario, they are longer than non-slip socks with less or zero non-slid features. Compression socks are originally designed to be worn with shoes.

However, they ensure that there is even circulation of blood and pressure around your feet. This includes protection against inflammation, pains, and other foot complications.

They are not thick, so you don’t have to get scared about constrictions around your ankles. They provide a cool and comfortable balance for users. And more importantly, this reduces the limit to which you will get injured during a fight.

Foot Finger Protector

You need complete footgear for Krav. Foot fingers protectors are one of the accessories that you cannot do without in your Krav Maga accessory kit.

This unisex feet protector is important for not only Krav but all forms of martial arts. It helps your feet attain flexibility, and is also built with a shock absorption technique.

Its shocking absorption provides high resilience that relieves fatigue and intensifies your feet’ power to match the competition. Foot finger protectors come with an open toe mechanism.

Its half-finger design helps improve comfort, provides comfort around your toes, and allows free and effective movement of your joints. For the secured fitting, it includes a Velcro design that straps the protector to one place.

Shin Guards

During an intense fight like Krav, you should expect punches and kicks from different angles and styles. For you to stay ahead of the competition, you need a shin guard.

This instep leg protective gear acts as a great protector leg pad for your fights. They ensure high impact protection and are also reinforced with 100% PU leather. Its high-impact protection foam absorbs heavy-duty kicks and hits.

This helps you shield blows from a truck without feeling the pain. Its PU leather design reinforces durability and comfort. The benefits of shin guards in Krav Maga are to offer protection for your joints, ankles, shin, and foot.

To wrap up its beauty, most shin guards come with an adjustable non-slip design that makes them fit comfortably to your skin. This fitting is usually supported with a Velcro strap.

As a complete combo, you can go with shin guards that also come with leg pads. This will not only protect your shin but the entire region of your leg, below your knee.