Grappling/Wrestling Sneakers?

**GoldenJonas** · Posted On: 10/03/2006 10:29pm

Ok, I did the "search funtion n00b" and found nothing on this subject.

Grappling sneakers. Who uses them and have they affected your training in any way? positives and/or negatives. I'm diabetic and have to watch my feet prevent cuts, sores and stuff. Now, my feet are full of raw spots, small abrsions from shots and takedowns, and I am worried about two things 1) open sores on a well used mat, i.e., staph, and 2) the diabetes thing.

My concern is spending the money on something that will negativeley affect my grappling progression. Honestly, I don't know how it would, BUT, I have not tried to grapple with the shoes on.

Any oppinion yea or nay on the use of grappling sneakers in training and/or competition?

**Airman Kai** · Posted On: 10/03/2006 11:36pm

I just started training at a gym where the main instructor guy ALWAYS wears his shoes. They're these weird (but cool) kind of SOFT shoe, almost like those things Nike had about a year ago. I suspect they're made exactly for mma or something like that.

ANYWAYS, although it took a bit of getting used to for ME (the barefoot guy), he swears by 'em. I'm too cheap for that, though.

**pauli** · Posted On: 10/04/2006 12:09am

i almost bought my instructor a pair of wrestling shoes so he wouldn't injure his goddamn toes so often.

then i found out how much they cost.

**GIJoe6186** · Posted On: 10/04/2006 12:44am

wrestling sneakers FTW. End of discussion.

**Rubberduck** · Posted On: 10/04/2006 5:31am

Nike had a good set of wrestling sneakers. Cost about 100 euros, but lasted about 5 years.

**GoldenJonas** · Posted On: 10/04/2006 8:10am

Cool, thanks guys. Both Nike and Adiddas have shoes for under $60. I'll check 'em out today.

A lot of jiujitsu is feel too, i.e., feeling your opponents weight distribution and base to gage which sweep you set up or transition too. The brown belt who regularly owns me doesn't seem to have much problem with loss of "feel". Probably just takes some getting used to like Kai said.

**Goju - Joe** · Posted On: 10/04/2006 9:31am

I have a good pair of Nike sneakers that I got for $65 Canadian.

The only issue is sometimes on mats they can stick a little at first and you might twist your knee if you're no carefull.

They're also a great way to avoif athletes foot or other gross stuff you can pick up on a mat

***jnp*** · Posted On: 10/04/2006 9:31am

Wrestling shoes can make it hard to thread your foot under or inside your opponents arm/knee as well as making it easier for your opponent to hold onto your foot when ankle-locking you. Some x-guard and hooking type guard strategies are also affected. Other than that they are no big deal.

As a former wrestler who has always hated broken toes, I wore them religously for my first three years of grappling training. If you're committed to grappling over the long haul, you should probably buy a pair so you can continue to train when dealing with mat burns or hurt toes.

**Ming Loyalist** · Posted On: 10/04/2006 9:47am

i have gone through a lot of shoes trying to find something that does everything i want.

the best shoes i found for grappling are "ultimate grappling shoes" which appear to be the same as sambo shoes. they are soft leather, and the soles are "rough cut" leather so you can get a grip.

the problem with them is that they are useless on wood floors - no traction (and since my classes switch between wood floors for pure standup and mats for throws and grappling, they are pointless for my purposes.) also they give great traction on wrestling mats but on jigsaw mats they are kind of slidey, at least on newer mats.

wrestling shoes are great (except for the problems pointed out by jnp) and of course if you do standup and like to throw roundhouse kicks, you might find them a bit hard to point your toe since they are high tops.

i found a pair of asics shoes called the "whizzer mt" which is a 3/4 top actually designed for a referee to wear. they have a wrestling shoe sole and are high top enough to prevent your shoe coming off when rolling, yet low top enough to allow kicking. everyone thinks i'm nuts, but i really think they are a good all around MA shoe.

but yeah, i still grapple around 90% of the time barefoot, only use the shoes when i'm protecting a hurt toe or mat burn on the tops of my feet.

**GIJoe6186** · Posted On: 10/04/2006 1:44pm

Thats what I see people using shoes for, hurt toes. If you have a problem with your foot, hurt toe, ankle or something else, a wrestling shoe with the high top provides great support. I agree though that they suck when getting caught in toe hold and ankle locks though. They also do make it hard to do spider gaurd or other hook gaurds like jnp said. Still I havent seen anything comparable to the all around goodness of wrestling shoes. Maybe Im just a biased high school wrestler, looking back to those days.