I’ve written before about Barefoot Tennis. Now that it’s winter, I play 2 hours a week.
This past weekend, a friend videotaped me.
Now, the thing to keep in mind while watching this is not to criticize my (lack of) tennis playing skill. It’s more just that you can see that it is possible to play tennis barefoot.
In that earlier article, I said that
When you run barefoot, you have to run differently. Completely. You simply cannot continue to slap your feet on the ground. Ken Bob Saxton, author of Barefoot Running Step by Step over at The Running Barefoot always stresses that there should be no “jogging” involved in running. It should be smooth. You need to lower your center of mass, increase your cadence, shorten your steps, and then simply place your feet on the ground.
On the other hand, when playing tennis I don’t do that at all. I’m doing the usual hard starts and stops, changing directions, jumping for balls, the whole ball of wax. In fact, while I’m just a middling tennis player, one of my strengths has always been my speed and ability to get to balls. And I’ve never had any problem with my feet while playing barefoot.
What I find interesting in watching the video is that my gait is changed from a shod gait. While it is not as smooth as good barefoot running, I do subconsciously lower my center of mass and make quicker, less stressful steps.
Anyways, here’s proof that reasonable tennis can be played barefoot.
(Yes, I edited a longer bit to show the portion in which I was marginally competent, but this segment also shows me running around so you can see some barefootwork.)
Good stuff. My middle school age boy and I will often play a little basketball on an asphalt surface at the local park. I play barefoot, he plays in shoes. Of course we only play half-court, so there really isn’t much running back and forth, but I do find what you say about quicker, less stressful steps to be accurate.
Nice Job Bob! You seem quite good at tennis, I’ve have tried tennis before and have a hard time with controlling where my shots will end up. Playing barefoot does seem to make it easier to change direction farly quickly.
Hey Bob, nice to find a fellow barefoot tennis player 🙂
I have played 15 years in my favorite Prince tennis shoes, then Vibram fivefingers, then VivoBarefoot minimalist shoes, then TrailRunning sandals…
But nothing compares to playing barefooted on hard court!
You are right – a long period with forefoot adaptation is a must.
I just recorded my training here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWOgXTsTS_0&ab_channel=MishaSakharoff
Nice. Thanks for sharing. I notice that you use some good footwork.
I tend to be rather lazy (not on purpose; just not good enough and I don’t practice enough) and stopping short and then having to reach for the ball.
You guys are fortunate to live in an open minded society touchewood. I live in Delhi & with right foot bandaged due to a small blister, I went to tennis practice with slippers on & was stopped & not allowed to play & got humiliated like anything & to an extent that I was forced to leave the group.