Barefoot Tennis vs. Barefoot Hiking

When I went Out West last year, I had some troubles with getting overly footsore. This time it went much better.

So, what was the difference?

When I started writing this blog entry, I went back to see what I’d written about getting footsore last year. And I was surprised to see that I’d titled it Barefoot Hiking vs. Barefoot Tennis, which is what I was going to name this one.

Oh, well. So I just reversed it.

What I did differently this year is that, for about a week or two before heading out west, I played tennis wearing footwear. (Ugh.)

At that time of year there were two courts I was playing on. Our indoor league court, shown in this video,

is pretty smooth.

But the outdoor court we use, at a local park, is grittier. It’s still pretty smooth (compared to normal concrete or asphalt), but it definitely has a rougher feel to it. (Of course, only a barefooter would notice such a thing.)

Anyways, I wore either tennis shoes (I could only stand doing that once) or some sandals at the outdoor court. At the indoor court, I wore the sandals for about an hour and a third before I couldn’t stand them any more.

That meant that I wasn’t wearing off my soles, and that meant they were in better shape when I hit the trails at Zion National Park.

As a recap, let me remind folks that in tennis a lot of the motion is stopping and starting, or sudden changes in direction. That has a sandpaper effect on the sole, and wears away the surface of keratinized skin. This particularly happens at the ball of the foot, somewhat on the pads of the toes, and just a bit on the heel. When I am footsore it’s always been at the ball.

Barefoot hiking, on the other hand, almost always builds up the skin. Foot placement is much more straight up and down without sudden changes in direction. And the roughness of the surface provides the stimulation for skin growth and keratinization.

I did get a bit of wearing down on the hike to Angel’s Landing. A lot of that was sandstone at odd angles (or is that Odd Angels?) that also had loose sand atop it (from the shoddies shoes rubbing on it). But it wasn’t much, and didn’t take away too much skin.

Anyways, that hiatus before heading out west really seemed to make a difference in my ability to handle rougher terrain, which confirmed my speculation from last year.

That speculation has been doubly confirmed in the past week since I’ve gotten back. In the past week I’ve played close to 6 hours of tennis, all on the outdoor court (indoor season is over).

My soles are really sanded down now—smooth as a baby’s butt. It feels really weird walking even on tile since my feet really want to go sliding on it. Even rugs are feeling rather slippery.

And of course my soles are a lot more sensitive. I’ve had to slow down a bit on my asphalt driveway, just because I’m feeling the embedded gravel a lot more than before I resumed tennis.

I’d done a good job of building up my soles on the trip, with a lot of hiking, and then this tennis tore them back down. It’s a constant battle: Barefoot Tennis vs. Barefoot Hiking.

But anyways, for anybody else who does a lot of different activities barefooted, keep in mind that some of the activities will build your soles, and others will remove them.

So before any big trip, keep it in mind, and plan it out.