Ah, Anna....feet. I was obsessed with them during a barefoot running transition a few years back. I've swapped that obsession for different ones at different times and my current obsession is chopping wood. There is so much choice available these days for a mid life crisis, its hard to choose. A mid life crisis was so simple in bygone days....buy a ferrari, get over it, sell the ferrari, back to slippers and gardening. I fear another one coming on....stand up paddle boarding, so don't go giving me any ideas!! Anyway back to feet......I figured chopping wood in minimal shoes to be a bit on the dangerous side so went and got me a pair of steel capped boots. As much as I'm pro minimalism I do like the idea of having 10 toes, so slipping into my steelies was reassuring in that sense. However it was as if I was slightly pissed......sorry, drunk.....you know just a couple of glasses, co-ordination everywhere was lost. My axe swing was chaotic and more dangerous wearing these massive protective boots. I missed the block a few times, something I never did as a rookie lumberjack wearing a nimble pair of feuiyes and there's definately is a loss of connection, a mild paralysis somehow. I wear minimal shoes for training only when it is cold, at all other times it is barefeet for me and these boots really illustrated to me the importance of proprioception and body awareness in doing anything physical. I do like my feet complete with their attached toes so I'm keeping the boots on whilst chopping despite a loss of efficiency and a more cack-handed axe swing. I've never noticed kettlebellers' superior muscularity of their feet but do notice the form of bouncy-bouncy trainers v unshod or minimalist footwear even if the practitioner is experienced there is a loss of communication between lower body and upper body with more core wobble evident, the movement doesn't look quite as graceful and dynamic. There is probably a better neuro-linguistic science-y term for what I'm rather poorly describing.
