I lived in New Zealand for a number of years and I clearly remember my older brother playing rugby barefooted. I’m not sure if it’s still the case, but your seventh birthday in New Zealand was a big deal as it was the day you got your first pair of rugby boots. Prior to that, in the lower age groups, it’s played barefoot.
The coaches and I were chatting this week with a local physio who is treating one of our students and he believes barefoot running/training leads to fewer ankle and knee injuries later in life. His comments resonated with me as I’m largely at a loss to explain the relatively high incidence of lower leg injuries/syndromes in sport these days.
When you’re running in studs or regular running shoes, your ankles and feet have a certain level of support, and that transfers to a more stable running platform for your knees and hips. Running barefoot on grass or sand, however, is a totally different feeling. When people run barefoot on sand for the first time, they get sore in muscles that they don’t even feel when they’re running in shoes or studs. These are all of the little stabilizer muscles waking up and being forced to work – the same lower leg muscles that typically get twisted and injured in soccer, rugby, (American) football and similar sports………….. see the full story at :- http://www.internationalfootballschool.com/2013/06/01/barefoot-in-new-zealand/
Here’s a a story which includes playing on frosty mornings! CLICK HERE
