Thoughts on footwear and the mature competitor.

[Timber Wolf]

During my admittedly limited USPSA experience I have come to a conclusion (working theory) about footwear. I ran the first couple of matches with rather ordinary tennis (walking) shoes and did fine. For my third match I had my brand-new “birthday” shoes, rather expensive Merrill hiking/sport shoes. They have a larger “footprint” and a semi lugged sole for added traction. I thought they would be the bees-knees for competition. They did work very well but the next day and for most of the month afterward, I could hardly walk my knees hurt so badly. I was more than a little apprehensive about shooting this month but had an idea and went back to my Reeboks, the match was last Saturday and my knees are fine. I am a little sore and know I did something but don’t have any real pain. My theory is that the Merrills actually had too much traction; they would not give or slide and therefore transmitted a great deal more force (stress) to my knee joints. To be fair, there was a little kneeling last month that we did not have this month but I am still 75-80% confidant in my conclusion that the Merrills are harder on the knees. I plan on doing some hiking this Fall when it cools off some and will get good use out of the Merrills but they will stay home for the USPSA matches.

[def90]

All I know is that I frequently hike 14ers in my flip flops to which I get a lot of odd stares and comments on ranging from a few laughs to being told that I am endangering myself and everyone on the mountain.

When I wear my work boots I come home with aching muscles all over my body.

I would wear whatever footwear you are accustomed to and that makes you feel comfortable. It could be the jarring motions and extra grip but it could also be that wearing certain types of footwear allow your body to do things it was never meant to do and you will feel it later. Wearing footwear that has a bit of give and forces you to run and walk in a more natural way is a good thing. Read up on barefoot running some time, there have been a lot of studies done recently on natural body motion vs body motion while wearing certain types of footwear.

[Deltaten]

Howzat old joke go.....
If it hurts when ya do this.... DON'T do THIS!

I did sorta the same at Stimpy's match a few yers ago. Wore my well broke-in Deserts to and around the line. Came time, I slipped on my newish issues and laced up. Stumbled around, even walking and I'm sure it lowered my OA score some ;)
I recall thinking at the time.. "I'da done better without changing boots!"
:D
Wear what yer used to. SImulating RW shooting scenarios is fun; but if the S hits the F in real-time, yer not gonna have time ta switch footwear. New meaning for "run whatcha brung" ! :D

[jm951]

I used to shoot 3g quite often and started wearing turf shoes. The "hiking" style of shoe, while having good support, was far too heavy to "run N gun". I found that running in that type of shoe made my knees hurt. Probably was due to the weight.

This is the type of shoe I went to-

http://www.soccer.com/IWCatProductPage.process?Section_Id=1&Product_Id=531265&cm_mmc=CA-_-CSE-_-google-_-SOC&CAWELAID=445571080

Good support, light, great traction, decent price and comfortable.

[richbug]

There is no "right shoe" for every occasion. I watched a M class and a GM shooter take face plants at our big 3 gun match when they thought their cleats were suitable for an indoor, lights out stage.


I have a pair of rugby cleats that come out in the slippery mud, surplus gortex lined boots for deep mud, and New Balance cross trainers for dry weather.

[XMAN]

Shoot IDPA in river shoes i.e high speed , toed sandals.

If there is not snow on the ground , that is what I will be wearing.