More Science of Sport discussion on barefoot running (Read 2796 times)

Either:

1. It's your subtle way of showing your hand as a troll

It's not subtle at all--the name loudly declares his troll status but the posts stay maniacally in character.  His posts all take a serious tone while his name is openly mocking anyone who debates him as though he is serious.  That dichotomy kind of reminds me of the430miler on Letsrun, though this one is a lot less entertaining.  The discipline is kind of impressive in a way.  Demented and sad, but impressive on a certain level.

I can't believe I read the whole thing!  I missed sportsjester the first time around, but all I can think about is how he might have a hand in Gene Ray's Tim Cube.

I'd like to respond to sj,  but there are so many things wrong with how sportsjester goes about arguing a point (if he has one beyond self promotion) that I'm sure it would go nowhere.

I'm still waiting to see a link to his published studies on his theories.

Man, if this 18-page thread doesn't result in a 100-mile showdown between SR and SJ, I'm going to vomit in disappointment. 

Then get the bucket ready.  After I accepted the challenge, he started adding rules to it one at a time until it passed my bs threshhold and became dangerous/uninteresting/way-beyond-stupid.  (edit: where "until" really means "pretty much immediately") And architected in a manner to make himself look "above" things and me not.  Which is fine.  I'm a wimp and if it looks like I backed down, so be it.

Yesterday, I ran 31 miles.  Ok, technically I ran 30 miles.  Then I walked 1 mile barefoot on the treadmill.  Great big fun way to spend a hot Saturday afternoon.

 I'm a wimp and if it looks like I backed down, so be it.

It's alright.  We all understand.  You can't be too careful these days; that with your pansy ACL and all.

 

95% of pregnant women in America wear shoes.  This rate is MUCH MUCH higher than in Kenya.  And the infant mortality rate in Kenya is TEN TIMES higher.   Running shoes save lives.

 

It's not just infant mortality. The number of wild elephant attacks in Oregon is much lower than in Kenya where hundreds of people are seriously injured or killed each year. 

Wild Kingdom is back! I've missed you!

95% of pregnant women in America wear shoes.  This rate is MUCH MUCH higher than in Kenya.  And the infant mortality rate in Kenya is TEN TIMES higher.   Running shoes save lives.

Good one, Ennay!! ;o)

I actually have a serious question and I hope jester can, and will, answer it.  Now I don't know much about how millitary operates.  But from what I know, they are not in the business of developing the individual--they want certain types of individuals RIGHT NOW and some of the criteria being "you have to be able to do sit-ups so many times in so much time" or "do push-ups" or "run a mile and a half in such-and-such time..."  That's their standard.  That's the sort of minimum physical requirements "in order to serve the country" I guess.  And I can see that.  Just because you can do so many push-ups in a certain time (2 minutes or 2.5 minutes or whatever), that has very little to do how strong you are--or how much weight you can lift above your head or anything.  In other words, those things have very little to do anything.  However, I'm sure that's what they have come up with as a minimum requirement for basic survival like how long you can hang from the tree branches or how far can you move by nothing but hanging from the tree branches or something like that.  To me, this "how efficiently can you march with 140 pounds on your back for 72 hours without having eaten anything or drunk anything 3 days proior to" is just like that.  If you are captured by your enemy and they didn't feed you for 3 days and then you escape.  You have radio equipment 140 pounds heavy on your back but you have to get to the next village--3 days walking distance--in order to make a use of it.  You don't want to drop dead en route so the basic requirement is; how efficiently can you walk with 140 pounds on your back without eating or drinking 3 days prior to.  So that's fine.  So here are my questions:

1) So in this millitary world where, with my limited knowledge, development is bottom of the totem pole but meeting the minimum requirements means everything; how do you actually "teach" or "coach" this seemingly so bogus concept of "walking efficiently"?  Do they actually buy that idea?

2) If they actually bought in to it and had embraced it, I'm sure as a huge organization as the US millitary serving to save lives, I'm sure they are implimenting it all over the place.  Are they?  And if they are, where and how?  And, even though I just had a quick glance at it, you seem to be advocating barefoot running and if US millitary is actually implimenting your "training technique", how come they are moving toward "banning" Vibram FiveFinger just because they look butt-ugly?  Are looks that important to saving lives? 

3) Also, if barefoot running/walking is so important to them, how come they still wear those heavy gum-boots?  Wouldn't their main principles be more like "How can we effectively survive with what we already got (guns, boots, combat uniform, etc.)?" instead of "how can we get more efficient?"  I mean, the latter should be fairly easy if THAT is their purpose--get rid of guns and heavy backpack and, as you seem to have been preaching, wear nothing on their feet and just go barefeet.  But they really can't afford to, can they?

I still think you are throwing something completely irrevalent here.  What you're proposing--seemingly to SL now as well--has very little to do with running better.  If there's an Olympic event such as "how fast can you 'march' with 140 pounds on your back for 3 days without eating and drinking for 3 days prior to"; we might pay some attention.  But otherwise, I'm not surprised at all Salazar had very little interest in what you had to say--in fact, I'd be VERY surprised if Nike at all "invited" you to their lab.  Out of all those shoe companies, Nike is the one that's pretty exclusive and don't go out getting ideas from outside but keep them all to themselves.  If you want to lie about something like that to impress us, you should have done some homework and come up with some believable stories. ;o)

But seriously, how are YOU "coaching" millitary and how are they implementing it--if at all? 

And that is despite the fact that Oregon has one of the highest concentrations of elephants in North America!!!

 True, but one of our elephants was wearing shoes for awhile so there is that.

I may be late to the party with this (and sorry if I am, don't flame me, just blow a little heat), but it seems that barefoot cures America