Cold weather slipping.
It’s winter time and the temperature is once again dropping. I’m looking at the weather outlook for our next practice and it looks like it’ll be in the ‘teens’ (Fahrenheit). I actually rather enjoy the cold for practice. I do, however, seem to have a particular problem with the floor being cold – I slip. I slip a lot. When the floor gets really cold it feels like I’m doing kendo in my socks!
I’ve tried to determine whether it’s actually a problem with my feet being slippery or just me doing something wrong (not a terribly unlikely scenario). The last time it was really cold I wasn’t just slipping doing fumikomi ashi but even while trying to stop after going through, while turning, etc. This leads me to believe that it isn’t just my form that is the problem.
My wife thinks my feet are too dry. Before my next cold class I’m going to try some moisturizer on my feet to see if that helps.
At this point I believe that the issue is likely a mixture of bad technique and the physical slipperiness of my feet. I’m probably pushing a little too hard and early which works fine under more normal circumstances but when the conditions are less than perfect the problem reveals itself. In addition to moisturizer I’m going to concentrate on keeping my body weight forward.
