karate and diabetes
Hi all, forgive me if this has been covered before, I just went through a few pages and found about a dozen threads of interest and read them for a few hours, and I have an essay to get on with for college lol.
Anyways, I recently tried karate, and enjoyed it very much, so will be going back. My concern though is about bare feet. I've recently been studying various Chinese martial arts, covered wing chun, tai chi, and feng shou, all of them are done without uniforms and with shoes on, which suits me down to the ground. But in karate it's a barefoot thing. This concerns me a bit because I'm diabetic, and in some classes from years ago when I did aikijutsu and taekwondo barefoot, occasionally my feet would be black with dust and grime and whatnot from the floor we'd be training on, which once on my feet would dry and cause dry skin and more.
I'm still young, 23, but my diabetes isn't brilliantly controlled (part of why I want to get back into martial arts for regular exercise), so I'm worried about how being barefoot on hard cold floor will affect my feet.
Does anyone have experience as a teacher who had diabetic students what you consider acceptable (such as wearing socks, though that might cause slipping, or kung fu slippers or something), or as diabetics who have had to work something out to protect their feet? It feels kinda effeminate thing to do after karate but I'm thinking of moisturising my feet when I get in or something to inspect for cracked skin and whatnot. Will ask the sensei about it when I go next, but in the mean time..any tips or advice will be taken on board.
Thanks
Dan Gould
Not yet rated (Rather comfy in the gi now, just waiting to look good in it)