Barefoot Training for Basketball

The feet are the one area of the body nearly always in contact with the ground when playing basketball.  Unfortunately, we have a very high incidence of foot and ankle injuries within basketball and therefore a way to reduce this injury risk is to develop the muscles of the lower leg. 

Barefoot training, also called shoeless training, doesn’t have to be barefoot, but it is better completely barefoot. Remove shoes and braces, unless the braces are absolutely needed because of recent injury. The goal is to build strength and stability in and around the foot, ankle and lower limbs to reduce the risk and severity of injuries.  The below workouts can be done before the Starting 5, at the start, the end of sessions or as a warm-up and a cool-down. They are 5 minute workouts, and then we can roll into the first half of Starting 5 which can also be done without shoes. We just want to make it easy to get started and these programmes will be built upon in the future. When balancing on 1 leg, always make sure the legs stay in line and the knees aren’t going in or out. Keep the leg straight, but don’t lock the knee.

Workout 1 – Always maintain balance throughout and movements should be slow and controlled – it is not a race!

1. Stand and balance – stand on 1 foot, lift the other knee up so the thigh is parallel with the floor. Hold for 30 seconds. Switch feet.
2. 3 point touch – stand on 1 foot. With the free foot, slowly and softly touch the toes to the floor as far in front, as far out to the side, and as far behind as you can. Go for 45 seconds on each foot.
3. Tightrope walk – Try to use a line on the court, if you can. Slowly walk in a straight line, with 1 foot directly in front of the other, but very tiny steps. The ball of the front foot will be just in front of the toes of the back foot. Heels stay off the ground. Go for about 3 metres. Time to explain and complete should be about 1 minute total.
4. Finish off with 2 sets of heel and toe walks over about 5 meters. They can start from where they finished the tightrope walk and slowly walk as high up on their toes as they can, taking small steps. Keeping their feet straight. Then walk back on their heels, keeping their feet straight again and their toes as high as they can. And repeat.

Workout 2

1. Stand and balance, looking side to side – same as before, but now they slowly look as far as they can to their left and right and back until time is up. 30 seconds again, then switch feet.
2. 4 point touch – standing on one foot the free foot has to touch the ground lightly as far as they can reach on all points of the compass – north, south, east and west – 45 seconds each leg
3. Ankle Circles – while standing on 1 foot, slowly move the other ankle in their full range of motion in a circle. Do 15 seconds each foot in each direction. Usually easier to switch directions and then switch feet.
4. Heel and toe walks with inversion and eversion over 3 meters - One set each of;
   • toe walk with toes pointing inwards about 30 degrees,
   • heel walks with toes pointing inwards the same,
   • toe walks with toes pointing outwards about 30 degrees,
   • heel walks with toes pointing outwards the same

Either of these workouts can be followed with the Starting 5 Programme. Up to Level 1 ‘Bounce’ can be done without shoes. Since not everyone will be barefoot, it’s safer to put shoes on for the rest.

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