Opening Statement:
One foot at a time | One sole at a time | One hell of a good time - Barefoot Ted
Last Friday my wife and I had the opportunity to spend some time with Barefoot Ted, learning about Minimalist Running. Yes, we were barefoot, but I wanted to use the term "Minimalist" because some folks cannot grasp (or refuse to grasp) the concept of barefoot running, but more importantly, Ted is not the kind of person who feels the need to beat the "barefoot" concept into your skull.
Ted reminds me of the teacher who always had a gleem in his eye as he brought a new experience to the class each day. He was full of energy for the entire session and you can tell that he is just itching to share more information with you.
Ted is also quite remarkable. He was able to tell quite a bit by just looking at our feet. He was able to tell even more by feeling the bottoms. He's damn accurate too!
In direct comparison to the Chi Running Workshop of a week earlier, where my head was filled with all sorts of stuff, Ted kept it simple. We walked, we jogged, we learned some drills and we ran a little. We talked about different concepts, specifically posture, but we mostly "did."
I think the one thing I liked most about Ted was that he never told me what I should feel, but rather allowed me to learn the revelation on my own. His philosphy is that the details only muddy things up and once you are doing it right, you will feel it. For example, after a posture change I remarked about my foot fall and all Ted said was, "exactly!"
Once again, we learned that my wife's form is much superior to mine and that I have lots of work to do. But that's OK. Ted showed us how we can improve our running right in our own backyard. There is nothing special that we need - we can get by with a couple of steps and a curb.
One surprising turn was that we spent most of our time on harder surfaces rather than grass. This was unexpected, but once we realized why, it made perfect sense.
Honestly, I would have liked to have spent much more time with Ted. That said, the single session was just perfect because he boiled things down to three key concepts. Now I have a place to start over and introduce myself to running again.
If you are ever in the Seattle area I would highly recommend a session with Barefoot Ted. Even if you have no desire to run barefoot, the time spent will be well worth the investment.
Listening to: Cheap and Cheerful - The Kills
Closing Argument: The moniker "Barefoot Ted" is quite appropriate. But Ted also runs in minimalist footwear. Further, he reviews said footwear for a variety of manufacturers.
