 Throwing shoes are an absolute must. What are the worst throwing shoes? What are fast shoes, slow shoes? We're gonna talk, or I'm gonna talk. Talking to me? At length about throwing shoes in this video, so check it out. Hey everybody, it's Eric Johnson from Airtate Throws Nation. In today's video, we're talking about throwing shoes. What are the best and what are the worst? And we're gonna get totally into it. So here we go. So that being said, one of the things, we get a lot of questions. Hey coach, what shoes should I wear? Now, one of the things I'm gonna talk about in this video is strictly, these are my opinions based on my experience as a former thrower. And now coach, I very smartly wear throwing shoes. Now, if you're a coach and you don't wear throwing shoes, I would say get yourself throwing shoes. What are the worst throwing shoes? I'm gonna kick it off with that. What are the worst throwing shoes? Running shoes. Running shoes are the absolute bane of your existence. This past summer and previous camps and different things, we always tell everybody, please bring throwing shoes. We had people where we pointed out, hey, this is a lot harder. You can't turn. There's way more friction. It's harder on your knees. And when you're an older guy like myself or you're older coach, if you're turning and running shoes or trying to demonstrate, you're gonna tear up your knees because you're grinding so much harder and you're putting all this stress on it. Now I figured that out the hard way because a few years ago, my wife was like, hey, why aren't you wearing throwing shoes? And I'm like, oh, because I'm standing on my feet all day when I teach a camp and I like the cushion. Well, my knees were killing me. I went back to throwing shoes. I've never gone back. So that said, let's kick things off. Now, everything I'm gonna share with you in this video is 100% right. This is my opinion, like I said. This is my experiences and these are the shoes that I tend to like. And I'm gonna tell you what I like and what I don't. But there's a couple of key things that you wanna understand about throwing shoes. And you see these ranges and prices and different things. You are paying for some brands and like Nike and different things. Now they've been a long time player. So let's do this. I have all kinds of shoes around. So here's just a pair of, you're kinda, you can see I've been using them. I kinda interchange them. These are my Nike Zoom Rotationals. Now I've always kinda been, I've always liked Nikes and when I competed, I used to wear Nikes. So back in the day, we were at UCLA. I threw for the legendary Art Venegas while I was there. And we were, like I said, in Adidas school. And for whatever reason, I couldn't find my old Adidas. But one of the things that Art used to kinda do and did the time, right? So this is like 1990 and 91 and beginning of 92. Basically we had these old Pumas, right? So at this point, these were like, I wanna say late 70s, early 80s Pumas, right? And these bad boys really had this nice, kind of like you really could feel yourself move up onto the feet. I wanna say a lot of the legends through in these, I wanna say Luis DeLis through in these. These were really, really cool shoes. And so I have these, these are classics. These were really kinda fit, nice, were really light, but they would really put you on the balls of the feet. And you can kinda see they lasted well, right? The rubber was really solid and they're still holding up after all these years. So these shoes at this point, scaryly enough, have to be a minimum of 40 years old. I got them a new, but they were 10 years old new in a box in like 1990. So I hit some great training with these. Now that said, kind of looking at the progression of shoes, I have like old Nikes. These I wore in 96, these are the Zoom Rotationals. I really love the style what Nike was doing this. They used to do the rotational without anything here. You could still see kind of, there's no seam. And so this was to me a more comfortable shoe. You can see we got a lot of training out of it. And the Nikes tend to last. And you'll notice underneath the rubbers this harder metal plate. So the Zoom Rotationals are faster shoes and we're gonna talk about that. But worst shoes we already talked about are no throwing shoes. If you don't have throwing shoes, you need them. Don't throw them running shoes. If you're watching this video, that's a joke. It's, I always tell people it's like playing football without cleats or a helmet. You can't have either or you must have both throwing shoes. You have two things you must have in throwing. You must have shoes and you must have an implement. That's it. Showing you those classic Pumas and jumping into types of shoes and just kind of showing you how they're built. Here's the new Pumas. These are the new Pumas. I've tried these on, I've practiced with them. And again, I'm coaching. So I'm looking at turning, I'm demonstrating. I'm showing a lot. So I really need my throwing shoes. I really like the fit of the Pumas, but they have a nice fast shoe. I like the sole. Again, the rubber seems to last. I haven't worn them a ton yet, but that was because I didn't think they were as comfortable. Now, one of the things before I dive in, let's break it into, we have our main brands. We've got Nike. I've always been partial Nike. I've liked always been partial to Adidas. And in recent years back, I wanna say back around 2011, Soccany came out with this shoe. And this is their throwing shoe. And then this was a big issue for them in the beginning. They tried to do this really cool sole, but the sole would wear out and rip off real fast. Now, I think it's a really comfortable shoe. Word was that the shop put legend Adam Nelson was involved in the design. I guess he consulted and I may have been contrary. I don't know all the details. That's what I had heard. And I think they did a great job. I really liked the shoe. It's comfortable. The toe box is a little bit. It allows a little bit more space. Again, this is gonna see something you're gonna point out. Notice the side of the shoe. Look at how the rubber molding here, there's nothing here. This is where your foot obviously is flexing. And so that is a comfort thing. So when you don't have any kind of seams there where you're always flexing and rotating on your, especially, whether you're left or right, you're gonna be always in this position through delivery especially. And not having anything here, I think, is a real bonus. You have Soccani, you have Puma. You have Asics. I'll show you these. I've got a couple of different types of Asics. And here's another one. And this one you'll notice is a little chunkier. I kinda like it, but this is their fast shoe. Different sole. And we'll talk about that. And then you have brands that I have yet to try. Under Armour just released a shoe. And then we have Velasa out there. And I have looked at their shoes. I've seen some athletes that have worn them. Seemed to be pretty cool. I'm planning to try both of those shoes this coming year because I'm always looking for that comfortable shoe because I'm always on my feet demonstrating a ton while I'm coaching. Okay, so let's get into that. We're gonna talk about a couple of criteria. This is what I recommend. When you like, it's always personal preference. You gotta find what shoe is most comfortable. So if your shoe, your shoe foot's already jammed up and you have a wide shoe, you know, I think certain shoes like the Asics shoe has a little bit wider toe box. And I've had a lot of my athletes with bigger feet kinda choose this. And they make some really large sizes. I think that maybe they go up to like 16 now. I should know this. Probably the most common shoe size is gonna be like 11 to 13. I wear a 14. I always wear a 13 or 14. So, but the biggest thing you wanna understand is when you look at shoes, you're gonna see these ranges. And I think one of the cool things you can do and go on to eBay and a lot of times find like, you know, a brand new pair of shoes that might be a year or two old but they're still brand new and you can pick them up on the cheap side. So I think that's good. I have fast shoes and I have slow shoes. And here's what I recommend. You want a fast shoe and a slow shoe because different weather conditions, right, different ring conditions. You go to a ring that's super, super slick. Well, if I get into a pair of shoes that's gonna be slow, that's gonna be better. Let's go, I'll talk about some old Nikes. I have, you know, my Nikes from back in the day. So this is actually the combo I wore at the Olympic trials. This was my left. I have foolishly allowed some athletes to borrow my shoes. I forgot and they took my shoes that were classically in nice shape and they beat the crap out of them because I wanted to keep them because I threw at these at the Olympic trials. I threw my PRs in this pair right here. So what does that look like? This is what I used to do. I used to like a slower shoe on my left foot because I would be grinding out of the back and I wanted a faster shoe on the right. So I used to wear a zoom rotational on my right foot and I would use like the Zoom SD. So the Zoom SD, here's a version from, God, what is this, maybe 10 years ago. So here was a Zoom SD. Now this wasn't my shoes around here somewhere, but these had a slightly slower tackier thing. And I think the thing I've always liked about Nike is that they've always had a nice plate underneath the rubber. So they're always good and hard and that helps you turn fast. So the one thing that Nike kind of changed, this is their SD and then this is their Zoom. So again, harder plastic, but this is the thing. Right here, this thing, Nike, if you are listening to this small video, this ad of this piece with here at the flexion point is murder, every, personally, they were so uncomfortable. I was really disappointed. They're still a good shoe because of the plastic, but I think that's a mistake on the design. This old style that was consistent with Nike shoes for literally multiple decades, they need to go back to that. You know, I have throwers that still like the SDs. The Zooms as a discus thrower, I always liked this, right? Faster shoe. So where did I start with this? You want both is I'm kind of talking to you about that. Understand that you have faster, harder plastic, right? This is gonna make you rotate faster and then you have shoes that are a little tackier and this is what I would refer to as a slower shoe. So those are kind of some of your Nikes. When we look at ASICs, they've done some things over the years. Here's their ASIC shoe. This shoe, you saw it's a decent looking shoe. I got this, I tried it out. This is what I would absolutely call a slow shoe. This is, it's got this big surface area. So if you were in a, if you needed to go someplace or you know, you're thrown in a place that has a slick ring, this is a great shoe for a slick ring. Generally, I think it, I don't personally like this shoe much, it's more on the flat side. It's relatively comfortable. The toe box and the foot position is wide. I think that's a good thing, but it's definitely slow and it's kind of hard on the feet. Again, I'm always partial to the shoes that have, you can kind of see when I just put it here, you see this little bulb, you can kind of see that. Nike does a very nice job on that. This is what I thought was great about the Soccany. They really do the same thing, plate, good design. You notice how the toe kind of points up. So when you're throwing, that helps you push forward onto your feet, which is an absolute, where you want to be. You never want to be sitting back on your feet. You always want your weight forward. That's going to help you rotate. So here are the new Soccany's, which personally are my favorite in terms of comfort, but you still see the rubber wears out fast. I can't even get through, honestly, I can't even get through probably two months. Now, granted, I turn a lot, but if you're training properly, you should be doing tons of turns and reps. You should be doing hundreds and hundreds of reps a week. Not necessarily throws, but tons of drill reps, movement, that's one of the things we talk about with our throwing chain reaction, right? We're always doing that. So I wear these bad boys out fast. They're still very comfortable. I love the toe box. Again, they don't have a seam here, so it's a great shoe. So Soccany, do yourself a favor, figure out how to get a chemist, my brother's, brother-in-law's a chemical engineer. He can tell you how to make the rubber and the glue and everything that'll work. And, cause I think he's done it for Nike. And you need to get that rubber fixed, but these are great shoes. I really like them. Just know that if you get them, in my experience, they're gonna wear out fast. So you're probably gonna want a second pair. And if you have a rough surface, you're gonna wear them out faster. Then you go to some old school. We got some old school Adidas. Adidas, I tend to like to a little, Adidas are always a little bit more on the flatter side. I used to wear those and they were slower. I had those old school great Adidas that like you would see like Wolfgang Schmidt, super legend, right? Wearing that kind of stuff. A smaller, really flat, thin light shoe, but you could really feel the ground in the ring. Now there's pluses and minuses to that. So that's, again, I would say a slower shoe. So Nike or Adidas does kind of the same thing, but they're a little flatter. You're gonna notice that that you have this. This is kind of one of their multi-purpose throwing shoes. They have some various ones. And these are clearly old. I have a bunch of old shoes because I'm not competing. So, but I buy stuff and I'm gonna get more mileage out of it. Hopefully so far that is kind of helping you understand how throwing shoes work. But like I said, if you look, here's that old classic Zoom Rotational. This is my 96 version. And again, faster, nothing on the seam. So when you flex, you're not getting any kind of thing digging into you. Where is that new one? And I don't have a super wide foot, but you can see when you dig in here, you see that, that crease right there? Man, I can't tell you. If they just took this and they shortened the rubber and put it here, you'll be so much better because it's not flexing. Now I say that until I actually felt it, I wouldn't know. But Nike, do us a favor, fix those up because it kills your feet for two weeks. And they're good shoes, but you gotta break them in and the break-in point shouldn't friggin' like destroy your feet. Let's see, Asics, like I showed you. Slow shoe on this shoe. Now this is a couple of seasons old. And then you have this shoe that Asics made. Now this shoe, again, kind of on the flatter side, has nice and hard, good rubber. It's kind of bulky. And honestly, this shoe I did not like. This was not, I didn't like the way it felt. I didn't like the way of the foot. I felt like you would kind of roll to the outside of the foot. So I was not digging that, but sometimes I know plenty of athletes who use them and like them. Remember, shoes are always gonna boil down to, everybody's got, I've got a kind of a longer, you know, normal width foot, maybe even a little to the narrower side. So I'm gonna be okay with, you know, most shoes. Whereas I know I have a lot of athletes that have wide, you know, wide feet. And so they're really jamming their feet into some of these shoes. So comfort, what you personally want, that makes a huge difference, what you like. But again, so I'm gonna kind of rank it. One Nike, I think is always good because the shoes last. Some of the recent designs of the Zoom, like I said, I found to be uncomfortable for you a few weeks. And if I'm wearing it for long periods of time, it starts to hurt my feet. Now me coaching, I'm coaching sometimes, I have sometimes some extremely long coaching days and I'm in throwing shoes for, I've been in throwing shoes for six to eight plus hours. Most athletes, right, if you're coming to one of our camps, you're gonna be in those throwing shoes for five hours. So you want something that, you know, that isn't gonna chew up your feet. But I've always liked them. I like that they have the SD, that's the difference. When people always go, what's the difference? It's one's a little faster, one's slower. They have different, like the tackier bottom on the SD and the Zoom rotational is smoother and faster. So faster shoe, slower shoe, again, I think you always want both. Soccany personally is one of my favorite. I love the comfort, it's a great shoe. I just would love to be able to see this rubber last. I mean, I literally blew through, I blew the rubber off in literally seven weeks. Maybe even a little sooner, they still work. I'm still wearing them. They're still comfortable, but then we were throwing an area where we have a little gravel near our ring. So this always picks up, I gotta wipe my shoes. Adidas, again, is kind of a preference thing. They've always tended to be a little bit flatter. They, let's see, I think I have another Adidas around here. Here's an old Adidas. This goes back another, this is a bunch of years. Again, you can see a little bit less chunky than that orange shoe. This is, again, I really like the way Adidas makes a good toe box. Again, you're seeing kind of that good flexion design so you don't see anything seams here. So I've always think those are good go-tos. And then, like I said, the Pumas, I really, really do like the Pumas. These are fast. The rubber seems to last. I have throwers that have been training them and they get a lot of mileage out of it. I personally just felt these weren't super comfortable, but again, if I was practicing and only wearing them for an hour and a half to two hours, I'm sure I'm gonna be fine. But a definitely good shoe. And going back, like I said, I have that nostalgia for these classics. Pumas been around a long time as well. And again, that good design. You see how that toe strip right ends here? This is, you don't see when the shoe flexes. You don't see that dig into the side of your foot there. So at any rate, hopefully that helps. And because so many people have questions, what should I get? Hunt around, get a slow and a fast shoe. You always wanna be prepared, especially for those of you that live in different areas where the weather can rain. I'm gonna wanna wear a slow shoe if it's raining and I'm definitely not wanting fast shoes when it's raining. So that's why I think you want both. And that's why sometimes you see guys throw in a throwing shoe when it's raining or put one throwing shoe on, cause it's so slippery. And of course we don't wanna have to throw in those kind of conditions, but that does happen. So that's why you have fast and slow. That's why some, like I said, are flatter. Some shoes are on the chunky side. Like I said, I definitely am partial to, I've always liked the Nike's and I really do like the Soccany. I'm like I said, and any of these companies wanna send us shoes, great, we're happy to try them. Under armor, those shoes I have an athlete who just got a pair, they look pretty cool. They look well designed. I'd love to try those out and I'm sure I'll try out the Velossas this year as well. Hopefully that helps you guys. Go get yourself both pairs. Again, everything in this video is just really kind of my personal opinion. What I've seen as a coach, what I've experienced using the shoes as a thrower and a coach. And I think it goes without saying though, we're coming into the season and you need to get yourself shoes is not an option. So thank you guys, long video, but we appreciate you. So do us a favor, hit that like button, subscribe, turn on the notifications. By liking and commenting, that helps us keep the channel moving, getting ring tire, doing things so that we can keep it up. And if you'd like more information on how to improve your throws training, how to attack that two seconds, learn the throw faster, find your individual need, check out our throwing chain reaction system. Version of 5.0 is out. 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