Ankle Weights for practicing: Good Idea? Bad Idea?

F[uns]tylin' Eclectic · Post by **F[uns]tylin' Eclectic** » 06 Feb 2010 22:11

Is it a bad idea to wear light ankle weights while practicing? Or would it benefit? I used to do it a while ago, and it really built up my calf muscles, but then stopped wearing them because my friend told me I could blow fluid in my knee, and I enjoy having fluid in my knees, so I stopped. But i was wondering if this is a bad or good practice technique?

Fade2black · Post by **Fade2black** » 06 Feb 2010 22:33

I found that developing the tilt in the ankle was more important then the leg speed...

Getting the leg speed first and having drops because you couldn't save it with tilt is more frustrating then landing cheesy moves and developing the speed as you go.

F[uns]tylin' Eclectic · Post by **F[uns]tylin' Eclectic** » 06 Feb 2010 22:59

I already have a lot of ankle tilt. I have naturally flexible ankles, so it was easy for me to get into footbag

But yeah, what you're saying makes sense.

hrdcorethndr1 · Post by **hrdcorethndr1** » 07 Feb 2010 09:59

I know that you aren't supposed to run or play basketball i ankle weights because it can cause damage to your legs and ankles.... so im guessing that it is not a good idea to play foobag in them because footbag is just like rebounding a basketball all day.

mc · Post by mc » 07 Feb 2010 10:57

As far as I know, David Clavens, the best footbagger to ever come out of the state of Pennsylvania, never trained with ankle weights.

If you're interested in tricks to make your game better and give you an advantage, here's two -

stand up straight and work your flipside. Doing that will take you a lot farther in footbag than any amount of extra ankle weight.

If you're going to do it, maybe stick to alternating kicks, and don't do any jumping or landing on your legs. just kick > plant > other kick > plant > other kick etc etc etc.

sidekick · Post by **sidekick** » 07 Feb 2010 11:09

I have played with ankle weights. I want to say two things about it:

1) It hurt my knees, but I recovered from it. I was practicing all sorts of dex moves (ATW, DATW, Legover, Mirage) and fine tuning some stalls. I don't think it helped my game that much in the long run, I should have just practiced with a chain mail footbag instead which is my current training method. I think the reason it hurt me so much is that the extra weight on your ankles just pulls your leg out from your knee while you move it around. Sounds painful, and it was

2) *IF* you feel it necessary to use them, then I suggest doing very slow movements without a footbag. That way it should cut down on the momentum and not pull your leg out of the socket. Do some dexercising with them very slowly, but I think you could gain the same benefits if you just do the same movements in a pool...

mc · Post by mc » 07 Feb 2010 14:31

yes, there's the ticket, if you need resistance training, do dexes in the shallow end of the pool - whirling / rev whirling, hippy stepping / atomic, leggy quantum / atomic, swirling / rev swirling... That should just about cover it.

I've tried doing water dexes before sessions, and let me tell you, your legs feel super fast out of the water after you've just gotten them used to being in the water.

Feels good, too.

F[uns]tylin' Eclectic · Post by **F[uns]tylin' Eclectic** » 07 Feb 2010 22:39

Sick! Now I know I should stop ankle weight practice with a footbag. I'm so stoked i'm no longer going to obliterate my legs to a mushy pulp ^^
Also, thanks for the aqautic training tips. I'm def gonna try that when the weather warms up.

Mathochist · Post by **Mathochist** » 10 Mar 2010 20:23

I tried training with ankle weights and I threw out my back. Be careful is all.

habitat · Post by **habitat** » 11 Mar 2010 00:18

Training with ankle weights seems like a stupid idea. Think about it, footbag can already wreck your shit on it's own. What would ankle weights do for you other than to speed up the deterioration of your joints? This isn't baseball.

james · Post by **james** » 11 Mar 2010 06:19

so unnecessary

not unlike this post

notyelf · Post by **notyelf** » 06 Apr 2010 12:58

Greetings all, been in hiatus for a while thought I would come kick it for a while

Yeah ankle weights could easily increase the risk of hyper extension as well.

I think you are focused too much on one direction of speed training -- doing the moves in various conditions to improves speed -- when 'speed' comes from the tendon and muscle strength in the twitch fibers of your muscles. Try doing core building exercises like squats or weighted lunges. Trust me, do a quarter mile of weighted lunges (10-20lbs) will make your legs feel like air. Do some hill sprints or heavy mountain biking. Just look at sports with a long tradition to see how they cross-train themselves. Fighting sports especially like wrestling (olympic not wwe!) and boxing involves quite a lot of methods outside of 'doing the moves' to build stamina and speed.

Another thing to try is to build all the muscles in the leg possible...your leg is only as strong as its weakest muscle. Many people dont use their stabilizer muscles. Sure you can stand on one leg for a while, but can you squat to the ground and back up on one leg without wobbling all over the place? This will build tremendous speed and strength as well

Last but not least, speed isn't necessarily about brute force either...watch the videos of all the greats...notice how relaxed their speed looks? Speed should come from a natural flow of the leg muscles and not simply pushing as hard as you can.

Hope my 2 cents helps

F[uns]tylin' Eclectic · Post by **F[uns]tylin' Eclectic** » 22 Apr 2010 09:19

so unnecessary

not unlike this post

It's not unnecessary... Chances are if someone has a question, someone else will be wondering the same thing... just won't have the balls to ask it or whatever. I had a feeling that ankle weights would screw something up, THAT'S WHY I ASKED. Better safe than sorry... better asking than being arrogant...

And thanks for POSITIVELY CONTRIBUTING YOUR IDEAS IN A GENUINE MANNER, notyelf. I appreciate it. I've stopped using ankle weights a while ago

My room mates and I plan on mountain biking 2 times a week next year, when we get our apartment.

RipWalker · Post by **RipWalker** » 23 Apr 2010 10:04

Nick,

I think James was referring to his own post, not your original post... and if he wasn't, he should have been.

What the others have said (with the exception of posts that ambiguously state that it sounds like a stupid idea and inform us of the fact that footbag isn't baseball) is solid. Your speed and muscle strength/memory will develop on its own as you practice without ankle weights. Many of the muscles that you have to develop for the unnatural movements required for the sport are not ready for any additional weight.

Your plans to mountain bike sound good -- should develop additional strength that will work towards increasing your stamina during runs (string length, etc.).

Peace.

Sporatical_Distractions · Post by **Sporatical_Distractions** » 24 Apr 2010 20:58

I tried this a couple years back when my knees were messed up. Wouldn't shred with the weights on, but would do ankle weight exercises and try to hold clipper.
Then would shred and my legs felt lighter and faster which was cool, but it screwed with my body's natural timing.

F[uns]tylin' Eclectic · Post by **F[uns]tylin' Eclectic** » 25 Apr 2010 19:58

Ooooo, my bad, james (if you were indeed referring to your own post) and Thanks to everyone for the help and contributing your ideas. I've learned a heaping helping from this topic. If I felt like it, I could write a couple page persuasive essay, titled "Why not to practice footbag using ankle weights".... but I don't feel like it

I now know what to do, how to do it, alternative ways to achieve what I wanted to achieve with weights, and, most importantly, that footbag is actually NOT baseball. Now I know to stop batting my footbags, because that's probably where those holes are coming from

Reid · Post by **Reid** » 26 Apr 2010 08:35

Ankle weights are only a good idea when making a footbag training montage.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0llrN-SzTFg[/youtube]

crazylegs32 · Post by **crazylegs32** » 27 Apr 2010 22:40

That video is funny but I got the impression of a little brokehack circle action at some point? Did Eric and that other guy really get it on?

F[uns]tylin' Eclectic · Post by **F[uns]tylin' Eclectic** » 28 Apr 2010 06:24

Hahaha excellent video, Reid. Probably the funniest footbag-related video I've ever seen.

habitat · Post by **habitat** » 28 Apr 2010 09:50

Uggh, eggs on a cold pan.