slipping - help!

[bigrabid]

My fencing club is new and somewhat lacking in supplies. Our salle is in an old party-room with hardwood floors, and our pistes are marked directly onto the flooring with duct tape. I'm pretty new, so I had been using regular tennis shoes, which had good traction (but a host of other problems). Ever since I got my new d'artagnan II shoes a few weeks ago though, I've been slipping every time I change directions or lunge.

I guess my question is, assuming we keep the same flooring, is there anything I personally can do to increase the traction of my shoes or not slip as much? (i.e. get some sticky substance for my shoes, lower my center of gravity, etc.)

Thanks!

John

[D+F+P=Hadouken!]

My fencing club is new and somewhat lacking in supplies. Our salle is in an old party-room with hardwood floors, and our pistes are marked directly onto the flooring with duct tape. I'm pretty new, so I had been using regular tennis shoes, which had good traction (but a host of other problems). Ever since I got my new d'artagnan II shoes a few weeks ago though, I've been slipping every time I change directions or lunge.

I guess my question is, assuming we keep the same flooring, is there anything I personally can do to increase the traction of my shoes or not slip as much? (i.e. get some sticky substance for my shoes, lower my center of gravity, etc.)

Thanks!

John

Clean the bottoms of your shoes, wipe them down on your socks. Its an old and time honored trick.

Also, clean the floor.

[lefty_monster]

I vote for cleaning your shoes on the wall, or on a spare towel that you bring specifically for that purpose.

[Piranha]

Slightly damp towels also sometimes help.

[Downtown]

I have never had this problem, so take what I say with a grain of salt.

1. Take some course grit sand paper and rough up the sole and heel of your shoes.

2. When I was a kid and got " new hard sole church shoes" my folks put some tape on the the slick bottoms so I would not bust my boney butt. Perhaps something like that is an option.

[Hauptman]

I hate to tell you, but you just bought the wrong shoes.

It's not that they're bad shoes, but they are obviously wrong for that particular surface. Talk to other people in your club and see if you can figure out which shoes seem to work well on that floor and go for them.

Also, get a nice big dust mop for the club and clean the floor before and after each session. If you get a good mop it shouldn't take more than 10 minutes to wipe down the floor.

[fencerbill]

Shake several drops of water on the floor. Not a puddle but isolated drops.

Then scuff your shoes in the slightly dampened floor.

If there is too much water it won't work. When you get the amount of water right, you will scuff the polish off your shoe soles for a while. It should last for at least a bout.

This is really like using a slightly dampened towel. But they didn't tell you to scuff your shoes on the floor after using the damp towel.

You are exposing a new, rubber/plastic layer on the bottom of your shoes.

[Greg]

You could refinish the floor. Its a time consuming job, but not all that expensive if the club members do it yourself. Then you could have the proper finish applied and even paint on the strips. Our club practices in a room with a wood floor that is well worn from use. It is slippery. I have tried various shoes - Adidas, Victoria, etc and they make little difference. It is the floor, not the shoe in that case.

[remise]

I had the same problem once at a comp held in a gym. The floor was treacherous it was so slippery. Lots of damp towels were seen that day. One fencer, however, had a bottle of something and sprayed the soles of his shoes with it. I was curious.

It was window cleaner. You spray it on and DAB it off. It worked a little too well. If you tried stopping suddenly, you could end up pitching forward.

[Beloit Fencer of Old]

I had the same problem once at a comp held in a gym. The floor was treacherous it was so slippery. Lots of damp towels were seen that day. One fencer, however, had a bottle of something and sprayed the soles of his shoes with it. I was curious.

It was window cleaner. You spray it on and DAB it off. It worked a little too well. If you tried stopping suddenly, you could end up pitching forward.

Window cleaner! Of course! It makes too much sense!

Our club owns two buildings (in two cities), and each has a custom-built plywood floor with a poly coat. On one, great traction (with D'Art IIs), on the other, NO traction (with anything except, perhaps, ice climbing boots).

We suspect that it's the kind of poly finish used which is the culprit. We've re-done the slippery floor once, changing from a semi-gloss to a matte. The matte is actually slightly MORE slippery, so we're going to try another one out.