Adidas Absolodo X IN my choice for soccer shoes

After several hours of tiring time consuming research, I made my choice for a new pair of soccer shoes. I decided to buy the Adidas Absolodo P X IN, or the Adidas Absalodo X IN (as of now I can discern no difference between the two shoes except for the outer coloring). I now explain the reasoning behind this choice.

I have been practicing soccer on a basketball court using Adidas Bracara shoes, which have served me well. But with the passage of time, the Bracaras have become smoother and smoother on the sole area of the foot, and I have been slipping more and more. It got to the point where I felt sort of as if I was ice skating. I decided that my next pair of shoes should as much as possible, on the sole area that contacts the ground, resemble a basketball shoe. Basketball shoes are made for basketball courts so such is simple common sense.

Secondly, I decided that the shoe laces on the shoe should be "asymmetric", "offset", "off center" lacing type shoes, meaning that the shoelace holes should not go straight down the middle of the shoe, but off to the side of the shoe; and I decided that the shoelace holes should angle to the outside of the foot not the inside of the foot (Nike is now making best I can tell--the photos at their website are confusing--at least one indoor soccer shoe featuring laces that angle off towards the inside of the foot).

My Adidas Bracara shoes feature a row of shoelace holes that angle off towards the outside of the foot; when I bought them it had become no longer possible to buy shoes with laces going down the middle. The shoes I used before the Bracaras, Pumas, had the shoelace holes right down the middle of the foot. At first I was worried that such shoelace angling might mess up my game, which involves alot of keeping the ball off the ground and backspinning the ball. I thought that since the shoelace holes angle off to the outside of the foot the result would be that I would not be able to use the shoelaces and the shoelace holes to aid in the backspin of the ball. But as it turned out, while using the Bracaras I was able to competently backspin the ball keeping it off the ground and close to the body while running around, despite the shoelaces angling off to the outside of the foot.

As I progressed in skill I entered into a long struggle involving an attempt to master the difficult skill of keeping the ball close to the body but off the ground while running, by way of chipping the ball to my right with my right foot despite being left-footed. I found this skill to be the most difficult skill I had ever attempted to master. Finally after several weeks of practice, in the past couple of days I've gotten to the point where I consider myself on the verge of mastering it. As I finally succeeded, I realized that the success was associated with putting plenty of backspin on the ball. I decided that the shoelaces and shoelace holes angling off to the outside of the foot, help me to succeed in accurately chipping the ball to my right with my right foot because they help me to backspin the ball. Thus I decided that I want shoes with shoelaces and shoelace holes angling off to the right of the foot.

The Adidas Absolado P X IN, and its twin the Adidas Absolado X IN, both feature soles that are like basketball shoe soles and that have a relatively large number of grooves in the sole per square inch, with the grooves being relatively deep. Also they both have the shoelaces angling towards the outside of the foot. Therefore these are the shoes I favor.

The shoes that I decided not to buy fell short of the Adidas Absolado X In shoes for several reasons: the groove patterns on the soles of the shoes did not resemble the groove patterns in basketball shoes; the grooves were too shallow; there were not enough grooves per square inch; the shoelace holes did not angle off towards the outside of the foot.

I spent some time studying tennis and I read about how the loosely strung tennis rackets allow the player to put more spin on the ball, which supports the idea that shoelaces help to put backspin on the ball.

I don't really need the help the shoelaces provide when it comes to backspinning the ball for air-dribbling tricks such as: cutting to the left with my left foot; cutting to my right with my left foot (I am left footed); cutting to my left with my right foot (more natural than cutting to my right with my right foot). I need the help the shoelaces provide for backspinning, for cutting to my right with my right foot.

I've read plenty of text re the supposed impact of shoelaces in terms of the power and precision of shots and passes. My personal experience with the Adidas Bracaras has been that I've been able to get off (my estimates using stopwatch) accurate 100 mph shots with the outside of the foot despite the shoelaces angling off to the outside of the foot. My opinion is that power and accuracy are produced not by extreme effort or by the position of the shoelaces, but rather by the ball and the body in the optimal positions.

Night of Feb 19 running shoes footwear experiment & rant re tactics vs strategy, Smoot-Hawley

Thursday night of Feb 19 was the first night since Feb 5 that I would say that I was not "under the weather". I did the six mile course around the block, jogging the first third and fifth miles, walking the second fourth and sixth miles, timing myself after the fifth mile.

Night of Thursday Feb 19 the time was either 72 minutes or 82 minutes. I thought the time was 72 minutes starting at 336 AM Feb 20 to be exact, but I think that I actually started at 326 AM so the time was 82 minutes. I ended at 449 AM Feb 20, subtracted one minute for tying my shoes twice.

I had earlier decided that I could remember the start time, and that writing the start time down on a card was unnecessary. This might be wrong. When you write down the start time you can forget about the start time, which is relaxing and frees the mind to think of other things.

Digression:

Reminds me of how emphasis on rote memorization can be harmful as the mind is un-freed to do things other than memorization.

Likewise with emphasis on solving problems extremely quickly compared to the average man, the emphasis on solving problems quickly leads to the mind not being available for something other than mental sprinting.

End digression.

The night of Thursday Feb 19 time of 82 minutes for the five miles around the block would be a new personal record, 4 minutes faster than the new 86 minutes personal record set Feb 17. The fast time was again evidence of the power of taking a day off (the previous day there was no running).

The Adistar Control 5 shoes again worn today, were adequate for the cold and snow. The temp was 21 degrees, thin layer of soft snow on the ground, certain areas for several yards featured unavoidable slippery ice. The Adistar Control 5 shoes breathe more than the Adidas Powerline crosstrainers, the foot gets colder in the Control 5s.

Weather during Feb 19 run link:

http://www.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/wxStationGraphAll?day=20&year=2009&month=2&ID=KMAWESTO6&type=3&width=500&showsolarradiation=1&showtemp=1&showpressure=1&showwind=1&showwinddir=1&showrain=1

Footwear today:

Left shoe:
foam/gel heel-to-toe insole +
'toe bed' (forefoot gel pad ball of foot and toes) +
CVS 'toe bandage' (toe tube) for big toe +
tube made of 2 layers Mueller M-wrap for index toe + tube made of 2 layers Mueller M-wrap for middle toe +
pad made of 16 layers Mueller m-wrap around sides and rear of heel.

Right shoe:
foam/gel heel-to-toe insole +
'toe bed' (forefoot gel pad ball of foot and toes) +
pad made of 8 layers Mueller M-wrap glued to area beneath big, index and middle toes in toe area of gel forefoot pad +
CVS 'toe bandage' (toe tube) for index toe +
CVS 'toe bandage' (toe tube) for middle toe +
pad made of 16 layers Mueller m-wrap around sides and rear of heel.

As has always been the case thus far, the removeable insole that comes pre-installed in the shoes were also worn.

The glue used was 'CVS 'non-toxic' 'School Glue gel' ( http://www.cvs.com/CVSApp/catalog/shop_product_detail.jsp?filterBy=&skuId=886499&productId=886499&navAction=jump&navCount=3 ), just $1 for a 5 oz bottle. This glue was able to hold layers of m-wrap together but the pad made of m-wrap affixed to the gel forefoot pad with the glue, was just very slightly stuck to the gel forefoot pad at the end of the run (though it had not moved out of place). This despite the fact that I used a 25 pound weight to press the m-wrap pad I was trying to glue to the gel pad. Seems the glue can get absorbed into the Muller brand m-wrap as a result of which it is not able to glue the m-wrap to the gel. When this glue hardens it becomes literally hard, it does not turn into a soft padding type gel like best I can recall certain other glues I know of (whose names I cannot now recall).

The foot-wear padding setup used today produced basically good results in terms of comfort except: the left heel was loose; at times there was a sense of unevenness beneath the left toe; at time slight numbness and tingliness were felt in the left foot.

Logical next steps:

1

Use 4 layers of mueller m-wrap as pad under big, index, and middle toes of left foot, glued to left gel forefoot 'toe bed' instead of m-wrap made from 2 layers of Mueller M-wrap on left middle and index toes. This will produce experimental contrast between 4 layers under the toes on the left foot and 8 layers under the toes on the right.

2

Call or visit the 'green' 'organic' 'natural' stores and try to find some glue that is non-toxic, becomes soft and gel-pad-like when it dries instead of hard, and has more sticking power than the CVS 'School Glue Gel'.

Having become aware of how foot pads can be used to detox the body, and how substances can toxify the body entering the body through the skin, I was interested in using a non-toxic glue.

Heck the blue CVS 'non-toxic School Glue Gel' looks and sounds so nice you could drink it up, it gives you fantasies that when it dries it is like the expensive blue gel pads, and it only costs a dollar, but it lacks sticking power, even when you press the glued substances together 'until dry' like the instructions say. That's alot to ask--to 'press together until dry'. I am not a carpenter equipped with all the tools of a carpentry shop.

During the Thursday night Feb 19 run, The left and the right shoes seemed almost equal during the run in terms of comfort. However 45 minutes after the run concluded, pressure heat and itchiness around the left big toe and left index toe began to be felt. This was not the case with the right foot.

Running Tactics

I've noticed that in the first and second miles I tend to go too slowly (I don't use a warmup, the first mile IS my warmup), and that by nature I go fast in the fourth and fifth miles. Thus I reminded myself not to slack off in the first and second miles; and I reminded myself to take advantage of the fact that by nature I am energetic in the fourth and fifth miles.

I heard some political candidate (McCain) boast that he knew the difference between tactics and strategy whereas his opponent did not know the difference. I scoff at this. Fact is, you could know the difference between tactics and strategy, and still be completely inadequate as a military officer.

Words have flexible meanings, exactly what a word means changes over time, this is a fact of life you can ask any linguist.

Tactics refer to for example the tactics of a particular battle, whereas strategy technically speaking refers to a strategy used for more than one battle but who cares?

A sign of incompetence is failing to realize the similarity between tactics and strategy, and how one blends into the other in terms of linguistics.

A strategy could be composed of a set of tactics applied to several different situations. Therefore to see a radical difference between strategy and tactics when in fact no such radical difference exists, could be a symptom of incompetence and/or a cause of incompetence.

Along this line, it is IMHO as of now nutty (a la Senator McCain) to talk about how in the depression of the 1930s a government action carried out was a 'mistake' and so therefore should not be carried out now, when the situation now is completely different from the situation in the 1930s 80 years ago.

Aside from the fact that the alleged mistake was not actually a mistake.

I re-iterate that the idea that we can now succeed by now doing what should have been done but was not done way back in the 1930s,is foolish, because this is 80 years after the 1930s.

Comparing the 1930s to 2009 is like comparing 1950 to 1870. Think of how different the world was in 1950 compared to 1870. Think of a civil war battlefield with its muskets, cannon and horses compared to a 1950s type battlefield with nuclear weapons, tanks, machine guns, and jet planes.


@2009 David Virgil Hobbs