Combat Athletes & Sports Health

Toes, and especially your big toe are equally prone to getting injured as your fingers are. It does not matter whether you are striking, grappling or doing both, getting your toe caught on someone’s shin, elbow, Gi or simply a gap in the mat can quickly turn into an annoying little injury. Once the toe’s base joint (AKA MP Joint) is hyperextended in one direction or the other, your best bet at making a quick recovery is to properly tape everything up to avoid constantly reinjuring the same toe. Here are some strategies:

Basic Tape Job for the Big Toe:

As you can see, the above video assumes that you want to prevent extension of the toe (moving it upward), but obviously you can modify the tape job by placing the stabilizing strips of tape on the top of your foot/toe instead of the bottom.

Speaking from experience, I have to say that most standard toe tape jobs typically won’t last through a workout without a few modifications. This is especially valid for barefooted combat sports where even more stress is put on the tape job. That is why some modifications to the standard toe tape job may be in order.

The weakest point of the whole tape job is the anchor point on the base of your foot. Once the tape’s adhesiveness on skin weakens, the tension strips that limit your toe’s range of motion loose their function and your whole tape job becomes worthless. The best (and to my knowledge only) way to prevent this is to secure your anchor with tape loops around your heel. Make sure to put the tape loops well above your heel so they won’t slide down your foot during your workout. Below, you can see the result of one of my own tape jobs (before covering everything up with the last protective layer of tape).

As with all tape jobs, some individual experimenting may be in order before you are perfectly satisfied with your tape job. Feel free to leave improvement ideas and feedback in the comment section.