Practice on a slippery surface. What if you actually had to use what you know in real life? You won't be given time to prepare. You may be wearing dress shoes, the guy will give you time to prepare?

Practice all ways possible.

This is why it is dumb to train on bare feet. There is no reason for it. How often are you in public where a confrontation happens and you are walking around in your bare feet? I bet 99 out of 100 have never seriously tried to practice or spar in shoes. It is not at all the same and if you have never done it you will be unpleasantly surprised. Train in gym shoes, dress shoes, no shoes, sandals, on hard surfaces, slippery, rough, sand, dirt etc.

sitting around in bare feet in a dojo only will result in a huge disappointment if you ever really need to use what you learned.

I have had this problem at Jiu jitsu and in the past used surfboard wax on the top of my feet. The wax stay off the soles of your feet and wont mark anything. and before your go into a fight just rub one foot on top of the other and vice versa.

Also during a match you can find time to rub one foot against the other if you feel it is not sticky enough. Surfboard wax is very dry and contains no oil so there is nothing that it can hurt.

I do the same when surfing it is a trick you learn when you gain experience surfing. The first few waves you catch are really tough to stand up because your wax on your board is not sticky with clean feet that have just become wet. So basically its like stepping onto wet fibreglass while riding a 100 ton wave travelling at speed, its nearly impossible. So a lot of surfers learn to put wax on the top of their feet at the start of heading out and jumping off the rocks so that when you are in the water you can rub your feet together and get some grooves on your feet to get traction on the slippery surface. This is where i got the idea from when i was on the new mats.

talcum powder should be rubbed on hands and feet before engaging on the mat. people tend to sweat more when they are nervous or excited - especially hands and feet.

so talcum should keep them dry for a better grip.

So, I compete in taekwondo sparring. Most of the time at tournaments the mats are new which means they are extremely slippery. Like to the point where if I try to kick I feel like I'm going to fall. What can I put on my feet to make it less slippery? I was thinking pouring soda, honey, or syrup on them before a fight. I know I sound crazy but you gotta do what you gotta do to win ;)