Nobody has kicked barefoot in an NFL regular season game in decades, and every single year a new wave of high school kickers tries to bring it back. I get the question constantly: “Coach, should I kick without a shoe?” My honest answer: as a short training tool, sometimes. As your game-day setup, no. But the barefoot era is worth studying, because it teaches the most important lesson in this craft — what actually strikes the ball.
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Where the Barefoot Kicker Came From
Barefoot kicking was never a circus act. In the 1970s and 1980s, kickers like Tony Franklin and Rich Karlis built real careers kicking field goals with their kicking foot bare — often wearing a normal shoe on the plant foot and nothing on the swing foot. Franklin made it famous in college and carried it into the pros, and Karlis kept it alive in Denver for years.
Understand why they did it. This was the tail end of the straight-on era, when a lot of contact still happened toe-first through a stiff, heavy leather shoe. Those old cleats were blunt instruments. Taking the shoe off gave a kicker more feel for exactly where the foot met the ball — and at a time when kicking shoes were basically work boots, that trade made sense.
The full story of how kicking technique evolved from that era to today is its own rabbit hole. I put the whole timeline in the history of kicking and punting post, because once you see the arc, barefoot stops looking weird and starts looking like a stepping stone.
The Physics Argument, Taken Seriously
Strip away the nostalgia and the barefoot case is actually about contact. The ball has no idea what is on your foot. It only knows what hits it: how much surface, at what speed, through how much material, in what direction. Bare skin gives you the cleanest possible feedback loop. You feel the exact square inch where bone meets ball, and you know instantly whether you hit the sweet spot or rolled off it.
That is a real advantage — for learning. Contact is the one skill that touches every kick you take, and it is the subject of the ball contact fundamentals I coach first with any new kicker. When I work on contact, feel is everything. If you want to know what your contact is telling you, watch this before you read another word.
Now the counterargument, and it is stronger. A modern soccer-style kicking shoe is already thin. The instep contact point sits on a hard bony ridge where a light synthetic shoe adds almost nothing between you and the ball. So the “feel” advantage of going barefoot shrinks to almost nothing at game speed — while the costs stay the same or get worse.
Why the Style Disappeared
Three reasons, in order of importance:
- Soccer-style took over. Once the instep became the contact point, the big blunt toe-barrier problem solved itself. You did not need to remove the shoe to clean up contact.
- Conditions punish bare feet. Frozen turf, wet grass, field turf burns, a snapped kick off a hard ground ball — a bare kicking foot takes every hit with no protection and less grip.
- Consistency wins jobs. Coaches do not pick the coolest setup. They pick the one that produces the same ball flight in week 10 as it did in week 1. Cleats, same cleats, every kick, is a consistency decision.
The Trade-Off, Side by Side
| Barefoot | Cleated (kicking shoe) | |
|---|---|---|
| Contact feel | Maximum — raw feedback | Very good with modern thin shoes |
| Protection | None | Covers toes and instep |
| Traction on the swing | Variable, surface-dependent | Consistent |
| Cold and wet weather | Gets ugly fast | Manageable |
| Game-day repeatability | Low | High |
Where Barefoot Work Still Makes Sense
Here is how I would actually use it. Short contact reps, low intensity, on soft grass or turf. Take the shoe off for ten slow kicks off a low tee in the backyard. Half speed. Your only job is to notice the exact spot the ball leaves your foot and the sound it makes when it is clean. Then put the cleats back on and try to recreate that same sound. The barefoot session is a diagnostic, not a workout.
If you do this, keep the volume low and stay off hard ground. A bruised instep in week two of practice is a terrible trade for a feel drill. And never make barefoot distance kicks a flex — full-speed barefoot swings off hard turf is how ankles and foot bones get hurt for no reason.
If you want a middle ground for backyard contact work, a minimal or barefoot-style training shoe gives you most of the feel with a little protection. You can find options on Amazon — just treat them as practice tools, not game cleats. Your game cleats are a separate decision, and they matter more than any of this.
If you are not sure which part of the foot you should be chasing in the first place, this clears it up fast.
The Real Lesson Barefoot Kickers Left Us
Every good idea in barefoot kicking reduces to one sentence: know exactly what part of your foot is touching the ball. That is it. The shoe was never the point — the awareness was. If you can tell me, after every kick, whether you hit the bone on the sweet spot or smothered it with the arch, you are ahead of most kickers your age.
This is also the fastest path to fixing shanks and spin problems, because almost every weird ball flight is a contact problem wearing a costume. If your contact wanders between sessions, the foot-to-ball consistency guide is the first fix to make. And if that hit home, work through the foot-to-ball contact deep dive next — it is the full anatomy of those four square inches, with wall drills and tee drills to train them.
So: should anyone still kick barefoot? Games, no. Ten deliberate barefoot contact reps a week on soft grass, absolutely — as long as you treat it as a feedback drill and not a personality. Your cleats kick the field goal. Your barefoot reps teach you what the cleats are doing.
