Rugby Question?

Question

Im a 17 year old boy(in America) and im on the rugby team at skool. when i was little i used to run on sand, gravel, and grass barefoot so I have natural callouses under my feet(the bottom of my feet are like literally as hard as rock).

So today at practice, I forgot my cleats so i decided to play barefoot even though the coach thought i was insane lol. And I play wing forward(flanker) so sometimes i would have to kick the ball down field if i didnt have any support.

when i got back home, i noticed the tops of both my feet had eggplant purple bruises, but i didnt even feel them or notice them since my feet have the rock hard callouses. it was my mom who pointed them out with a deep gasp lol.

so I have practice tomorrow too. should I keep kicking? I feel absolutely no pain at all, theres just 1 big purple lump on each of my feet.

Thanks!

Answer 1

I'm a full-time barefooter and believe playing many sports barefoot is quite a good thing, but I have no experience with sports where you kick using the top of your foot.

Generally, I advise people who want to play barefoot sports to switch to going barefoot gradually, either taking it slow with the sports or wearing shoes part of the time during the transition period if you're into heavy training. That way you give your body time to adjust, to build up calluses, to increase padding, etc, etc. I would assume that with the top of the foot it's not that much different than with the soles. If you enjoy playing barefoot try it for some time, but if you practice daily maybe you can try alternate days barefoot/shod for a while and see if your feet toughen up for this kind of thing too?

I do remember reading about barefoot kickers in the NFL when sports were discussed on barefoot forums but since I'm not into rugby I didn't pay that close attention, I'm not sure if it's just toughening of the foot or whether they also used a different technique. I hope a football fan can help you further!