Since two years I play recreational badminton on bare feet and I am wondering if there are more barefeeted players around. For me, it works out very good. The major advantage is that I, as a 48 year old, no longer have to fear for nasty injuries as sprains of the ankles or a rupture of the achilles. Ten years ago, the latter happened to me and I do'nt want to repeat that performance. An other advantage of playing barefoot is the much greater speed then with shoes on. The first year i had to get used, such as aches after a playing an evening, but the feet became stronger and will now play flawlessly. To avoid slipping I dep at the beginning of the play-evening my soles with MgCO3, the stuff that is used for climbing walls for better grip. There it's also available. The social aspect is for me no problem. After a few surprised comments at the beginning, my bare feet are now fully accepted by my teammates. They also see that I've become much faster. I never had blisters, but that's maybe because I also do barefoot running and my feet get a lot of practice. What do you think of barefoot badminton? I think it will prevent a lot of injuries in this reactive sport.
In general, doing things barefoot for is better for you. Of course, this assumes healthy bmi, good bone health and muscle development, etc. However, most people aren't used to this, and if they try to do too much, they can actually injure themselves. Also, doing things barefoot will hurt a LOT at the beginning because for most of us, our feet are pampered by things like house slippers, socks, and shoes, which is a big turnoff to many. I support bare feet sports, assuming good foot hygiene, safe areas to do start doing it on, and no one nearby is wearing cleats, like for say soccer.
I have been wanting to try playing barefoot or at least wearing my "Vibram fivefinger" which really close to being barefoot and since I am playing with a carpeted floor, it will be less impact on my feet. I remembered when I tried to do barefoot running for the 1st time, my achilles tendon was really sore. Since then, I've been doing most of my workouts (P90X, Insanity) barefooted. It is sad that so many people were against barefoot, thinking you might get injured when doing it (a week sore and some blisters that is very natural) which is really incorrect except for some sports like basketball especially if you were playing it on a concrete floor.
It is probably ok to play recreational badminton barefoot. However, I can't imagine all those good footwork moves (lunges etc) without shoes. I also think you can easily break your toes and roll your ankles if you play barefoot.
Believe me you actually roll your ankle more when you re wearing shoe. What's the most common accident when you got sprain ankle? the bottom part of your shoe rolled and your ankle got dragged along with the shoe. Basketball shoe tried to prevent this by making the side high ala boots, but it will still happen because the outsole and insole is so freaking thick. Of course, playing barefoot on international level won't ever happened and not recommended, worse is you probably going to have a pretty thick blisters just like your plam from playing badminton too much xD. For that, I always looking for badminton shoe that is not thick (outsole and insole) and very low to the ground. SHB 98, SHB 91 and 92 is pretty low to the ground, without any gimmicky wave pattern insole, lateral claw, etc and I've been using my SHB 91 (green) without any injuries for a year or so and I do jumping smashes a lot.
played yesterday in bare feet for outdoor. it was better than using tennis/running type shoes and my movements were much quicker. I'd worry about sweat causing my partner or I to slip on a wood floor
I run up to 5km barefoot and minimalist (VFF/KSO) for longer distances but I cannot imagine playing badminton barefoot. I do not think the feet is designed to absorb the shock from heel landings from rather frequent forward lunges. There is also too much changes in direction that I am certain blistering will be a huge problem like you said. Barefoot running is different in that it encourages better running form. Afterall, running is an ancient activity that the human body had evolved around but badminton and basketball are a very recent development.
