A toe punt (also known as a toe-poke, toe poker or a toe-ender[1]) is a method of kicking the ball in association football and occasionally in Australian rules football.[2] Unlike other methods of kicking, the toe punt uses the toe end of the boot rather than the instep or laces.[1][2]
Toe punts (known as "straight-on" or "straight-toe") were the predominant form of kicking for placekickers in gridiron-based forms of football until the 1960s. A special boot was used with a flat front surface, as using a toe kick with a regular shoe with a rounded or pointed toe could cause the ball to travel in an unpredictable direction. The introduction of instep kicking (known as the "soccer-style kick") to the game in the 1960s, along with a rule change in 1977 banning the special shoe (one of several rules introduced to curb the influence of kickers in the game), eventually led to the end of the use of toe kicks in American and Canadian football.
