Square Toe Kicking Shoe
 

NFHS - Is a shoe with a square toe legal equipment? My thoughts are that it is not, but I cannot find were it is specfically prohibited by rule.

If it's not prohibited by rule then it's fine and legal. You answered the question yourself.

It is legal. I kicked with it myself back in the day.

Me too. We would score. I would run halfway to the bench while taking off my shoe. The manager would throw the steel toe shoe out at me and I'd put it on, lace it up, and then go and barely clear the crossbar. I still don't understand the physics behind soccer style kicking but it sure is better than the physics that I applied.

The same shoe right??? :D There are only about 25 of these things left in the world and they just keep getting passed around.

Kicking straight on does have some advantages over soccer-style kicking. It is more natural as if you put a ball in front of any three year old kid he will kick it with his toes and not the side of his foot. So the technique is much more natural. The spot on the ball where the foot contacts is the same but the area on the foot is much smaller than in soccer-style. Also soccer-style kicking has the advantage of a bigger hip turn. This provides more leverage and foot speed. So soccer-style kicking has a larger contact area with more speed. This results in much better height and distance from soccer-style kicking. Then, of course, there are different styles of soccer-style kicking which have their advantages and disadvantages. You have cantor which can develop a lot of power but the toe is more likely to drag the ground. Then there is wedge and modified wedge which are much more predictable but may be less powerful.