Jump Rope

I recently came across a post from fellow blogger Hilda and read how she had 30 minutes jumping rope as part of her workout. The thought I had was would I count jumping rope as part of my workout? But then I was reminded that I use to jump rope when I boxed for 11 years and remembered why boxers would jump rope. We did it to improve speed, agility, balance, strength, power, and endurance. Then the thought came to me if the benefits were there for boxing then why not for multisport athletes? Today I dug out my jump rope and scheduled 10 minutes of jumping before my dumbbell workout with the exercise ball. I started my stop watch and started to jump. Two minutes went by and I'm thinking wow, how am I going to survive this for another eight minutes. After about 6 minutes I was sweating but holding onto the ropes. Eight minutes and I tell myself 2 minutes left I can do this. I finished the ten minutes and decided I will include this as part of today's workout.
I am considering to jump rope barefoot but from what I've read most websites state that you should not jump barefoot because the foot needs all the support and cushion a shoe gives while pounding the lower legs. But I'm not sure if I believe all that because I land light and on the balls of my feet. I think 1 to 2 minutes barefoot would actually strengthen the many muscles in my foot that would otherwise not get a chance when shod in a shoe. I do plan on adding 2 to 3 days a week of jumping rope to my regular workout schedule for a few months.