If you’ve ever bought goalkeeper gloves, you’ll know that a lot of the packaging comes with a glove size chart. What glove manufacturers want you to do is to literally put your hand in a certain spot, and then you’ll find the right size glove for you. When it comes to goalkeeper gloves size, are you really going to find it accurately this way? From experience, I would say probably not. This is mainly because goalkeeper gloves are like shoes. They have those sizing charts too, but yet many people still spend hours on end trying different sizes, to see what fits best! It’s really important to be able to reach a comfort level with a glove that suits you.
Do those sizing charts help you at all? I would say so, if you do it properly you may find that your ideal size is between an 8 and 9. Your size from there could vary depending on the type of glove that you buy. Even though different glove models have different sizing charts that they go by, very rarely are you going to go from an 8 size glove in one brand to a 10 in another. For most goalkeepers, your size is going to be within a two-size range. Do you really need the sizing chart to find your goalkeeper gloves’ size range? Well, that depends on where you may be in your goalkeeping career. On this page, I want to tackle a couple of myths about goalkeeper gloves. Particularly when it comes to the youth game. If you’re a bit older, your size is not going to change. When you’re young, finding the ideal goalkeeper gloves size can be a challenge for sure!
How Do You Want Your Glove To Fit?
This is something that I’ve covered in another article. It’s obviously relevant here, though. I actually have a personal struggle with this. For most of my career, I used a glove size that fit very tight. A couple of years ago I actually shifted to a size above that, and I’ve had a ton of trouble finding the middle ground. What it has allowed me to do is get a better idea of exactly what happens when you don’t find the right fit for your glove! Since I’m a part of this fit struggle, I can talk about what happens on both ends of the spectrum.
Goalkeeper Gloves Size That Fit Too Tight
Usually, there are going to be two numbers in goalkeeper gloves size that you’re dealing with. As I mentioned above, if you wear a 10 regularly an 8 is probably going to be out of the question. Depending on how different models fit, maybe a size 9 or a size 11 could be a good option. In most cases, though, if you’re size 10, and you wear a size nine glove, what’s going to happen is that your fingers are more likely to bend on impact. Particularly if you reach the ball with just the tip of your fingers! In these cases, your fingers are going to bend from the direct impact of the ball and that’s going to hurt quite a bit and can lead to broken fingers.
Goalkeeper Gloves Size That Fit Too Loose
Bending your fingers and breaking them is still a possibility with looser gloves as well. In fact, even if you find a sweet spot between goalkeeper gloves sizes, that doesn’t mean you’re protected from injuries forever and ever. We’ll get to that, though. When we are dealing with gloves that are too loose, you’re going to feel the impact of the shot more. Obviously, on hard shots. Your hand is going to move in the glove, and it can bend any which way. Trying to get good grip can also be a problem. You’re going to find that getting grip with loose gloves depends way more on the probability of the ball sticking to the glove because it has an awesome palm. Rather than your skill in being able to put your hands in the right position. This can sound like a good idea, but it’s really not.
Where Is The Sweet Spot?
This really depends on each goalkeeper. There are keepers for example that have strong bare hands. Oddly enough, many of them are going to feel more comfortable with looser gloves. One because if you have thicker hands, it’s always more comfortable to have more space on the glove. Also, thanks to the strong bare hands that you have, you’re going to be able to deal with some of the stronger shots without having your fingers or hands bend. That’s what logic could dictate, but maybe someone that’s reading this has strong hands and prefers a tighter glove because they feel they can rely more on their hand technique than a sticky glove palm. Hence, why I mention everything really depends on each keeper.
With thinner hands, you are going to be able to use some of those smaller size gloves and rely more on your catching technique to pluck balls out of the air than relying on the gloves themselves. As I mentioned before on the site, I fall into this category of thinner hands. It’s really a challenge because with tighter gloves when hard shots hit the tips of my fingers it hurts big time. With looser gloves, though, you feel hard shots in the morning. I have to ice those hands after tough games. Ideally, with thinner hands, you may want to look into taping your wrists and tapping your fingers. Then using looser gloves. That could help you deal with the impact and still have good mobility. Not feeling that your hand is like a claw or like that of a Lego doll!
Injuries Can Happen Even In The Sweet spot
All of the equipment that you can buy will potentially help avoid injuries. Yet, there are moments where injuries just can’t be avoided. Particularly, in this case, broken fingers. Finding the perfect goalkeeper gloves size is certainly going to help you feel much more confident wearing virtually any glove that you like. Freak accidents can happen, though. We’ve seen broken finger issues with even some of the top goalkeepers in the world. Why do these injuries happen? A lot of times you just have to chalk it down to bad luck, or even poor judgment on a given play. This is not something I’m saying to deter people from finding that ideal goalkeeper gloves size. Just want to point out that doing so isn’t going to save you from potential issues.
Having said this, I think there are certainly a lot of injuries that you will be able to avoid with the right size gloves. Taking that extra step for example to tape your fingers can also be a great way to avoid all sorts of injuries. The reason I’m saying injuries can happen is that when they do, you typically want to question all of the decisions that led up to the injury taking place. That’s not a bad idea. If something bad happens, you want to make sure that you avoid it the next time around. It’s pretty natural that you’ll ultimately question the size of your gloves. An injury though is not always the direct result of a particular mistake. Sometimes things just happen!
How Important Is Your Goalkeeper Gloves Size?
I just got done saying that finding the right size glove is not going to save you from every injury under the sun. So is it really something that you should be too worried about? As a goalkeeper or as virtually anything in life, you usually want to make sure that you’re able to make your life comfortable. When young players are developing, they are probably less likely to complain about the size of their gloves. It’s more as you get older, and you understand the difference that different sizes do make, that you get picky. Goalkeeper gloves size is probably not something that you should obsess over. A lot of times it ends up being a trial and error process. However, you shouldn’t stick to gloves that just don’t fit right.
As I said before, you want to make sure that you rely on technique and not the glove. If you have great catching technique, you’re going to see good performances even with gloves that aren’t an ideal fit for you. Basically, if you’re going to obsess about something, obsess about finding that perfect technique. That way, you pick up just about any gloves and be successful. The problem that a lot of people have is that they have poor technique, and they want to blame the glove. If you have poor technique, it’s going to be hard for you to make clean catches on a consistent basis, even with the most comfortable gloves out there. Yes, glove size is important, but it shouldn’t be something that is too much of a problem.
Pro Tip If Your Having Trouble Finding The Right Size
Are you having trouble finding the right size glove? Number one, you’re not alone! This happens to a lot of people. Mainly because glove sizes are very standard and a lot of times gloves manufacturers really only vary the length of the finger, and not really the width of the glove. That can cause all kinds of trouble. I’ve talked about the struggle of having thin hands on the site before. If you just can’t seem to find the right size for you, you may want to look into Uhlsport Gloves. They are one of the top brands when it comes to goalkeeper gloves. Therefore, there’s a good chance that you’ll be able to find a model that you like.
The reason why I’m making this recommendation is simple. They carry half sizes on almost all of their glove models. A lot of times you’re in that struggle where the size 9 glove is too tight, but the 10 size is way too loose. Most glove manufacturers are not going to carry a 9.5. Uhlsport is the only brand that I know for certain has been carrying half sizes on their gloves for years. With more sizing options, there is naturally a better chance of you finding exactly the glove that fits you. Plus, as I mentioned before, they are one of the top brands. So you can’t go that wrong with them.
Goalkeeper Gloves Size Conclusion
As with pretty much all goalkeeper gear that you can use, what you’re really looking for is to feel comfortable on the field. That’s why size is important in goalkeeper gloves. Even though the right size goalkeeper gloves may not save you from all injuries, you are more at risk when you’re not wearing the right size. Having said this, I feel it’s important to point out that you really don’t want to be giving kids gloves that are too big! Bent fingers and wrists are going to be way more common for kids that don’t have the right size glove. I’ve talked about this in other parts of the site, you really don’t want your kids to be growing into their equipment. Especially when it comes to gloves. If they are training on a regular basis, chances are the gloves are going to wear out before they outgrow them.
Remember that the glove cut can also make gloves feel different. So maybe you’re a size 9 for one brand, but a size 10 for another type of glove or another brand. There’s no governing body that makes brands be super strict about sizing. That’s why you can find that you’ll ultimately fluctuate quite a bit sometimes in sizes. Even if you’re at an age where your hands are not supposed to grow that much. Finally, also keep in mind that really the most important factor in performance is technique. The right size gloves are certainly going to help. New super sticky gloves can also be an aide. At the end of the day though, if you want to obsess about something, obsess about technique rather than finding the right size!
