In the early 2000s, Adidas took the goalkeeping world by storm by releasing their Fingersave gloves. These were the firsrt modern goalkeeper gloves with finger protection. Originally what these gloves featured was a small metal rod on the backhand of the glove where your fingers go. The idea was that the harder surface was going to prevent a hard shot from bending your fingers. Pretty soon Nike took out a glove model called the Wired glove. This model didn’t really take off, I had a version of these and of course multiple Fingersave gloves over the years. The idea was that not only would these gloves prevent hard shots from finding the back of the net, they would also help prevent finger injuries.
These days pretty much all of the glove manufacturers out there have at least one glove model that will feature some type of harder exterior part of the glove. The idea is still the same. What these types of gloves are supposed to do is help you contain harder shots and protect your fingers. If you know anything about goalkeeping you know that this feature, while still relatively common in the industry, has not taken over the goalkeeping world. Why is that? We are going to explore whether or not you should look into getting gloves with extra finger protection.
Do Goalkeeper Gloves With Finger Protection Work?
The first thing that we need to figure out is whether or not these types of gloves will be able to deliver on their promises. Could you say that when wearing these gloves you are going to feel safer in goal, both against injury or a blast from the opposition’s top striker? If you look into the options from some of the top brands it’s safe to say that you do feel the difference. Once you put on the glove you can tell that you are wearing a harder frame on your fingers. That’s not always a great thing, but we’ll get to that later. With a harder frame naturally, it’s going to be more difficult for a hard shot to bend your fingers. Especially, if we are looking at the youth game.
Could we say that the use of these gloves is going to limit the number of injuries, specifically broken fingers? There is a good chance that you could limit the number of finger injuries. Some of the earlier models though had some issues with wrist injuries. You had the ball coming in with a considerable amount of force, and the gloves helping out the fingers, but that sometimes caused you as a goalkeeper to feel the pressure on your wrist. It was a little bit lit to pick your poison at times.
Some of the finger injuries that you see people have in daily life are not due to major accidents. Especially in goalkeeping if you don’t put your hands in the right position you’re going to be at risk of injuring yourself. If you’ve ever played basketball you know this. The ball is usually a bit harder, and some of the finger issues are more on loose balls where the ball will rotate awkwardly. More than on hard shots, where you are typically better-prepared technique-wise to be able to handle the ball.
What Type of Benefits Can You Expect To See In Wearing Them?
The first thing that you are going to notice when putting on gloves with extra protection is that obviously your fingers feel a little bit heavier than they typically would. This can limit your movement. If you were to pull back on your finger while wearing these gloves, you won’t be able to reach the same point as you would with other gloves or your bare hands. The obvious benefit that you get from this is that your fingers won’t bend as easily on hard shots. As was mentioned before, this is something that is very beneficial to young goalkeepers. You have to develop your forearms though to not have to rely on the glove later on.
The other benefit that many people point to is that your fingers over time will take less wear and tear with these types of gloves. If you’ve ever seen the hands of a very old school keeper you know what this means. The guys that played in the ’60s and ’70s certainly did not have anything that even resembled a modern glove to fall back on. A lot of these old-timers have some of the creepiest looking hands that you’re ever going to see. With some of the modern gloves, your hands are typically not going to take a major pounding anyway. Whether you happen to be wearing gloves with finger protection or not.
Is There A Downside To Wearing These Types of Gloves?
In just my path from the youth game to the pro ranks, there is one thing I could say, I can’t recall any teammate of mine or other players consistently wearing these types of gloves. Especially as you move up into the pro game. Now, that doesn’t mean that because the pros don’t wear it you need to cross these types of gloves off your list. Why don’t people wear them though? Well, one of the things that I personally never liked was that I didn’t have fluid movements with my hands when wearing these types of gloves. You feel like you can’t completely close your hand when wearing these types of gloves. Punching the ball out should be something that is easier to do with heavier gloves, and at times it isn’t.
At times the extra protection can make you feel like you have a very robotic hand. That for a lot of players is something that in their eyes messes with their technique. When it comes to any type of gear from gloves to cleats, to shin guards or anything extra that you want to wear the bottom line is that you have to feel comfortable with it. Another negative experience that I had with one of these gloves is that they were heavy and tight on my fingers. I was uncomfortable while wearing them at all times. That’s obviously not ideal, and something like this can frustrate kids and pros alike.
What To Do If You Want To Get A Feel For These Types of Gloves
These days there are glove models out there that you can find with detachable finger protection. If you are looking to see whether or not you can grow accustomed to wearing gloves with finger protection you should definitely look into these types of models. If you want to ditch the extra protection you can remove it and then continue to use the gloves without protection for the rest of their reasonable lifespan. For those growing up without these types of models, if you bought a fingersave model and you didn’t feel comfortable, you would have to ditch it and that would be money not smartly spent by dad!
Are those detachable finger protections going to give you the true glove with protection experience? Yes, when you put the protections in the sleeves correctly detachable options can give you the full experience if you will. What is important to point out though, is that you need to make sure that when you’re using detachable protections you adjust to the glove accordingly. If you have loose protection or things like that, it again can make things very uncomfortable. When you are not comfortable wearing something the “benefits” that you are supposed to get from that certainly fall by the wayside.
Which Brands Have The Best Goalkeeper Gloves With Finger Protection?
There are two brands that certainly stand out for me when it comes to these types of gloves. That’s not to say that other brands are not good. The perfect example for me of a brand that makes great all-around gloves, but I wouldn’t look for gloves with finger protection is Reusch. The look and feel of their finger protection gloves is very similar to the overly stiff Fingersaver that flooded the market in the early 2000s. Adidas has certainly evolved from those stiff first attempts. Now you have for example the Predator Fingersave gloves that allow you to have much more movement while wearing the gloves. That’s certainly the main reason why most pros have shied away from this type of glove.
The second brand that I would recommend is Uhlsport. They’ve really put in the time to be able to create a product that does cater to some of the things that goalkeepers wanted out of this type of glove. These are the same aspects that we’ve been talking about. You want that extra protection sure, what you don’t want is to feel that you’re losing mobility to gain that extra protection. That’s the bottom line, most keepers will tell you they’d rather feel comfortable than add a layer protection anywhere. That’s why you don’t see a lot of knee pads or helmets in the pro game.
If you are someone who is starting out or a parent of a kid who is starting out you may be looking at some of the options that we’ve talked about thinking that the investment is pretty steep. The fact is, high-quality goalkeeper gloves are expensive. There are not many ways around that. That doesn’t mean that you can’t find a budget deal. Especially if you’re looking to see if these types of gloves are going to be a good fit for you, or even if you or your kid are going to stay in goal for the long run.
You could look into Rinat, gloves their top tier options, are not a huge upgrade from their lower tier. What I mean by that, is that I would not buy a 100 dollars pair of gloves from them. The goalkeeper gloves with finger protection that they have at around 35 dollars though, can be a great fit on a budget.
Should You Switch To Goalkeeper Gloves With Finger Protection?
From experience, most people look into adding extra protection to their gear when they have something happen to them. If you are someone who has been in goalkeeping for a while and you’ve done fine with gloves without extra protection there is really no reason to change. Most goalkeepers want to be wearing gloves that they can feel 100% comfortable. For many of those goalkeepers, there is a bit of a learning curve, or adaptation period if you will, to these types of gloves. If you’re fine just the way that you are with your regular gloves, there is really no need to push for the switch.
I remember when some of the first gloves with finger protection came out, I was maybe 10 or 11 when they started being popular. Still, at that age, it was common that hard shots would bend my fingers and reach the back of the net. Therefore, the added protection was something that seemed like an amazing upgrade. Looking back, I was really never able to fully adjust to these types of gloves. If you were to keep at it from an early age, you could get the long term benefits from wearing these types of gloves. Again, it’s probably not something that you should be rushing towards though. Find what feels comfortable and that’s more likely to be the better option.
Do They Really Bring Tangible Benefits?
The real answer to this question probably should be, depending on who you ask. I think there’s a reason why these types of gloves have not become completely industry standard. When they came out they were certainly an innovative product. Virtually all glove manufacturers under the sun have some type of product line that features extra protection gloves. Yet, it hasn’t been a trend that displaced the old way of doing things. Actually, the top-selling gloves these days don’t feature extra protection.
If you are concerned about your fingers, or your kid’s fingers for that matter, training and technique is where the focus should be. Knowing how to approach an upcoming shot is much more important than the type of gloves that you’re wearing. All over the world, you see kids and even grown-ups in Sunday leagues with a terrible technique that could be more to blame in the case of injury instead of the type of glove that they’re wearing. Goalkeeper gloves with finger protection could provide some extra help though!
