This is an article that I feel is going to be geared more towards parents. Even to this day my mom gets concerned when she hears that I got nicked up in a game, and I’m 30 years old so, I would imagine that the concern for younger kids is even greater. Obviously if you’re a goalkeeper yourself, and there are certain parts of your body where you feel that you need a little extra padding this is also a piece that you’re going to want to read. The first thing that I want to get out there is that there are a ton of different pads out there. For example, if you look for knee pads you’ll get a ton of options to choose from. Not all of the options that are out there are going to be suitable for a soccer goalie to wear.
Especially if search the term goalie you could get relevant results for hockey goalies and what they were is completely different to what we wear. With this in mind what I want to do is go through all of the different soccer goalie pads that you could potentially look to wear. From there I’m going to provide some tips about how the pads should fit, and the type of pads that you should be looking for as a soccer goalie. This to ensure that you don’t arrive at the field with hard knee pads that are better suited for a baseball catcher or a hockey goalie to your next game or practice. Now that you know what to expect let’s get going!
Flexible Knee & Elbow Pads
A lot of us that grew up in another era of goalkeeping really didn’t grow up accustomed to wearing pads. Which is a bit weird because in the early days of goalkeeping they did in fact wear knee pads to play. The problem when I was growing up is that the knee and elbow pads that were available were better suited for skateboarding or something like this. What happened was that wearing those types of hard pads really limited your joint mobility.
That’s not something that you want as a goalkeeper, and it’s really where the struggle with soccer goalie pads lies with many of us. That being said modern knee and elbow pads allow goalkeepers to no lose as much mobility because of the materials that these pads are made out of. If you’re keen on wearing knee or elbow pads as a goalkeeper make sure that you look for the pads that are made from neoprene or any softer type of material. I’m not sure at this point exactly what type of materials are being used in the elaboration of these pads at this point.
However, I do know it’s usually a black pad that allows you to move your knees more naturally than you would with some of the harder pads that are used in other sports. For example, even softer knee pads that are traditionally used for volley ball were a bit too big to be soccer goalie pads. The problem with pads that are too big for you is that they could limit your movements and end up falling off or protecting the wrong parts of your body. Also for younger kids they can be too heavy to carry for their own bodies. That’s going to make them get tired faster, and their performance is going to dip.
Pads On Pants on Jerseys
This is a topic that I’ve talked about a lot on the site. A lot of goalkeeper equipment is going to feature pads right on the clothing. At times though these pads are not going to be as effective as you want them to be. As is the case with any padding that you wear you want the clothes to fit just right to make sure that the pad is going to cover the part of your body that you want it to cover.
These days for example goalkeeper pants feature pretty effective knee pads. Particularly if the pants fit tight enough to ensure that the pad is going to be on your knee at all times. It’s a very delicate balance though. You want to make sure that the pants fit tight enough for the pad to stay in place, but not too tight to where it’s limiting your movement.
The knee pads on pants have certainly become a lot more efficient than they were in years past. I don’t think that the same could be said about the pads on jerseys. That may be my own fault though. I have a tendency to roll up my arm sleeves as a bit of a nervous tick, particularly when the ball is near my goal. That’s literally the worst thing that you can do because it means that you’re removing the protection from where it needs to be. Technically though if you find a good jersey, pants combo you could be fine, and not need extra padding. At least not in the elbows or the knees.
What Type of Helmets Work Best For A Soccer Goalie?
Soccer goalie pads could certainly include helmets. There are people that may debate this, but it’s my article, and I’m going to include helmets! There are currently two main types of helmets that soccer goalies use. One is a crown like helmet that you just kind of slide on. It features pads on the contour of your head that it covers. We see someone who is not a goalkeeper, but has had trouble with head injuries like Raul Jimenez wearing this type of protection. His is custom made to feature extra padding in the part of his head where his skull is weakest. Most options that are available for everyone are actually padded virtually equally throughout the entire area of the head that the “helmet” covers.
The other option that’s out there is more of a full helmet very similar to the ones that we see Rugby players wear. This type of helmet features padding that can cover the entire skull area. Which of the two options works best? I’d have to say that the full helmet obviously is the one that’s going to offer better protection. Just because it covers a larger area. If you have a very specific issue that you want to address though you may gravitate towards the crown type helmet. When I had a severe head injury I went with the crown helmet just because it was less itchy and uncomfortable for me than the full rugby option.
Undershirts With Pads Yes or No
There’s an interesting debate around these. For the most part the ones that are out there are meant to be worn for playing American football. They seemingly feature pads everywhere. These days though different brands have come up with their own designs. Some of them feature protection particularly in the rib area. For me, I feel if you can find something that protects more your waist area than the ribs you’re going to be better off. Typically, your waist area can take a lot of damage in training and games. Although proper technique dictates that your thighs should be the first thing to hit the ground when you dive, precisely so that you don’t have any hip issues or knee issues for that matter, that’s not always going to be the case.
Particularly if you’re diving to a low ball. The reality is that you’re trying to get your body down, and you want to almost skid through the grass like a rock through water. When that happens you end up with plenty of scrapes, bumps and bruises around the waist area. If you can find an undershirt that can cover that part of your body that’s an interesting find. Obviously you don’t want to get kicked in the ribs that’s no fun. Unless you have a rib issue already though it’s probably an area that you don’t need to worry too much about. Most of the issues that you’re going to come across don’t affect that part of your body. Do fluke plays exist where you can hurt your ribs? Yes, but if you want to be prepared for any freak situation then you’d have to wrap yourself in bubble wrap in goal.
Why You Don’t Want To Wear Any Type of Hard Pads
I’ve mentioned with most pads, particularly any external pads in the knees, and elbows, as well as the helmets you don’t want to wear anything that’s too hard. There are actually a couple of reasons for that. Number one is that in a game the ref could force you to take off the pads or leave the field if he deems that something that you’re wearing could be detrimental to the other players. So for example, that’s why hard helmets are going to be completely off the table in soccer forever. Because it would be unfair to have someone wearing a hard helmet with the other players not having that same advantage.
If everyone wore hard helmets then it would be hard to control the ball coming off your head as a player. They don’t make sense for the game at any level. When it comes to things like knee pads the weight of the pads could be an issue for you after standing out there between the sticks for 90 minutes even if the ref allows it. Also, technically soccer fields are not meant to be as hard as concrete. So you should be more or less ok with some of the softer pads. Although I would acknowledge that at least in some of the fields I’ve played in I do wish I had used more padding.
Do You Need To Wear Any Soccer Goalie Pads?
If you currently don’t have any extra padding as part of your outfit is this something that you need to go out and get right now? I would say it depends. If you’re here there is a chance that there’s a part of your body that’s aching a little more than you’d like it to. A lot of these extra pads don’t have to be overly expensive. If I’m being honest some are. There’s not necessarily any harm though in tweaking your regular outfit to feature a couple of extra pads here and there.
As I’ve grown older I realize that some of the things that I would not even think about before now hurt for a lot longer. It’s quite normal then that as you get older you want to protect yourself a little more. Also, if you’re recently having to play on a particular rough field that’s another instance where you could think about adding some padding. There’s no harm in that. For me, it’s always been a debate though on mobility and how much of it I’m willing to maybe compromise. Thankfully with some of the new things that are out there these days you’re not giving up too much, and you could feel a lot more protected. At the same time if you are fine playing in shorts and a T-shirt with no pads, that’s fine too. Again if you’ve reached this point I completely doubt that’s you!
