Finding the right pair of goalkeeper gloves in my view is a never ending journey for goalkeepers. Here’s why I say that, even if you find a pair that you absolutely love there’s a good chance that the exact model is not going to be showing up in stores in the next 3 or 4 years. If you happen to like a glove that wasn’t successful on the market in general by 2 years or less you could be out of luck. The manufacturer is just not going to keep making it. With that in mind, it’s super important to answer the question of what are good goalkeeper gloves. In my mind this truly is a question that you have to find your own answer to. It’s kind of like the meaning of life for goalkeepers.
Of course, I’m not going to stop there, I want to help you on this quest to find out what are good goalkeeper gloves for you. What I feel each goalkeeper has to do is take different characteristics of the gloves that are on the market and figure out what works best for them. When you know that you like thin or thick gloves, with a specific cut, that have a particular type of wrist strap it’s easier to go out and find the new model that you’re going to enjoy. To me those details about gloves and how they match with what you’re looking for is the true answer to what are good goalkeeper gloves. Yes this is a philosophical goalkeeping pro article, let’s dive right in!
Thick or Thin Goalkeeper Gloves What Works Best For You?
If I have to die alone on this hill, I will, this is a topic that keeps coming up on the site because it’s an issue that I’ve discussed with colleagues, and we who are in the goalkeeping community tend to agree. The newer models of slim fit gloves that fit like a sock on your hand which Nike has made really popular can’t be a good option for everyone. Don’t get me wrong, those gloves provide a better feel for the ball and for some goalkeepers that’s vital to be able to make clean catches. In my view though, and that of most of the people that I’ve talked to with regards to what are good goalkeeper gloves you need a balance.
When the glove is too thin what you’re missing out on is that reduction of the impact on a hard shot. Yes, on a thicker glove your hands can feel a lot more bulky and it can be hard to be able to position them right to be able to make clean catches. That’s why I’m saying that for most people the balance should be found somewhere in the middle. For the parents of younger goalkeepers thicker gloves are typically going to be better. At the youth level particularly at very young ages you need a glove that is going to help you minimize the impact from a shot more than you need the freedom to move your fingers a lot.
What Are Good Goalkeeper Gloves – How Long Should They Last?
There’s a whole article on this on the site, but I do feel that the focus in this particular situation is a bit different. Still, it’s important to point out that although the quality of the glove that you have is going to be a determining factor in how long it lasts, so is usage rate and care. If you use your gloves a lot, you really can’t spare too much time for care actually. For example, if you’re training on a daily basis the gloves that you use for training could wear out in anywhere from 1 to 3 months. Where you train is definitely going to play a role in this as well. If you train on perfect green grass every single day, 3 months is a great time table.
For people who use them less and actually have more time to put into their glove care 6 months or the entirety of a season is a realistic time table. I’m talking about literally game gloves that you use only for games and nothing else. If you’re going to have game gloves only then you should be taking the time to wash them accordingly, dry them accordingly and virtually keep them in a decent shape. If you do that, and you use the gloves once a week they should totally last longer. If you get to the end of the season and the gloves are still in good condition after only being taken out on weekends that’s a great situation to be in. Again there are plenty out there that could last longer.
What Are Good Goalkeeper Gloves – With or Without Finger Protection
I’ve recently had to go out and buy goalkeeper gloves with finger protection. If you’ve read through some of the other articles on the site, you’ll know that this is not something that I like to do. Some of the newer versions of goalkeeper gloves with finger protection actually have fixed that sense that you can’t move your hand that much when you wear these types of gloves. Am I now saying that you should go get them? Not exactly, in my experience the upgrade made these types of gloves lose that sense of protection that you got with the hard spines. Since I was looking for a solution to deal with an injury they didn’t quite cut it for me.
Having said all of this, I understand that there is value to goalkeeper gloves with finger protection. I did end up buying a pair which was a very traditional model with hard spines to help me cope with the injury. The way that I see it, if I’m saying that parents with young kids should go ahead and look into thicker gloves it may also make sense to look into goalkeeper gloves with finger protection. For my taste the limit movement way too much. In a way that you won’t have even with the thickest glove out there. I still prefer gloves without finger protection, as do most high level goalkeepers that I know. In what are good goalkeeper gloves though, both can serve a purpose for sure.
Finding The Right Type of Grip That You Need
Most of the glove manufacturers out there have gone to make their gloves sticky. The answer to what are good goalkeeper gloves is now good goalkeeper gloves are sticky? I have an article on that because we can’t deny the fact that it’s certainly preferable to have gloves that the ball sticks to than it is to always have to rely on your technique. Although, I would certainly recommend still putting in the work to improve your technique at all times. In any case, while it’s preferable to have sticky gloves with most brands this isn’t something that is sustainable. Sure the gloves are going to be super sticky when they are brand new, but you sometimes can’t count on that lasting a whole lot. There are ways that you can make the gloves sticky or stickier even when they have a few games or practices under their belt.
That just proves the point though that it’s typically a better idea to find grip that you’re comfortable with within your technique and then just go in and find ways to make those gloves stickier. That would make more sense to me than just to go out and buy gloves because they are sticky to begin with. Just to recap grip should be more related to the thickness and the cut of the glove than to how sticky the gloves are. You can make gloves stickier. What you can’t do is go on ahead and change the entire complexity of the glove. That would be at least a lot harder to do, so look for a grip that allows you to get some natural grip.
What Are Good Goalkeeper Gloves Do Brands Play A Role In The Decision?
I could go out on a limb here and say no brands shouldn’t necessarily be a determining factor in what are good goalkeeper gloves. The thing is, brands with the most experience in the market usually are the ones that end up putting forth the best gloves. There is a bit of an issue with this though, you have brands like Nike who are constantly pushing the envelope when it comes to design and they are trying to put out the prettiest option on the market all of the time. More often than not when you break the glove down you realize they are actually not good gloves. They look real cool, and all, but they don’t provide the safety levels that you want from a glove in fingers, and wrists, and grip levels can also be subpar.
With that in mind, I do think that it’s fair to say that one of the things you never want to be caught getting into is brand bais. People who don’t have a strong goalkeeping background will tend to gravitate towards Nike or Addidas because it’s the brands that they know and usually they’ll have better distribution channels. Even if they don’t offer the best gloves out there. Now, the same thing goes for people with a strong goalkeeping background we’re going to gravitate towards the old school goalkeeper brands without a guarantee that they’ve built the best products this season. Brands shouldn’t determine which is the best glove.
Wrist Straps What You Like or Don’t Like
Even if I’ve tried to make the effort to not make the answer to everything on this article, “find the middle ground”. It’s shaping out to be that way, except for when it comes to wrist straps. Really with wrist straps you want to be on either side of the spectrum, they have to be really loose because you wear tape on your hands that can make the area bulky. If you’re one of those people who doesn’t wear tape on their hands then you should look into gloves that feature tighter straps. That’s the best way I can put it, and it’s truly not all that arguable, at least I don’t believe it is.
If you’re going to tape your wrists why would you want a strap that’s going to make things even tighter? I guess there are goalkeepers out there that love to come home to huge red marks on their hands after the game. However, cutting off blood flow to the part of your body that is arguably most essential to goalkeeping doesn’t seem like something that’s going to help you maximize your performance. So just make things simple here when picking your goalkeeper gloves. If you like to wear tape and strap your wrists in that manner go with gloves with softer strap mechanisms. If you don’t like to do that then maybe you’ll need the strap to provide that extra protection.
What Are Good Goalkeeper Gloves Conclusion
Most of the goalkeeper glove brands that are dedicated mainly towards producing goalkeeper equipment, (Reusch, Uhlsport, and company) tend to do a good job when it comes to offering variety in their products. What I mean by that is that you’re going to be able to find completely different types of gloves from each brand that can cater to the needs of different goalkeepers. On the other hand, Nike, Adidas, and all of the other brands that make gloves tend to want to set a trend. I would say that a lot of times in trying to set a trend they don’t necessarily have the goalkeepers’ best interest in mind. That criticism is certainly geared more towards Nike goalkeeper gloves.
In any case, when it comes to determining what are good goalkeeper gloves that ends up being such a personal decision. What you should do is create a list of the elements that are important to you, so that from there you’ll be able to look for gloves that match your criteria. Otherwise you may end up just getting what’s cheap or what’s popular and there’s some real danger to doing that. If you get gloves that don’t favor you, you may have a higher injury risk.
