What do goalkeepers wear under their gloves? If you’ve ever watched the end of a game on TV, one of the few times that the camera may go to the goalkeeper and they take off their gloves a lot of times they have something on their hands. For the most part, what they have is some form of tape or bandage on their hands. I’ve already done an article on why goalkeepers tape their fingers, but I always thought I didn’t really go into detail of how to do it the right way. Also, there are potentially other things that goalkeepers can have under their gloves. I want to go into some of those do’s and don’ts in my experience. I’ve tried a bit of everything in my career.
There are also goalkeepers out there that don’t necessarily wear anything under their gloves. There are tangible reasons for that as well. Most of them have to do with the type of glove that they wear. Therefore, if you want to tape your fingers, or wear something under the glove you may end up choosing looser gloves or even consider literally buying gloves that are one size too big so that it makes sense to wear something underneath. What I want to make sure that I can get across is that each technique can work if you apply it properly. If you’re going to wear something under your glove then make an effort to adjust your gloves or the type of bandage that you use to make yourself comfortable. If you’re not going to be wearing anything, wear gloves that allow you to do that.
What Do Goalkeepers Wear Under Their Gloves – Tape Works Best For What Type Of Issue?
So as I mentioned most of the times the answer to what do goalkeepers wear under their gloves, is either tape or bandages. Now, the type of “protection” that you decide to wear is certainly going to dictate the type of protection that you’re going to get. Tape is usually going to be something that is applied to the fingers directly. What you want a lot of times is to protect specific joints in your finger, this is a good idea particularly after an injury. Goalkeepers will suffer breaks usually in the finger joints and adding tape to these areas is a good way to essentially reinforce the area to help reduce the risk of injury. When you’re nursing an injury, change that to a risk of re-injury.
At times tape is also applied on the wrist area, and even the fingers without an injury risk. This can be a way to help you “fill out” the glove. Some goalkeepers don’t love to feel that their hand is too thin for the glove that they’re wearing. When you have thinner hands you are also going to be more at a risk of getting injured. What the tape does in these situations is really help grow that impact area in a sense. You won’t feel that your hand is too thin for the glove. Tape usually has to be applied pretty tight so that when you put your hand in the glove it doesn’t move out of place. You don’t want it too tight though to where you’re cutting blood flow to the area. That’s going to numb up your hand.
What Do Goalkeepers Wear Under Their Gloves – Bandages When Do They Make Sense
You could use bandages for some of the same things that tape is good for. In my experience though there are 2 reasons why someone would prefer bandages over tape. Number one is that they like the fact that some bandages stretch a bit more, and also that at times they can be reused. I never liked to reuse bandages just because they get really soggy with sweat and the next time that you put it on it’s not going to grip as tight. Anyway, the other reason is an actual thumb injury. With the bandages you can control more how you apply the bandages and do the wrapping. With very serious thumb injuries you see some guys come out like boxers.
What they’ll do is that they’ll put a bandage as the base of the protection and then just add the tape to be able to hold it in place. The idea is that again bandages are a bit more flexible, if you were to just use tape it can end up being very stiff. With thumb injuries I’ve seen bandages being used very effectively. What I would just recommend is first using something that’s going to be waterproof, and number two make sure it’s not itchy. That’s the worst because you can’t really do anything once you’re in the game, and you’re going to be uncomfortable and thinking about that all the way through.
Can You Put Hand Warmers Under Your Gloves
One of the ways to keep your hands warm is to go ahead and bring hand warmers to the field. I love this little trick for cold or wet days on the pitch. What happens when you have cold hands is that it’s going to be more likely that the ball is going to bounce off of you and you’re literally going to be more prone to mistakes. With that said, I wouldn’t recommend the use of hand warmers directly under the glove. At least not when you just activate it and it’s gotten really hot. Precisely because it can get too hot and it can get really uncomfortable under the glove.
Technically though if you’re using a warm one that has been active for a while so it’s kind of cooled off it can make more sense to stick under the glove. Still, I wouldn’t necessarily recommend that either because you’d have to put it right in the palm area and that could definitely affect your ability to make clean catches. Just use the hand warmer over the glove, and only from time to time. You may want to bring a towel or something out to throw it on there when you’re not using it and pick it up again after a while. That’s to me a better way to use hand warmers to keep the blood in your hands flowing.
Try And Remove Any Type of Jewelry
I’ve played with different types of bracelets under my glove. For example, I used to play with a wooden bracelet. Not going to be doing that again though for multiple reasons, I can live with the marks that it left on the skin at times, but if the ball hits a hard blacet directly it can affect the normal ball trajectory you’ll be giving up a second chance opportunity over something like this. Also, you could break the bracelet over a hard shot. If you really like the jewelry that you wear, that’s certainly not something that’s ok. With thread bracelets and things like that you’re going to be ok for the most part. The thing is, the bracelet can get caught in the velcro of the glove and rip.
When it comes to rings and things like that on the fingers, I would just say remove everything. I remember seeing this a lot more in the olden days field players would tape over their wedding rings for example and play with them on. As a goalkeeper do you really want to be adding extra weight onto your fingers? There’s an argument to be made that they can serve as finger protection. For me that’s just not the case, it’s actually the opposite. You could end up hurting yourself if you twist a finger and you have a ring on. Removing all jewelry is actually required so just do it and be safe out there.
Choosing The Right Type of Glove For What You Want To Wear Underneath
This one is pretty straight forward if you want to be able to tape your hands or anything like that then you don’t want to be wearing a glove that is too tight on the hand. If you do want to tape your hand or wear something under your glove with a very tight glove what’s going to happen? Well, there’s a good chance that the overall fit is too tight. Also, if you tape your hands the tape can shift out of place. If that happens then really why would you even waste your time taping your hands in the first place? There are some minor things that you can do even with tighter gloves. Tapping your fingers for example is one of those things, but you would likely want to have a bit of a wider finger cut.
If not, the whole experience could lead to feeling like your hands are tied down. It’s pretty obvious that what you don’t want to do is cut off blood flow in your hands when wearing gloves. If the gloves and tape are too tight then that can certainly happen. The best thing that you can do if you are keen on taping your hands is to wear looser gloves period. I’ve always felt that if you’re wearing a tighter glove what you’re saying is that you trust the glove with providing the support that you need on the wrist and finger areas. If you want to tape your hands your trust is more on the tape than the glove itself. You can find some middle ground to fall on for sure. That middle ground though is probably found using a looser glove!
Is Not Wearing Anything Under Your Gloves Ok?
For me the answer to this is a definite yes. I actually never like to wear anything under my gloves unless I’m nursing some type of injury. Even then though, for example with a recent wrist issue that I had I found the cotton bands itchy, and the tape too hard, and then taking tape off was horrible. My issue in recommending that kids tape their hands or wear anything under the gloves for that matter is that if you don’t have the right tape technique you can be doing more harm than good. Add to that the fact that you went out and bought looser gloves to make sure that you could comfortably fit the tapped hands in there.
In my ideal world you should be able to find goalkeeper gloves that you can trust to protect your hands the right way. That’s why when I talk about some of these modern glove options I get so mad with brands that completely misunderstand the importance of a good wrist strap on gloves. It’s literally what will provide you with the main support. Wearing gloves that don’t feature a good strap always makes me feel uneasy. You feel like you’re not properly protected, and that’s certainly not an empowering feeling when standing between the sticks.
What Do Goalkeepers Wear Under Their Gloves – Conclusion
You can decide what you want to wear under your gloves or not. What I always stress to the goalkeepers that I come in contact with is that what you want to do is buy gear that will allow you to comfortably wear what you want under the gloves. I’ve said this a ton of times in the article, but if you want to tape your hands wear looser gloves. The confidence should be on the tape and not the glove itself to provide most of the support.
On the other hand if you want to not wear anything under your gloves then go out and buy gloves that can naturally provide support. If you want to tape your hands, work on a tapping technique that you can replicate. Also, make sure that you choose the bandage material accordingly. Some people like cotton bandages, others prefer tape. As long as you are wrapping your hands up in the right way both materials should be effective. It may be a trial and error process. You may want to spend an afternoon figuring out what type of material works best for you and what is a wrapping technique that you feel comfortable with and that you can easily replicate.
