Amateur and professional goalkeepers alike use goalkeeper clothing with or without protection during both training and matches. But is goalkeeper clothing with protection really useful?
Nowadays it’s not so obvious that goalkeepers wear clothing with extra protection. More and more goalkeepers show up at training sessions without proper protective clothing. This is because their role model can also be admired at training without these adapted clothes. Still, as a goalkeeper you have to ask yourself the question, do I have the same quality of turf as the professionals? In most cases, this is not the case and extra protection is recommended. As a goalkeeper you fall on the ground more often than an average field player and therefore you want to do everything necessary to prevent the risk of injuries so that you can become the hero of your team at the weekend.
It might not come as a surprise to you, but almost every goalkeeper has suffered an injury to their hip, knee or upper leg. It may not seem like it to you, but we will include bruises and abrasions under the name of injuries. They also prevent you from going flat out during training or competition, and even from stopping. All of us have experienced them, so it is very clear that these are vulnerable parts of our body. What will probably also not surprise you is that most injuries are suffered during training. You train more often than you play matches and for that reason the load on you as a goalkeeper is higher during training than during a match. You dive more often. It has also been shown that amateur goalkeepers were more injury prone than professional goalkeepers. (better training, better training grounds?)
The technology of goalkeeper product manufacturers is not standing still. Goalkeeper clothing used to be bulky and heavy and it was often a burden for goalkeepers to move around easily. Over the years, a lot has changed in the field of protective clothing and many products have been added. For example, there is a strong emergence of compression clothing and for goalkeepers even special protective compression clothing which makes you as a goalkeeper often not even feel like you have extra protection anymore.
Despite the latest techniques and innovations, an artificial grass surface is much harder than grass. When falling on artificial grass, the impact on your body is much bigger than when falling on normal grass. And that is bad news for goalkeepers. Because goalkeepers are the ones who most often come into contact with the ground. Goalkeeper shorts with protection are less likely to cause injuries, but it is also nice if the protection gives you a softer landing.
When playing goalkeeper on artificial grass, having goalkeeper trousers does have an added value in our opinion. Besides that, the development of goalkeeper shorts with protection hasn’t stopped either. Manufacturers come up with new techniques that have to make sure that you are less prone to get an injury during goalkeeping.
At Prostar Goalkeeping we consciously choose to only include compression underwear in our product range. Regular goalkeeper shorts or jerseys do offer protection, but they do not fit tightly around the skin, which means they can shift and you could still get injured. Our specially developed undergarment materials are tight around the skin, which means that you always have optimal protection, whatever the circumstances.
