Getting to Grips with Gloves

The demands placed on the modern-day goalkeeper are extreme. Due to a variety of reasons – changing player techniques, as well as changes to football and football boot design, etc., the speed of football travel has increased significantly over the years. In fact, recent biomechanical analysis shows the average speed of a ball kicked by a professional footballer is 78 miles per hour (mph). Though a well punted ball can achieve far greater speeds. For instance, in 1996 a goal strike by David Hirst, a former footballer for Sheffield Wednesday, was recorded at a wapping 114 miles per hour. Added to this, improved techniques, boot and ball design also enable players to apply Magnus Effects to the ball, adding both ‘dip’ and ‘swerve’ to strikes. These elements make saving a shot in the modern game no mean feat. Consequently, any advantage a goalkeeper can gain by wearing the best gloves available can make the difference to individual games, tournaments and careers.

*The Magnus Effect is the phenomenon in which a spinning object (best seen in spherical objects) follows a bending path through the air or other fluids. The spinning movement of the object triggers a variation in velocity, and a difference in pressure, which deflects the normal path of the object, causing it to arc instead of following a straighter trajectory.

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However, the advantage of wearing goalie gloves is not purely down to modern aspects of the game – the history of the football glove extends much further back, even predating the inauguration of the English Football League. It was in 1885 that shrewd businessman William Sykes first identified the possible benefits to goalkeepers wearing gloves. The first gloves he designed were made from soft leather and included an Indian rubber fitting for maximum grip. As Sykes was initially a football manufacturer, you could easily suppose he foresaw the future ‘arms race’ between ball and glove way before his time. And, though he never took his football gloves into mass production, he did go to significant trouble to patent protect his designs.

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After Sykes, it took a further half a century for the next notable visionary to champion glove-wearing. Argentina and River Plate custodian Amadeo Carrizo was one of the first known professional goalkeepers to wear gloves, wearing them through the 1940s and ’50s. He wore a pair fashioned from white cotton for over ten years.

The first world-renowned name to fully endorse goalkeeper gloves was England’s Gordon Banks. He donned a pair to lift the World Cup in 1966. Over time, Banks experimented with different types of glove recognising the added advantages over bare hands. Four years after the 1966 tournament, Banks again wore gloves for the 1970 World Cup – the first specifically made for goalkeepers. This time the gloves were made of cotton with added dappled rubber strips often associated with table tennis bats. The gloves are evident in the video of his legendary ‘save of century’ against a header from Brazilian legend Pele. His conversion to gloves clearly didn’t go unnoticed as more and more keepers began to wear them, seeking the increased grip, added warmth and finger support.

Source: https://t-tees.com
Category: HOW