Week of April 17

GLOVE CARE:

  Every goalkeeper knows how important is to have a good pair of gloves. The good grip of the gloves and the cushion  they provide to our hands gives us  a lot of confidence in game scenarios. Goalkeepers also know how easy is to go through a pair of gloves, so here are some tips to stretch the life of your gloves.

First and most important tip. Be sure you clean your gloves every time you use them. Make it a discipline,the cleaner the palm of the glove the better grip the glove will have. How to clean my gloves? It is a very easy task. Damp your gloves in warm water and with the tip of you fingers start rubbing the dirt off of the palm. After doing this apply baby shampoo to the palm of your glove, rub it until making a good layer of foam and then rinse the shampoo off. Squeeze the water gently and hang you gloves from hanger at room temperature. Never expose your gloves to the sun when drying, never put them in the dryer, at room temperature the glove will dry a little slower but you will be adding weeks of life to your glove by doing this.

Second tip. Nobody likes to be the smelly kid, and gloves can get very bad smells if we don't take care of them. Controlling the smell in your gloves is very easy, first make sure you keep your gloves clean, and second never put you gloves inside your bag after using them. Sometimes keepers put their gloves in their bags after games or practices when they are wet, and take them out of the bag after two or three days. Storing any type of cloth or material wet for such a long time will produce fungus and with fungus comes the bad smells. So make sure that after every time you use your gloves you hang them on the outside of your bag where they will be getting air and drying at room temperature.

If you follow those two simple steps you will have gloves for longer time, and you will never be the smelly kid.

Coach Daniel G.