CHOOSING A GOALKEEPER'S GEAR

CHOOSING A GOALKEEPER‘S GEAR

When it comes to the floorball goalkeepers, it’s exactly them who have the biggest concerns with choosing the gear. The player in the field can easily settle to a high-quality floorball stick and indoor shoes. Even though the goalkeeper doesn't use a stick to guard the goal, they need lots of other equipment such as mask, knee and elbow protectors, goalies pants with Jersey and many more. And it is important to say that choosing this equipment is so extensive on the current market that choosing what is going to be ideal for a certain goalkeeper is nothing easy.

Mask for a floorball goalkeeper

This part of the equipment is for the goalkeepers, without doubt, the most important thing and also mandatory. Floorball rules don’t specify exactly how the mask should look like, but it has to fulfill the safety function on 100%. The masks are only divided into junior and senior.

Junior masks

Junior masks are mostly used in junior categories and they are also popular in schools. They are used by goalkeepers approximately until 15 years old.

Senior masks

Senior masks are mostly used, logically, for all players over 15. The size is universal particularly thanks to a two-piece construction – elastic stripes connect the front (main) part of the mask with the back part. By choosing the mask we can let ourselves to be influenced by 4 determining factors – design of the mask, the shape of the mask (even though it doesn’t look like it, it is usually very similar), the total quality of the mask (quality of the inner linings etc.) and last but not least by the price. All these factors differ mask by mask and it is difficult to universally recommend a particular mask type.

Knee protectors

After the floorball mask, the knee protectors are the second most important thing for the goalkeeper. There are two most important factors being considered during the choosing – the size and how often will be the protectors used – how often will the goalkeeper guard the goal.

Size of the protectors

Well chosen size of the protectors is greatly reflected in their correct functionality. When we get extremely expensive, branded, tested by professionals protectors that aren’t gonna be suitable for us (they will be either bigger or smaller), they won’t function as they should. In both cases, they will bother us, we won’t feel well and that could reflect in our performance that is gonna go down. Here is a universal table of the protector sizes, but we recommend to try the protectors out before buying it.

Quality of the protectors

Another factor while choosing the protectors is the already mentioned frequency of usage. It’s clear that we are talking about a higher floorball level, we have a practice every day, so we have to choose protectors with higher quality that can také a bigger load. On the other hand, when we are playing once a week, we should be good with ordinary protectors that would be more than enough for this purpose. How do we get to know the quality of protectors? It is good to let us be guided by the price in this assortment. In general, it stands that the more expensive the protectors are, the higher quality they’re gonna have.

Goalkeeper vest

Goalkeeper vest is the best protection against the unpleasant, stinging blows which the goalkeepers get sometimes even tens during a match. There are no special factors while choosing a vest. We choose the size of the vest according to a size of a t-shirt we normally wear.

Elbow protectors and jockstraps

These protecting tools are components that aren’t used by goalkeepers that plentifully as a mask or knee protectors. However, these protectors are a very important piece of equipment that protects you as a goalkeeper against lots of unpleasant and painful hits of the floorball ball. The disadvantage of the elbow protectors is usually limited movement that isn’t exactly a welcomed factor for the goalkeepers. The Jockstrap can be substituted with the goalkeeper pants well enough and for some goalkeepers, it is difficult to get used to it.

Goalkeeper pants

The floorball goalkeeper wouldn’t be a goalkeeper without goalkeeper pants. We can find a big amount of pants with different quality and design on the market. It applies here the same thing here as with the other equipment –  for a higher price you will get a highly-developed product of higher quality that will take the highest load of a top-level floorball match.

Goalkeeper jersey

Choosing the goalkeeper jersey is probably the most esthetical part while choosing the goalkeeper‘s gear. Here applies the good old rule – when we have the opportunity of choosing out of the higher price categories, we get for our money a jersey of higher quality material that is highly-developed into the details. It is also important for the jersey to be suitable for us so we can feel well, comfortable and so all inner linings would be suitable for us. As for the size - we choose the size according to a size of clothing we normally wear.