The Black Spider® Advantage

The two video frames above were captured while trying to catch the ball taking a point-blank shot from the SideKick shot cannon. A top quality traditional non-webbed glove is used on the left. The webbed Black Spider is shown on the right. 

Look at the image on the left, notice how disorganized the fingers are at impact with the traditional glove. The fingers are driven away from the ball, spread unevenly, or not reacting at all.

The frame on the right shows the Black Spider glove under the same conditions. The fingers are working together to support each other and grip the ball. The fingers are further stregthened by the webbed connection to the wrist. The latex is in full, flat contact with the ball.

This provides the user with maximum stopping power, protection and control. Ultimately, this means that users of the Black Spider Glove will give up fewer goals. The mechanics of how this works is explained below and in a short video. Watch the video description.

The Black Spider® glove provides superior performance in 3 key areas: Stopping/Holding, Parry/Deflection and Throwing

Stopping and holding power:
The Black Spider® glove will allow you to handle harder shots than you could using a traditional glove design, with fewer bobbled or lost balls. There are a number of design elements built into the glove. Each element by itself provides an improvement over traditional glove designs, but when combined, provide a synergistic effect that significantly improves your ability to control the ball and protect your goal.

The most obvious design element of the Black Spider glove is the webbing between the fingers. The webbing provides support, coordination and alignment for your fingers.

The support aspect is most obvious when catching the ball high up on the fingers. Even though the thumb and little finger may not be directly contacting the ball, they are providing structural support for the fingers that are in contact with the ball. You are able to catch (or deflect, discussed below) with more strength, more effectiveness, more power. That support is also there when catching the ball with all fingers. What the webbing effectively does is increase the "sweet spot" or area of the glove that the ball can be cleanly caught or controlled with. If the ball impacts at or near the heel of the palm first, it will often bounce out of control.  The "sweet spot" of the Black Spider glove is larger and is centered higher up on the glove, away from the palm heel. This effectively reduces the chance for bobbled or lost balls during hard, awkward or off-center catches.

The coordination aspect is what we call 'AutoWrap'. Imagine you are catching the ball off-center. With traditional glove designs, only the fingers that touch the ball are working to stop the ball. With the Black Spider glove, the force bending your catching finger(s) back is transferred via the webbing to the fingers that are not contacting, or weakly contacting the ball. This force then causes the fingers that are not helping to be pulled in tighter against the ball, automatically increasing your stopping power. It is an automatic response provided by the interconnection of the fingers on the glove.
You can visualize this concept by taking a string and tying it to the end of your thumb and index finger. The string distance should be set so that it is tight as you extend your fingers as you would at full stretch to catch a ball. Then take a soccer ball and push it against your fingers but NOT touching the thumb. As you continue to push, you will see that the thumb is automatically drawn in against the ball. This is AutoWrap®. Without the string connection the ball would just continue pushing back your fingers contacting the ball with no assistance from the thumb or other fingers not in contact. By interconnecting all the fingers, and anchoring this interconnected webbing to the wrist, the Black Spider maximizes the gripping power from even the smallest contact with the ball.

Next, the alignment of the latex (the stopping part of the glove) is much more consistent with the Black Spider. If the latex is not in contact with the ball, it will cease to do its job. With the traditional glove design, the individual fingers on the glove tend to rotate while handling a hard shot. Often the latex rotates completely off the ball. The index finger seems to be the most susceptible to this. The Black Spider webbing will not allow this latex rotation to happen - more grip on the ball, more stopping power for you!

Traditional hyper-extension protection gloves (aka FingerSave®, et al) put their support on the back of the fingers, which ends in the middle of the hand. The Black Spider webbed finger support is located on the palm-side of the glove, and is attached at a solid wrist anchor point. The Black Spider webbed design thus mimics your natural hand design (that’s why most of the hand muscles are on the palm side of the hand), providing efficient support without unnecessary weight or stiffness. This palm-based support is adjustable via the dual Velcro wrist attachment. Just pull on the wrist adjustment strap to the support pressure that feels right for you and lock in with the Velcro. Optional supporting finger stays for the back of the fingers are provided for additional support, if desired, though 4 out of 5 keepers prefer to use the Black Spider with no finger stays

The Black Spider glove will help to provide the strength and support you need to catch or stop the hardest shots.
"The harder the shot, the better it sticks" - you now know why!

Parry/Deflection power:
The Black Spider glove will allow you to parry and deflect shots with much greater strength and accuracy than a traditional glove design can. That extra power will allow you to deflect the ball over the crossbar or past the outside of the post instead of hitting the 'woodwork' and allowing the ball back into play, or worse, seeing the ball in the back of the net.

Deflection is where the webbing is a critical element. The shot is coming in at the edge of your range, and is coming in hard. You may only be able to get a couple of finger tips on the ball. How are you going to put as much deflection force on that ball as possible? With a traditional glove design in this scenario, you've got 2 fingers to transfer that force from and push that ball aside, or you're looking at a ball in the net.
Let's examine the same scenario, except you are using the Black Spider® gloves. The ball is first touched by a couple of fingers. Those fingers start to bend back but the wrist-anchored webbing transfers supporting force from the rest of your fingers, thumb and forearm. You also get an AutoWrap® effect from the webbing providing even more deflection power as those nearby supporting fingers are driven to the ball, by the power of the shot. The parry/deflection power of the Black Spider glove is unparalleled in the industry. We consistently see dramatic differences when testing the Black Spider against other glove designs in deflection power and effectiveness. 

Throwing accuracy and power:
The Black Spider glove will allow you to throw the ball with more accuracy and power than a traditional glove design can. The webbing and finger tip perimeter banding allow for consistent finger pressure on the ball as it is thrown resulting in more accuracy. Compare this to throws made with traditional gloves where the finger pressure may vary affecting the accuracy of the throw. The power of the throw is enhanced by the curved shape and wrist support that provide an additional moment of force transfer to the ball as it is thrown. Powerful, accurate ball distribution at further range is a great asset to a team.

"Futbol (soccer) is a team game until the goalkeeper makes a mistake and then it becomes an individual sport." --John Keeley

Do your part to keep soccer a "team game" and don't let the mistake of using a less capable glove happen to you!