Spitting on your gloves??

Spitting on gloves has been the norm pretty much since latex and the rest were what (can't see what benefit it would have been for cotton ones at the time!!). It's a neat trick that can help dampen the glove to get some grip back in it, to help hold the ball when catching. A quick trick, it can provide a short term solution and help if you feel your grip is slipping away ('scuse the pun!).

You can see Schmiechel (the younger one at Leicester!) using the trick in the clip below:

But with modern developments, and the new materials used, there is the scientific argument that spit + dirt = bacteria. And not like those yoghurt ads! So bacteria can grow if untreated and can be bad for the gloves in the long run.

The new way of getting grip back during a game is to pour water on the palms from a water bottle and then drying them with a towel (as written about before) to make sure they don't get flooded with water! Which would mean you would get the complete opposite and your gloves would be too damp to catch, with the ball slipping out! But considering you might not have time to grab your water bottle and carefully dry them to a degree, the old ways still work. Worth keeping in mind both sides of the argument, but if the  calls for you to spit on your gloves if you don't have the time to stop your gloves drying up too much (if playing in warm conditions), then so it is I guess!

The local team's goalkeeper rubbing his gloves after spitting on the palms to get some grip back for catching.