Inside Soccer
Inside Soccer
Episode 17 - Goalkeeping, Goalkeeping, Goalkeeping; and helping others with Daryl Sattler
Daryl Sattler from EpicGK joins Inside soccer to discuss all things Goalkeeping. We try to crack the secret society of goalkeepers. Daryl also shares his incredible glove business and how's he giving back to the community. Plus a special offer for gloves when you listen.
Hello and welcome back. You're listening to another incredible episode of Inside soccer when your host bill Peterson inside soccer brings you a soccer fan expert analysis and opinion on the critical issues facing the game today. Awesome guests that have incredible stories and historical perspectives on the game. With soccer experience batting 20 A Rolodex is open to bring you the voices and opinions you want. Sit back at wherever you are in the world. And enjoy today's episode.
Unknown Speaker :Welcome back inside soccer listeners summers a thing of the past here we're ramping up to bring you the best experts in the game to discuss soccer. This episode is brought to you by topsport Solutions if you've have a challenge, top sports solutions has an answer. And it's also brought to you by epic Gk, your stop for camps academies, gloves and gear and we're going to talk about that as this episode moves on. So
Unknown Speaker :Today we continue our tradition of providing expert guests analysis and inside views that no one else will bring you. And today we go between the posts in goal. And by the way, how did we make it to Episode 17 and not have a goalkeeper on this show? So we're excited. We've got Darrell Sadler, who is an incredible person, incredible goalkeeper and doing some things, both with the sport and in business and now to help those who are less fortunate. And we're going to cover all that during this episode. So we've got a lot to do. But Daryl, let me welcome you to inside soccer. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for having me. Well, that's great. We're so as always here, we try to keep it to 3540 minutes. And as always, our guests have a lot more questions and we have time to answer them all. So we're going to jump into this and spend a little bit of time talking to you about your background, how you got into soccer, how you decided to become a goalkeeper versus a midfielder because you're very
Unknown Speaker :athletic he probably could have done both
Unknown Speaker :and then talk a little bit about what it takes to be a great goalkeeper and then let's focus a little bit on what you're doing to help those who are trying to be great goalkeepers and and wrap it up at the end with some of the the, the the business and the charitable, give backs that you're doing so it's going to be exciting episode. So here we go. Let's roll and start off with just an introduction. How and where did you get involved with soccer and why? I started playing soccer at seven years old in Boca Raton, Florida. My parents apparently said I had extremely amount of energy and they needed to kind of run me tired so they put me into YMCA soccer, and I loved it. I was something I just picked up right away. And I have pictures and I wore blue jeans all the time and parents want to know why you won't wear some shorts like now I can slide tackle
Unknown Speaker :And so, so that's how I started soccer. Seven years old 1987. And
Unknown Speaker :then 13 years old playing field, I played every position, centre back for winger, and then one game at 13. Our goalkeeper was sick. So somebody had a volunteer and I volunteered to jump in and game one. I knew this was for me as an incredible feeling scoring a goal and maybe creating a goal but to deny somebody that that's, that's something that just rang a bell to me, and it was passionate about it. And that's how my journey started with goalkeeping. So we had Marcello Balboa on the last episode, a great defender. So one step in front of you. And I asked Marcel, I said, What's it take to be a great defender? And his answer was basically you have to want to be a defender. You can't sit back there and wish you're a midfielder or a striker. You have to want to be a defender.
Unknown Speaker :And love taking the ball and love being on an island and those types of things. What's it take to be a great goalkeeper being able to handle pressure you know you want to stop people right defender you want to stop people you want to play that position so as a goalkeeper if you're not good with pressure goalkeeping is not for you. It is an individual position in a team sport, right? So
Unknown Speaker :yeah, you're gonna deal with tons of adversity? Is your is your skin thick? Can you can you deal with not just shot stopping, that's maybe 15% of the position. There's so much more to read in the game, plan off your line. Having a presence organization, your organization, organizing your team, your backline you know, the greatest goalkeepers probably do the less work because they've got their teams set up. So
Unknown Speaker :I was gonna save this question for later. But let's let's do it right now. In general, the sport in this country, sometimes we'll take criticism because of the way it's coached in general and you
Unknown Speaker :Have people who you know as in everything people can complain about this style or that style or should be, you know, a Barcelona style or should be in dang Norway style, whatever it may be. Everybody has an opinion. Everybody has a thought on it. But rarely do you hear anyone talk about sort of goalkeeping coaching. And so I guess I'm gonna lead this into two questions. One, is there a style of goalkeeping? And if so, what does that entail? And to tie that into, if you will, if it matters, tie that into a few years ago, we had a lot of goalkeepers from this country playing in Europe, and today we don't. Is there a reason for that is related back to coaching or use or whatever your thoughts are on if you can share those two things. Yeah. The first one is there a style to goalkeeping? I think there's many styles, there's
Unknown Speaker :Some I had a goalkeeper coach for the Tampa Bay rowdies schlub. It Anjana played in Sarajevo. And his training was more bootcamp style, crazy athleticism jumping over crazy objects. And I love that that is my style. There's also more traditional meat and potatoes very basic, I think both bring their value but that listen, that's the great thing about goalkeeping is. You get to create who you are, you get to create your style. Some people are side volleys, some people are drop kick some people distribution from their hand. Some people play a high line, I think it comes down to your characteristics are if you're Courtois and you're six, six, maybe you can
Unknown Speaker :obviously your put your better on crosses. But if you're short, you know Iker casius can play off his line manual Newmar can play off his line and maybe quicker feet Nick Rimando, probably one of the smallest goalkeepers in the game. Unbelievably quick feet. I believe he holds every MLS goalkeeper statistic. So there's multiple styles and what epic goalkeeping wants to offer.
Unknown Speaker :is a look, we actually offer specific goalkeeper training. Come Come get what you need to make it to the next level. And if your goal is to be a doctor and just play you soccer, that's great, but let's be as good as we can be right now during New soccer and see what opportunities open up because, you know, the college game is pumping out players. And if you have the ability to get to that professional level globally or in wherever you're from, we want to try to offer that. But yeah, to answer your question, I mean, is there a specific style? Yeah, there's all sorts of styles.
Unknown Speaker :You know, very, very, the key is offering goalkeeper specific training, whatever style that is offer it because I think it's an adult neglected apart department that has we've seen over the years, I think to answer your question, why are we seeing more less Americans overseas, maybe the goalkeeper departments are getting thicker worldwide. And I hope that's the case and that's what we want to bring. So maybe some of the in house goalkeepers in general
Unknown Speaker :Many are in Norway or South America are actually paying more attention to it. That was one thing that I wanted to bring to our future soccer stars, our youth players is getting at them early. I mean, Messi goes to Barcelona at an early age What if we're doing that with goalkeepers? Right? Yeah, you have the 10,000 hour rule, which, you know, I would assume applies here as well. So, beyond the mental toughness and the ability to stand out there on an island by yourself and make some things happen, there's, there's obviously some physical attributes.
Unknown Speaker :You tell me I'm guessing you know, lateral movement, but maybe even more important is just sort of your ability to see the ball and see the man and know where it's gonna go before they kick it or woman. Yeah, it's, it's definitely reading the game. That's what's gonna bring you success. I mean, if you angles Yeah. I mean, what if you're sitting on your
Unknown Speaker :Six in a balls dumped over your backline. Yeah, that's a lot of space to cover if you're not playing high off your line. So there's so many attributes to the position that need to be covered. They need to be covered early and put yourself and your team in a better situation. And when
Unknown Speaker :I did some work once with Pete Sampras, and I asked, because this is this annoys me about tennis. I said, they give you three balls every time before you serve and you throw one of them away. Why Why do you do that? Is I can tell if there's a fuzzy hair out of place on any one ball and I will not play that. It's the same as baseball players can see the the string, not the strings, the stitching stitching on the baseball turning when it comes through. I'm guessing you tell me if I'm right or wrong. I'm guessing by the way the plant foot comes down and the body lean and the torque and the angles that are available. A good goalkeeper starts to narrow down what that sort of area is that the ball is going to come and maybe not
Unknown Speaker :100% obviously, but starts to narrow that down before it's kicked. Yeah. When you say that mainly, I think a penalty kicks, you know, you have 12 yards. So, you know, maybe knowing the player, where they gone the last time where they've gone the last three times. And then obviously, as they're approaching the ball, their approach, they're opening their hips, their, their hips are turning, that definitely helps the direction of where you need to be going to try to obviously stop that ball. But then maybe you're dealing with a corner kick a little bit further away. Talking about seeing the stitching of a pitch come at you. I mean, the panels of the ball. If you see it's an in swing or an outswinger, it's that is a visual cue to let you know, should I come for this ball is it going to swerve away from me and be nine yards and me end up in no man's land which is a very talk about islands that is a very lonely place, you cannot be caught in no man's land. So, I mean, these are little cues, visual cues that you have to pick up on to be successful.
Unknown Speaker :Excellent and
Unknown Speaker :So let's go back to the sort of line of questioning if you will, who would you say influenced your soccer career the most?
Unknown Speaker :Well, hands down my my parents, you know the amount of support I've seen how much time they've given me how many holidays we went on Christmas morning doing a group in Memphis, Tennessee. So group had Christmas. Eight 9am and then pack the car drove to Tampa Tampa Bay. Samba was a big tournament back in the 90s. And so how much time money? How much they know what they spent on equipment. And that's something huge that I've been doing for the last three years with Epic is how do we provide How can I provide professional products at more affordable rate? I mean, gloves are three, four millimeter thick, the latex they're not meant to last a year. They're not meant to last a lifetime. So when you have $200 gloves, that's an expense to the parent, that's expensive kid and then there's the unfortunate issue of
Unknown Speaker :Putting a glove on and strap breaks right away. What What do you do? Now, you know, if a kid's got holes in their cleats, they're probably not going to continue to play on them. So I can't stand seeing people's skin through their gloves because they have holes on them. So how do we how do we offer professional products that are more full bore rate? We're going to talk about that a little bit more depth, because I do believe it is important not only just for the game in general, because the game is positioned as one where you know, you don't need a lot of money to play. But in fact, you do need a lot of money. Yeah, by the time you pay fees and travel and hotels and meals on the road, at any start buying, you know shoes because they keep growing out of them every six months or less, or they don't last like you said. So here's just another component of that and what you're doing is something I wish others would do maybe with other parts of the sport as well.
Unknown Speaker :To answer your question going back to who influenced me, I mean, just
Unknown Speaker :maybe a bit a bit
Unknown Speaker :A bit silly, but just the ball man, the ball brings so many people together. And to be fair, I think we need a lot more love in this world right now. So that is something that just simply just intrigued me. I wanted to play the position. Then I started meeting coaches, I've picked up something from every coach, I'd say, an early age, I was able to train with Johnnie Walker, who is representing our nation with Team USA, and he was from the same club as me. So that was a great person to work with when I started playing goalkeeper 1314. And then I was able to deal with probably my most influential goalkeeper coach was Gary Jermaine in college, he played for West Brom and I had the luxury he was living in Nashville and he would come to our college, played in Bowling Green at Western Kentucky University and he really lit it up in me and it was very fortunate to have him and then as I graduate college and made it into the professional ranks, I mean
Unknown Speaker :slobbered on Oh shit, Tampa Bay rowdies and Juan la Madrid at San Antonio FC. Big time, big time, big time, influential people. But I did pick up at least one thing from every every coach I had and those were goalkeeper coaches I'm talking about I definitely had relationships with my head coach, but you know, I'm spending most of my hours with my goalkeeper coach, my mentor. So those are those are names that come to mind that kept my passion and kept me wanting to learn more. And I mean, I'm still learning I'm gonna coach inside now but I'm always learning the game.
Unknown Speaker :Yeah, that's those are those are names that come to mind. And it must be a pretty special relationship. I mean, even you know, field coach, even if they have an assistant coach or they're a big program, they might have a couple. He still is still dealing with numbers, including the goalkeepers. But that goalkeeper coach, you know, you got to two people maybe right? Yeah, depending I mean youth levels one or two keepers at time. college level three to five. It's not uncommon. That's a lot of time to spend together.
Unknown Speaker :It is, but that's your breed. That's your family. You know, everybody says we're a special breed. And we are. I mean, this is how I see it. There's two types of players in the world. One, there's goalkeepers, too. There's those that are not good enough to be one. And that's true. But I mean, that's the mindset you have to have to be successful to position you told me this last week in a parking lot when I saw you and I've repeated it six times. I think the work is fantastic. Read the word because if you don't have that mentality, and it's if goalkeepers, not for you, fantastic, but you have to buy into that culture, right. And that's what epic Gk is offering.
Unknown Speaker :That is a classic line that only the mother of a goalkeeper could appreciate. So you've talked about the influences and really that included your coaches. So let's go down on the field for a second Who is your toughest competitor, I guess who gave you the most fits?
Unknown Speaker :So many wonderful players, I had the luxury to play with one that comes to mind around 2014 playing against New York Cosmo's row row. Fantastic, and what a great opportunity to play against the legendary player actually faced a penalty against them. He got me though.
Unknown Speaker :But yeah, you weren't the first Yeah, I know. Throughout the throughout my career, Raul stands out what a great player.
Unknown Speaker :But I mean, anybody I shared a locker room with anybody I was an opponent against. I definitely had my fits and, and dealt with some great players, but that's one that comes to mind. He was a great person off the field. I got to know him off the field. And, you know, he's very committed to the sport and understood what his role here was understood where he was in his career.
Unknown Speaker :When he he still had he still had a speed button there. You know, when he hit it, it's still the magic still came. So it was it was enjoyable to watch him for sure.
Unknown Speaker :Okay, so before we get into actually coaching and what you're doing from a professional level, let's talk about the women for a second and your thoughts on goalkeeping but also the development of NW SL the migration of us women to Europe now. And, you know, I mentioned this, I think on the last program, I lived in Europe for 10 years. And at that time, if you mentioned, this is in the 90s, if you mentioned women's soccer, people would laugh at you and go, really do they play that. I mean, it was so unbelievable, you just shake your head, but now, every top club has a Women's Club. And they are really starting to what I hear anyway started developing coaching and facilities that recruiting American players. And so from your standpoint, I mean, do you have any thoughts or opinions on that and how does it affect the people that you're working with? Yeah, the women's game, so
Unknown Speaker :I am the goalkeeper coach at Flagler College down in St. Augustine. And I've been there two seasons. It was my first approach to the women's game. And I thought it would be different but the end of the day, they're just footballers, and they're very good footballers. We had a fantastic season. Last year I went to the Final Four. proud that my goalkeepers been goalkeeper of the year, two years in a row. She's a fantastic person and goalkeeper, Sarah, Lisa, and she has every opportunity to play at the next level. But to answer your question, I mean, I mean 90s and us growing up, you didn't see soccer on TV. I don't think I saw it till 1994 World Cup and then MLS started 96 and we started kind of growing. I think the sport itself is starting to see more growth, women's side, men's side, more businesses are getting involved because they see the market. So I think now the women's program is it I mean, I'm all about equal rights. I mean they deserve they deserve to have that exposure. It's a sport the end of the day. They're human beings and I love the the growth that's happening with
Unknown Speaker :Soccer in general across the globe.
Unknown Speaker :Yeah, we have some fantastic goalkeepers, you know,
Unknown Speaker :going abroad that are coming from America. We'd like to see more. But the women's game is they can play they can play.
Unknown Speaker :For sure. And I thought that I thought the NW SL Cup was one of the first times outside the Olympic Games or the Women's World Cup, where I really enjoyed watching Women's Professional Soccer. Yeah, all of a sudden, I would lose myself in those games. And I wouldn't be critical in a way that I know I've been other leagues beforehand. I thought that was just incredible competition. We've had some of the owners we've got the commissioner on. They are they are full go. I mean, they're committed to it. And, you know, again, was all the people playing with all the girls playing in this country, you would think that we're going to continue to be pretty good
Unknown Speaker :But I think those who think that we're going to remain, you know, this, this singular powerhouse that we've been, are mistaken because there are there's investment being made in other countries and other parts of the world that are going to make this a really, really interesting competition and maybe one of the more interesting women's sports on the planet. Yeah, I agree. I mean, it kind of goes back to what you're saying about, hey, we're starting to see less Americans go abroad. Well, that game is growing globally. So maybe they are seeing a you know, we're finding people locally that can live up to what the UN, US women's national team is, has been doing for a decade.
Unknown Speaker :So yeah, I watched that tournament as well. good buddy of mine, Craig Harrington left Chicago is the coach now, Utah and so I got to see a lot of players play. I mean, you look at goalkeepers like Alyssa Neuer, as Chicago red stars.
Unknown Speaker :Jane Campbell Houston, dash. I mean, there's some big time and young James like 25 she's there's a lot of good goalkeeper goalkeepers to look up to whatever gender it is that you prefer to watch. Yeah, fantastic. Okay, so one more question before we get into epic. And we're not trying to be critical here. It's just a it's an observation. We're asking to make an observation over the last 510 years, do you feel and look, it's a challenge. And we're not going to get into the challenges today. But it's a challenge to pick the national team here in this country because the country is so big. I mean, it just is. But do you feel on the men's side that they've found the best goalkeepers we have to offer and we've had some good ones.
Unknown Speaker :Currently. I think we're working great with the great keepers we have. I think there's a little hidden gem coming for sure. I think Zach Stephen has the ability to play for a long time.
Unknown Speaker :And I think we see more Shawn Johnson and Bill Hamid
Unknown Speaker :It's great that Matt Turner's getting in the mix. But I, I'm a fan of Zach, I think that he's gonna continue to blossom and grow and become into some of the iconic goalkeepers that this this nation has had, has provided.
Unknown Speaker :I mean, he let's let's face it, he's playing. He's owned by main cities on loan to Fortuna and Bundesliga. I mean, he's getting the exposure.
Unknown Speaker :So
Unknown Speaker :it is tough to pick the who's who's a clear number one. I mean, we've seen Brad Luzon have an incredible run, but let's face it, he knows he's towards the end of his career and what a wonderful career it has been. And the guy can play still. Yeah, no, I mean, they're good. They're good. For sure. It's a it's a quote. I've repeated here a couple of times. But my friend Juergen Klinsmann once made the statement that you know, when the US national team plays Champions League football,
Unknown Speaker :We'll have a chance of winning this whole thing and I don't think he meant exclusively but right a majority of and we had that a goalkeeper and now it's sort of not quite there so hopefully those guys are working their way back up because it must be it must be incredibly difficult to judge or pick a goalkeeper or two goalkeepers for a national team based on on what what do you know I think consistency right i think if your head against the competition they're actually in no exact not not on your training kit. You can't take him to California and go in a week we're gonna pick a goalkeeper I don't think so. Anyway, I mean, yeah, I agree with that, but they also can be on in the situation head coach can be where, man they're at the coin toss. I have two great goalkeepers and that's a good problem. But as a coach, you definitely want to have the security Okay, here's my starting 11 number one is taken care of. Now let's go to our center backs and build forward or
Unknown Speaker :Whatever system you're playing, but the security and the consistency, the best goalkeepers in the world do the simple things perfect. Anything in your bubble should be taken care of clean your angles, playing off your line communication, everyone smile, you're going to have to have that top corner safe. But goalkeepers out there. If you're doing the simple things perfect. You're going to have a great career, you're going to move forward. So if I'm, if I'm a midfielder on a team, you know, at the level of a national team or European team or MLS team, and I we do have two goalkeepers that, you know, someone could probably flip a coin.
Unknown Speaker :Do they see the hair on that tennis ball? Does the other players realize the difference? And is it important to them? And does the coach ever go to him and go Hey, what do you guys think? I mean, I find that I think that hair on the tennis ball is that training camp in California that final decision? A you've just proved that you're number one currently, and gain the respect to the rest of the team? Of course. Yeah, thanks.
Unknown Speaker :I mean, let's face it, if you have somebody behind you, you're not worried, right? Somebody that you trust, if you're putting in a rookie or, you know, let's say, a first time goalkeeper and you soccer you're gonna be a little hesitant. But if that voice is in the back your head demanding and organizing, you quickly gain respect for that player and, and the communication is so huge. It can't just be barking orders the whole time. You have to reward your players when they do exactly what you're asking. I mean, it feels good to be rewarded. Right bill? Yeah, let's talk about that barking orders thing because that bothers me a little bit. I mean, if I was playing in front of you, and you're yelling I mean the whole game at some point I'm going to turn around and go Mind your own business. Okay, I'm done. I get it here. And why is that happen? That why they get away with it? I guess for for the players turning around Tony, stop it, okay. We're thinking I can just scream and yell and whoever I want. I mean, your quarterback in the team, you see the whole picture. So at the end of the day, that's why it's so big to reward people because if it's just noise, noise, noise, noise you
Unknown Speaker :You want to tune that out or have a comeback, like you said, but if you're praising them like, hey, well done, great tackle or you have to be good about praising them
Unknown Speaker :because they're doing what you ask, you know, and at the end of the day, goalkeepers gonna make errors too. And you better be ready take the heat back. Yeah, is it's moving. It's a moving situation always for sure. And I could see you know, looking for leadership back there, looking for direction. Looking for some comments on Hey, you know, this guy's he's creating angles. I can't stop. You're gonna have to do something about that, right? I mean, that type of thing. But if somebody yells at me, because I took it with my left foot, send my right foot on your way. Oh, dude, just go back and put your gloves back on. Yeah, yeah. And you're free to have a go. I think when you have a goat somebody that is in the moment, and that moment is gone quick, just like a goalkeeper you come from across and completely missed it and give up a goal. You better have a short term memory because there's still 89 minutes left in the
Unknown Speaker :If you can see that goal in the first minute, so we need that security that comfort, that's something move on the youth coaches, I think have to be careful with with youth goalies is allowing them to replicate what they think they see on TV. Because the guys on TV like yourself and others, they actually know what they're talking about a lot more than writing a youth player. And a youth player who's now all of a sudden become the coach is is is probably going to make some mistakes. And then he got confusion and messages and all kinds of things. It's just one of those things I sit on the sidelines in my peanut gallery and think about but there you go, well, it's all comes down to using the proper terms you know, you're not telling a story you're using short quick demands and commands and again, please praise your players when they do well does your boys those your females, those are your teammates, whoever it is. Yep, yep. Okay, so let's move on to to what you're doing today with with Epic and let's just
Unknown Speaker :Start off, walk through, what are the different pieces of that? What are you actually doing? What are you trying to accomplish? Where's all this headed over the next couple of years? And let's let's see where that goes. So what we have been doing I mean, we're three years old. Epic's just hit its third birthday and what we have been doing, as I mentioned earlier, there's a big misunderstanding on the importance of quality gloves. And that's what we wanted to offer was finding professional products, the material the same as these $200 gloves and not charging that rate for parents. So for over the last few years, we've been working on
Unknown Speaker :trying to nail that down offer affordable products, quality products. What we're currently doing, which I'm very excited about, we will be announcing here soon is a trade in trade up program. So what that what does that mean? You bill were epic gloves and we're proud of that and you go
Unknown Speaker :Were out. On average, a US Soccer player will go through three to five pairs of gloves in a season in a calendar year. That's just an average statistic. And if you play a higher level, maybe you're 1718 or in college, you're going through five or 10 pairs, these things break down, especially as you grow as you train more. There's a lot of getting up and down off the turf off the grass, depending on what your facilities are like and just the the wear that it goes through and training. If you're on a professional level, it's not uncommon to go through 20 pairs in a season, you probably have the luxury of being sponsored as well. But you know, what are we doing now trade and trade up? We're going to be releasing that soon. What does that mean the trade in so if you have your gloves and they're wearing down, you can send those back to epic and you'll get a discount or you'll save money for your next pair of gloves. What do we do with these other gloves that are being sent in that are used? There's a lot of players that can't pay to play. We are working globally with our PR team to find those
Unknown Speaker :people to donate gloves. And something we want to do to give back. Not only buying affordable gloves, professional gloves, you're going to get a return by simply sending those worn out, even if they're holes in them, send them back to us. And all that news and information will come out soon, very soon. We're excited to launch it. So there's a little taste of what is happening. Now. We also, as I said, we're going to be looking to donate those gloves to people that just can't afford gloves or maybe can even afford to play. Like as you mentioned earlier, there's your parent of a soccer player at Jacksonville football club and there's some fees and there's travel and there's equipment that is needed. So that's something we're working on now.
Unknown Speaker :And what the future holds is really just focusing on getting the training programs we have an academy at above Athletic Center off Phillips highway and racetrack road. Fantastic building in Jacksonville, Jacksonville, Florida and that is the our epic Academy.
Unknown Speaker :It has been going for nine months now. And it's goalkeeper specific training on a
Unknown Speaker :spectacular building million dollar turf. I mean it is it is something special we've grown and the feedbacks. Great and that is where we're currently at and where we've been and what we're trying to do right now.
Unknown Speaker :So a few comments one and for our listeners, Daryl Sadler with Epic Gk and longtime goalkeeper professionally and a coach now and also a businessman.
Unknown Speaker :I told you I wanted to see the claws before you came on because I didn't want to, you know, sit down with someone who was trying to sell snake oil. Believe me, I've bought enough of that in my life. These are really impressive in a few different areas and one I look at it
Unknown Speaker :from a professional standpoint to the extent I can and say I love the fact
Unknown Speaker :That they're designed by a goalkeeper literally all the threads, the stitching, the materials, everything you've talked about to me off offline. I'm sitting here with a bunch of them, they look like they probably perform well they feel like they perform well. You've already identified some of the issues with some others, straps, braking and things like that you just you just don't need no matter what level you're at. So I love the fact that there's somebody involved in the design of this. That's making decisions that are based on performance. And that you've sacrificed probably some margin that others have not sacrificed in order to get into the market and also give people a chance to, to go through the amount of gloves they need to go through in a year and be able to hopefully afford that. So that is all great and kudos to that. You could stop right there. And
Unknown Speaker :I think people would have to be pretty happy for you you know that you've had this career and now you're sort of venturing into this business aspect three years old. That's a huge accomplishment. Gloves are first class you know find a way to compete with the big dogs and and you could end up being a very wealthy person but you Additionally you taking it to another level and I think a very important one
Unknown Speaker :and that is trying to give people opportunities to not only play soccer but specifically be goalkeepers without having to remortgage their home. I mean, it is expensive. I don't care who you are. It's a lot of money to goes out the door to do this. And that's just a club society we have right now. You know, if you were you were playing a high school sport, it would be provided by somebody, I guess, taxpayers, I don't know.
Unknown Speaker :But being able to give people an
Unknown Speaker :opportunity to play and have the equipment that a they can be proud of. Because I think that's really important. You know, nobody wants, nobody wants to take a handout, and it's not any good. Right? So here you got a program where everyone's giving back to the next generation, if you will, the next person. And
Unknown Speaker :I think that's got a lot of legs to it, because I think this is an area that most people don't think about unless they have a goalkeeper in the family. And I saw you know, your pricing, I looked up some other pricing and I was like, holy cow. I mean, that's, that's more than shoes. Yeah. And unfortunately, your shoes can rip in the first week or a couple months in and then you have to go through them. And so and it does happen, I mean things. Accidents happen. It's unfortunate, but we don't have a very big track record. That's one less than 1% our return on our gloves. So I'm very proud of it.
Unknown Speaker :The
Unknown Speaker :goalkeeping culture is something I'm trying to grow so that there is more awareness of and I mean, you name one championship team that didn't have a championship goalkeeper, you just can't right have to have a strong goalkeeper to be, you know, a strong team and a championship team talking about pricing. Your whole Greg goalkeeper quotes By the way, I love that one too. So we're gonna have to have a gotta have a sheet of goalkeeper quotes. Well, maybe we'll make a novel album because there's more to come, as we learned, but for the people listening, you know, we're talking about pricing. And what we want to do is continue to offer opportunities. So right now, if you are listening, we are going to offer a discount code and it's for 20% off our newest glove, our stealth glove that we spent a lot of time designing. And we're going to use the promo code bill because you've invited me to the show. So if you go to Epic gk.com and order some gloves, type in bi Ll and you'll get a 20% discount
Unknown Speaker :On this stealth glove, very proud of this glove, spent a lot of time on it.
Unknown Speaker :neoprene backhand punch zone wrapped fingertips of extra latex extra extended strap that is extremely durable.
Unknown Speaker :And it is an ideal cut. So what Ideal Cut is is a negative cut so it's tight on your fingers but a real cut fingertips. So it is a fantastic love. I'm very proud of it. Use the promo code bill and get 20% off save some more money. Why not?
Unknown Speaker :Don't forget it. Don't forget it. It's bill, unlike the person I was on the phone was yesterday said Joe. I said no but
Unknown Speaker :well Joe can order just epic gloves and get 20% off. Everybody reach in your pockets and grab some gloves and they're gonna go to your website for that right? Yes, it is. It's epic gk.com or you can spell it all out epic goalkeeping calm. And so how often are you doing on the ground, sort of academies and training and you also do some one on one stuff to correct. I do
Unknown Speaker :Do those who arrive appointment only. Academy is full throttle during the summer and the winter when you soccer is not happening. Our academies pretty much all youth players and it is
Unknown Speaker :typically four days a week when we're in our heavy season now that you soccer is going days that are off we offer additional days for training and when it rains in Florida it rains and we are in hurricane season. So when we have rain outs, we open the doors and allow training so when fields are flooded and they're unplayable there's nothing but a club can do but to unfortunate close the fields rent risk of injury tearing the fields up. So we open our doors at above Athletic Center epic goalkeeping Academy and offer training. It can be raining, it's covered, fantastic facility. If you get a second look it up and you can find all that info out at epic gk.com. That's fantastic. That is a good point too about the rain, especially this time of the year out there.
Unknown Speaker :month is going to see a lot more. Yeah, I mean, it's every afternoon you have to wait and see what's gonna happen, what's canceled what's not canceled around here anyway, it's not true everywhere else. And we do have listeners all over the planet Actually, it's quite interesting to get notes from from Europe and other places. So keep listening, by the way. So, you know, I think there's a secret society of goalkeepers. And we're starting to uncover that, starting to learn more about goalkeeping and goalkeeping gloves than I ever thought I would in my lifetime. But as we get near the finish line here, is there anything we should have asked you that we didn't or anything you want to share with our listeners that they would find entertaining or something we just we just missed? I mean, I appreciate the opportunity just to get out here and talk about goalkeeping as I mentioned. It's I'm a footballer, I'm a goalkeeper. I want to I want to talk about it and try to give back as much as I can that the game gave me
Unknown Speaker :So if you have any questions, even if it's a parent, anything,
Unknown Speaker :colleges, anything, I mean, we're, we're lucky that we have a lot of colleges using our gloves and saving their budget because every coach, you know, doesn't want to go over budget. So we're able to provide discounted gloves to every college so that they have an extra, let's say $500 for their first road trip or whatever it is, and it's gonna be interesting to see how things go with the world right now as COVID and everything.
Unknown Speaker :You know, recruiting is going to be challenging because people aren't traveling. So anyway to save money, just for the everyday person is a luxury. So you can keep your house and keep that mortgage. That's fantastic. That's fantastic. Okay, so we're gonna wrap this up, Darryl Sadler from Epic Gk and glove connoisseur and entrepreneur. We appreciate you coming on and I cannot believe it took this long to talk about goalkeeping but we won't make
Unknown Speaker :Get this long again, I think
Unknown Speaker :it's it's just an important part of the game that maybe you know, even myself included, we sometimes take for granted. And now you've opened up my eyes. So that's a good thing. Well, I appreciate the time. And as always, you know, we don't want to just be good. We want to be epic. So there you go. I love that line to be epic people and go buy some gloves. There's a discount discount code is Bill bi L. Darrell, we appreciate you being here this week. And we appreciate you talking about not only goalkeeping and what it takes to be successful, but also your company. And so in the meantime, we'll be keeping an eye out for you and in the meantime, I urge all of our listeners to catch all of our episodes, which can be found on most pod platforms or www. Inside top sports comm you can also go to buzzsprout comm which is sort of our home platform, where you can find it on Apple, Google Spotify or Stitcher and others
Unknown Speaker :By all means keep keep close tabs on us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, by the way, we got a whole I think we might have to start a whole goalkeeping segment. In the last 24 hours between now you're coming on I got all these goalkeeping people coming on to Instagram. So that's fantastic. Everyone else, jump on and follow us as well send us your thoughts and opinions. In the meantime, we are working on next week, we might have a couple of really, really blockbuster guests that no one else has had before. So we're working on that. Everybody. Stay tuned over the weekend. And there are once again, thank you good luck with everything and we'll catch everybody soon. Thank you appreciate. Thank you. Thank you inside soccer