During a league soccer match, you need to wear a numbered jersey, shorts, shinguards and socks. For training, on the other hand, which may entail two hours a day outdoors in inclement weather, you need to protect against chills and heat. Gear requirements become relaxed, and players end up feeling and looking comfortable.
Footwear
At the elite level, players need a full set of shoes to cover all the options, including outdoor workouts on grass or grass-like artificial turf and indoor training on short-pile artificial carpet. You may need cleats for both firm ground and hard ground as well as indoor or turf shoes for artificial surfaces. Training also offers a window of opportunity to break in new shoes before trying them in a game that counts, writes Dutch goalie coach Maarten Arts in "The Soccer Goalkeeper Coach."
Cold-Weather Clothing
With soccer seasons often overlapping the colder months of late fall, winter and early spring, training may involve cold-weather gear. In place of game-day shorts, you need either tracksuits, training pants or leggings, three-quarter-length pants to keep your legs warm, or compression shorts underneath your regular shorts. Training jerseys can be covered by training jackets, or you can wear a cold-gear mock turtleneck underneath your jersey. Hooded sweatshirts, windbreakers, hats and gloves keep you warm if there's a strong wind or rain.
Hot-Weather Gear
If it's sweltering at practice, wear lightweight training tops with heat-transfer technology, mesh sides and wicking to remove the moisture from your skin. These plain tops keep you from prematurely aging your jersey, typically a more expensive item of gear if it has your team logo and number on it.
Training Bibs
Variously known as pinnies, practice vests or training bibs, these lightweight yellow, green, orange or otherwise brightly colored vests pull over your head to identify which training squad you are on for scrimmages and small-sided training exercises. Eurosport, a leading online vendor of soccer merchandise based in North Carolina, offers training bibs in 12 colors as of March 2011, with stylized logos representing national teams from England to Cameroon. Kansas-based Epic Sports offers eight plain colors in youth and adult sizes.
Goalie Gear
Goalkeepers may want to wear shorts to prevent scrapes and abrasions risked by repeated diving and sliding during training, writes Joe Luxbacher in "The Soccer Goalkeeper." If you are still working on your diving technique, you may want to wear elbow and kneepads as well. You can wear a cap or visor on bright days on training, and accustom yourself to a hat in practice if you think you need one during actual games.
Additional Items
Paradoxically, youth teams may require shinguards at training, while bigger and stronger but more precise pro teams often dispense with them. Other items to put in your soccer kit include ear bands if it's cold, a bag of dry clothes Nike Soccer Cleat stuffed into plastic bags if its raining, bug spray and sunscreen, and sandals or flip flops for the showers.
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