Equipment

A trainee comes to the training sessions in soccer shorts or tight fitting sweat pants, t-shirt, soccer socks, shin-guards, soccer cleats AND running shoes when specified. Slider shorts, goalkeeper shorts or pants are recommended. No street clothes of any kind is allowed including but not limited to tank tops, spaghetti-straps tops, cap sleeve shirts, polo shirts, cargo shorts, jeans. Boys are NOT to wear boxer shorts. Older girls MUST wear sport bras. Goalkeeping gloves are required (see below).

Recommended purchasing information for parents.

Gloves:

For first time trainees, spend no more than $40.00. Don't go spend $100.00 under no circumstances. Gloves with finger-save technology e.g. plastic spines to protect fingers are fine but they require a period of getting used to. Don’t go buy these gloves the day before the game and expect the keeper to be able to use them properly.

Glove size:

As a rule of thumb, glove sizes are about the same as shoes sizes. That is, if one wears size 7 shoes, try size 7 gloves. Goalkeeping gloves need to be loose-fitting and not tight-fitting. For a proper fit measure around the knuckles excluding the thumb then add 1 to the measurement to get the size. If you come up with half, round up to the next number. Gloves are consumables and they last about one season. Wash the gloves weekly by hand with warm water and mild detergent. Hang to dry.

Look for gloves with the following features:

1. Contour palm/ anatomic embossing

2. Minimum 3mm foam in the palm

3. Gun cut at the cuff for ease of putting on the gloves

4. Perforations for ventilation or mesh inserts make the hands less sweaty and more comfortable.

Optional equipment:

The following equipment will help reduce bruises and scrapes during training.

GK Pants: Nike, Sondico, Sells, Diadora.

GK Shorts: Sondico, Diadora, Adidas, Sells or Reusch.

Compression (Sliding) shorts: Get something with padding. The baseball/softball kind is good. Get them in black so they don't get as dirty.

Knee pads and elbow pads: Uhlsport, Adidas or Reusch.