For Players - Curious about how you wear your shinguards.

Just a question for active or former players of the game - how do you wear your socks and shinguards?

There seems to be two camps - those who wear 2-pair of socks and then tape their shinguards to the first pair of socks OR those who only wear one pair of sock but who use the shinguard compression sleeves to hold the shinguards to their legs.

I'm only asking because I'm in the market for new shoes and the local FLGS owner here in Tampa (who is awesome and super knowledgable about shoes and everything soccer-related) has been insistent that I should switch to one pair of socks only and using the shinguard sleeves instead of what I currently do, which is to use 2-pair of socks and tape my shinguards to the underlying pair of socks. I like doing it this way because I feel it protects me from blisters as well as keeps my shinguards firmly up. I (figuratively, of course) live in fear of sliding shinguards - they'd ruin my style of play up front as a dribbling, attacking forward/striker.

So while I can see some strong benefits to switching how I do my shin-guard situation (with one less pair of socks there's less heat build-up, lighter legs and feet, and not having to use tape saves me time and money, in the long run), I'm fearful of the unknown, too. Any suggestions (as detailed as you'd like to post would be fine/great by me), will be appreciated from my fellow players. Thanks, all!

I have always bought the biggest safest shin guards possible, that includes the ankle guards with them. Which meant I only wore one pair of socks and never had a problem with them sliding down.

For your situation, One socks would give you more of a feel of the ball while dribbling for sure, I would probably switch to that method.

The thing is that I already was doing fine, dribbling-wise - what I mean to say is that dribbling "touch" wasn't really a problem, previously for me.

If it isn't broken, why bother fixing it?

If it works for you then I wouldn't bother changing style.

Yeah, that's what I'm trying to figure out. Good point.

Anyone else care to chime in? I'd appreciate it.

I agree with Kick. Don't change what works.

If you do switch to one sock and don't get shin guards with ankle guards, just use some shin guard tape to keep them in place.

I wear single socks and use tape to hold my shinpads in place. My shinpads are tiny though.

I swear buy one set of socks and using inserts with sleeves. You can typically get a season out of the sleeves before they stretch and need to get new ones.

I actually use the ankle guards as well...that's what I first had as a kid, continued to have them, and I just never switched. I said what Kick said "if it aint broke don't fix it".

Now, I typically disagree with that statement on several levels, but it always worked for me and I just decided never to switch because it's what I'm used to and comfortable with.

I hate wearing two pair of socks. If it was me, I would play with even thinner socks.