Hockey First Aid Kits

Your Hockey First Aid Kit: An Essential Part of the Team

In the UK alone, over 100,000 people play field hockey regularly. And that’s not including the increasing number of ice hockey players in Britain, estimated to be over 13,000 registered players in 2021–22. If you know much about the sport, you’ll know about the high injury rates reported by junior, grassroots, and professional players across the discipline. This is why good planning, consistent coaching, and strict first aid provision must be combined to keep hockey players safe, and this includes ensuring easy access to a premium hockey first aid kit. 

At Sterosport, we’re dedicated to supporting athletes of all disciplines and levels to protect themselves and stay safe while they enjoy sports. Similarly to football, rugby, and cricket, ensuring you have a professional-quality first aid kit for hockey to hand is a vital, legally required, and practical part of managing the game. A high-quality, well-stocked sports first aid kit is the first step to treating hockey-related injuries and taking care of players on the pitch, whether during a match or training session. 
We’re a well-established UK-based medical and sports rehab supplier to the sports industry, so we have expert knowledge about first aid kits for hockey teams and ice hockey first aid kit essentials. This article will cover the hockey first aid kit requirements and safety measures recommended by England Hockey and GB Hockey and give you all the information you need about what hockey first aid kit contents you should have.

England Hockey First Aid Kit and Safety Provision Requirements:

All hockey coaches and sports facility managers need to be aware of the first aid safety rules they must abide by. 

England Hockey stipulates that coaches’ and organisation’s responsibilities with regards to safety are to ensure that:

• A risk assessment has taken place with regards to the facility, players and equipment
• Suitable and appropriate procedures are in place to manage any injuries or issues that occur
• Ratios are adhered to of 1:8 (coach/assistant coach/helper to player) for coaching children under 8 years old (minimum of 2 adults), 1:12 for children over 8 years old (minimum of 2 adults) and 1:16 for coaching adults

• There is appropriate insurance cover
• There is current and maintained First Aid cover, and that coaches have a relevant safeguarding certificate and DBS check.

They also offer guidance for anyone planning a hockey activity that covers the practices, procedures and regular checks that need to be in place to keep hockey players safe from injury. 

To ensure you have ‘suitable and appropriate procedures in place to manage injuries’, hockey clubs and organisations must comply with the UK health and safety guidelines, the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974. These guidelines require you to ensure that an appropriately stocked first aid kit is available and that at least one qualified first aider is on-site during hockey activity, including training sessions. 

If a player suffers from a concussion, England Hockey states best practice advice in their Concussion Policy.

As with all other sports, reporting hockey injuries following legal health and safety requirements is essential. England Hockey’s guide on how and why to report hockey injuries covers everything you need to know to ensure you’re compliant.

Essentially, there is no requirement to report sporting injuries legally; however, it is deemed good practice, and there is excellent guidance on health and safety issues for sports clubs on the Health and Safety Executive website.

What should be in a first aid kit for Hockey?

All the contents listed in the table below are included in our premium-quality Hockey First Aid Kit developed by industry professionals with hockey specifically in mind. Put together following guidelines set out by GB Hockey and England Hockey, this kit is ideal for catering to a wide range of hockey injury treatments.

We discuss all the items below in more detail in our blog article, hockey first aid kit contents, and offer a handy downloadable checklist so you can stay on top of your contents and make sure you have everything you need to keep your players safe. 

Our specially developed hockey first aid kit contains all the essentials you could need on match day. Its contents comply with official guidance from hockey’s national governing body, Great Britain Hockey, so you can rest easy knowing that you have everything you need in your first aid kits for hockey teams.

Hockey Safety Risks That Cause Common Injuries

Although field hockey is classed as a no-contact sport, with rules forbidding players from striking or tripping each other up and purposefully causing injury, the nature of field hockey and ice hockey relies on collision and impact as part of the game.

The hockey ball and hockey sticks present risk to hockey players at all levels, and the risk of impact with equipment or other players is relatively high. Some of the most common injuries reported by hockey players are concussions, bruising, strains, sprains, and more severe tears or fractures can occur. 

Hockey safety equipment, which includes a well-stocked hockey first aid kit, is essential to protecting players from avoidable harm and reducing the impact of injuries when they do happen. 

Preventing and Treating Hockey Injuries

England Hockey states that: 

We all have a responsibility to ensure the safety and enjoyment of all those who play hockey; it is therefore important that we take steps to minimise risk to all engaged in hockey, enhancing their experience and reassuring players, parents and guardians.

We cover the most common hockey injuries and how to prevent them on our blog and offer guidance on how to treat common hockey injuries, too. 

Some of the most common hockey injuries can be treated using the contents of a hockey first aid kit and applying widely-adopted techniques to promote recovery. Check out the following articles for detailed information on treating overuse injuries:

• How to Treat a Groin Strain
• How to Treat a Pulled Hamstring
• How to Spot and Treat an ACL Tear
• Preventing and Treating Shin Splints
• How to Treat a Sprained Ankle

Hockey First Aid Training 

Every hockey club must take time to assess their own needs for first aid provision and health and safety measures. As part of this, England Hockey strongly recommends a minimum of one First Aid trained person per match or training session.

They strongly recommend that:

Anyone completing First Aid training should attend a certified Emergency First Aid course lasting a minimum of three hours and includes practical CPR. A refresher or re-certification is required every three years.

We discuss some of the best sports first aid courses available in the UK on our blog. Perhaps the best and most nationally recognised sports first aid courses suitable for hockey coaches and designated first aiders include the Red Cross First Aid for Sports Course and the St John Ambulance Sports First Aid Course.

We recommend that any first aid training courses you attend cover a range of first aid skills, including:

• Recognising when a person is experiencing difficulty breathing.
• Recognising injury or illness in a person.
• Clear communication with the casualty and on-lookers.
• Treating asthma attacks and seizures.
• Treating internal and external bleeding.
• Treating muscle and joint injuries.
• Using an automated external defibrillator (AED).
• Performing CPR.
• Evaluating and treating head injuries, including concussions.
• Emergency wound management.
• Assessing, treating and protecting broken or fractured bones.