“Making our sport as safe as possible is absolutely paramount to everyone at England Hockey. Partnering with Podium is an important step on two fronts – first of all in collating the best possible data and then secondly in analysing and understanding its significance. These two factors combined enable us to act accordingly for the good of the sport and its participants, giving them the best possible hockey experience in the safest environment.”
NICK PINK, CHIEF EXECUTIVE
Through a new Sports Injury Research Programme, England Hockey became one of the first National Governing Bodies to lead the charge in youth sports safety research working across all of our clubs. As well as contributing to the creation of a safer environment for all our players across the country, this provides a unique opportunity for our players (and the whole England Hockey community) to input into pioneering sports science research and to directly benefit from new insight, intelligence, and technologies.
We were originally invited by England Hockey, as one of just 20 clubs nationally, to help pilot the scheme for the season 2022 / 23 across our junior players and one adult men’s team. The trial proved a success and England Hockey have decided that the system be rolled out to all Clubs, under the banner Sportsmart, to cover injury reporting & monitoring. England Hockey is one of the first National Governing Bodies to lead the charge in youth sports safety across clubs.
Guidelines on how to report under this new system have been been rolled out to teams and coaches.