Field Hockey Kit For Beginners
As someone who is new to hockey, the world of hockey equipment can seem daunting! Don’t worry, whether you’re a junior or senior, here’s our essential shopping list for beginner hockey players: (you can also watch our Youtube video)
Gumshields
Yes, we’d actually go for this before a stick as it’s such an important bit of kit. Starting at about £5 here’s some of our favourites:
Entry Level - TK 3.1 Gumshield
Mid Level - OPRO Adidas Silver Gum Shield
Top Level - SISU 1.6 Aero Gumshield
Our one bit of advice with gumshields/ mouth guards is that the more you spend the more protection you get.
Hockey Stick
So you’ve just started playing, or a young player has just shown an interest in hockey. Our advice is easy: find a budget and then work within that budget.
We’ve written a brilliant blog on choosing a hockey stick and how to size a hockey stick which you can read here.
Shinpads
This is slightly more tricky as everyone is different. The quality of material and level of protection in shinpads will increase as you go up the price brackets.
If you can’t get in store to see us here’s a few of our favourites:
Shinpads £8-£15 - Grays Shield Shinpads
Shinpads £15-£25 - Grays G600 Shinpads & Y1 S1 Shinpads
Shinpads £25+ - Adidas Shinpads & Mercian Evolution 1 Shinpads
Gloves
For all beginners, we’d usually suggest you go and try a few sessions first, even a few games.
Gloves aren’t for everyone, but we can’t recommend them enough. Especially if you are somewhat of a blank canvas you’ve got nothing to compare wearing one to, why would you not put one on?
Left handed gloves are the most popular as this will be the hand lowest to the floor when making a tackle.
Junior hockey gloves for beginners:
Senior hockey gloves for beginners:
Accessories
Important that whilst you may not have the experience you need to look the part!