As a coach, you’re likely the first on the scene when one of your athletes falls ill or suffers an injury on the field of play. Are you prepared to respond? What exactly is expected of you—by your athletes, their parents, and the law?

Newly revised and updated to reflect the latest research and best practices put forth by the American Heart Association and the American Safety and Health Institute, this fourth edition of Sport First Aid provides high school, collegiate, and club sport coaches with detailed action steps for the care and prevention of more than 110 athletic injuries and illnesses.

Organized for quick reference, Sport First Aid covers protocols for conducting emergency action steps and providing life support; performing the physical assessment; administering first aid for bleeding, tissue damage, and unstable injuries; moving an injured athlete; and returning athletes to play.

Also featured are the most recent guidelines for using cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), the Heimlich maneuver, and automated external defibrillators (AED) as well as the latest information on controlling bleeding, treating concussions, and preventing and recognizing methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus infections (MRSA).

An expanded section on anabolic steroids and performance-enhancing drugs assists coaches in recognizing the effects of performance enhancers and in educating their athletes on the dangers of steroid use. To prevent injuries from occurring in the first place, strategies for reducing athletes’ risk of injury or illness are also featured, such as implementing preseason conditioning programs, creating safe playing environments, planning for weather emergencies, ensuring proper fitting and use of protective equipment, enforcing proper sport skills and safety rules, and developing a medical emergency plan.

Sport First Aid is a potentially lifesaving resource that you and your coaching staff can rely on to make smart decisions when encountering emergency situations with your athletes.

Produced by the American Sport Education Program (ASEP), Sport First Aid is the text for the ASEP Sport First Aid course, which, along with Coaching Principles, Coaching Technical and Tactical Skills, and CPR/AED for Coaches courses, makes up the curriculum for the ASEP Bronze Level coaching certification program.

Part III covers sport first aid for specific injuries and illnesses, addressing more than 110 potential on-field problems. From the serious (musculoskeletal injuries, respiratory conditions, head and spine injuries, internal organ injuries, sudden illnesses, and temperature-related illnesses) to the not so serious (blisters and athlete’s foot), coaches will receive step-by-step instruction on the proper way to respond to any situation.

Sport First Aid includes a large appendix of first aid protocols, where standard procedures for first responders are efficiently arranged in flow-chart format to save precious time in emergency situations.

Produced by the American Sport Education Program (ASEP), Sport First Aid serves as the text for ASEP’s Sport First Aid Course, endorsed by the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) and numerous other sport organizations as the preferred first aid course for their coaches. Each year, more than 10,000 coaches take this course to further their professional development and meet certification requirements.

Eye Health: Eye Safety and Sports

Americans love sports and they love to look fashionable. And we often times insist that sports and fashion go together, sometimes to our own detriment. For while protective eye gear may never be the latest craze in tennis or baseball, think for a moment about the logic of not protecting our eyes.

We wear helmets to protect our heads and pads and braces to protect our bones and joints, so why not take the extra step to protect our eyes? We take extra steps to prevent concussions, broken bones, bruises and chipped teeth, but what do we do to prevent the possibility of permanent vision loss, a scratched cornea or fractured eye socket?

Broken bones and bruises will heal, but a serious eye injury can put you on the disabled list from your favorite sport for the rest of your life.

How Do I Protect My Eyes While Playing Sports?

The ways in which an unprotected eye may be injured in a sporting event are too numerous to count. But the ways in which we can protect our eyes are simple and straightforward. It is especially important that children who are learning to coordinate or who have low skill levels wear protective eye gear. To reduce the risk of a serious eye injury, the following precautions should be taken when playing.

Baseball. In the event of an errant pitch, a ball lost in the sun or a thrown bat, a baseball player should wear a faceguard made of a sturdy plastic or polycarbonate metal material along with eye goggles or eye guards.

Basketball. Basketball players should wear eye goggles at all times in the event of an errant elbow, a stray poke from another player’s finger or even an errantly thrown basketball.

Soccer and football. Like other contact sports, an errant elbow, ball, foot or finger can cause serious damage to the unprotected eye. Players should wear sports eye guards and in football a full faceguard should also be worn.

Hockey. Ever get a good look at a hockey player’s teeth? Imagine such damage to your eyes. Sticks, pucks and elbows all fly freely during a hockey match, and a player should wear a full polycarbonate material or wire mask to prevent eye and other possible facial injuries.

Tennis or racquetball. To protect your eyes from an errant or misjudged ball, or in the case of racquetball your opponents racquet, protective eye goggles should be worn at all times while playing these sports.

How Do I Know My Eye Gear Will Be Effective?

Regular reading glasses, sunglasses, and sometimes even safety glasses don’t provide necessary eye protection for sports participants. Athletes need to purchase sports eye guards that are tailored to protect the eyes while playing the specific sport. Prices for the correct safety sports eyewear vary. Other suggestions for sports eye safety include:

• Purchase eye guards at a sports store or optical store and have someone familiar with your eyesight and the sport fit you for the eyewear.
• Don’t purchase eyewear that doesn’t contain the correct lenses. Lenses should be secure because with many demanding sports there is the chance that a lens may pop inward, which could cause scratching or damage to the eye.
• Eye guards should contain cushioning along the eyebrow and the edge of the nose to help prevent the athlete from cutting or damaging his or her face.

How Will Protective Gear Affect My Sports Performance?

Because the eyes help an athlete determine timing, coordination and speed, the ability to see well while protecting vision is of utmost importance. Fortunately, many sports eyewear manufacturers today take into account an athlete’s activity, along with environmental factors to create eyewear that will give players an edge in their chosen sport. Also, if the sport is being played outdoors, it is very important for athletes to wear eyeglasses that contain UV protection for sunray blockage.

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