As leading sports surfaces consultants, we get a lot of questions about turf. We've compiled a list of the most common questions and asked Eric O'Donnell, our Managing Director, to share his answers. Hybrid Turf has changed a great deal in the last 10 years. We have seen the development of many textile based tufted systems now widely available and the introduction to the market of…

Making sure the base to your pitch or track is fit for purpose is a very straight forward civil engineering exercise. In the UK research carried out for over 60 years in the highways sector provides transferable design principals to sports facilities construction which means that there are no excuses not to follow proper design principals. Understanding basic design…

Anyone who knows me will know that I am always banging on about wearable technology becoming the next big thing to come into our world of testing artificial and natural turf sports fields. Let’s face it, Sports Labs has tested thousands of fields over the last 20 years using very similar equipment and technology. And as the processes used to build natural grass fields evolved, artificial turf…

Recently there has been some adverse press concerning microplastics and artificial pitches, so we thought you would be interested in learning more about this issue and how it might affect the industry. We were astounded to learn that a microplastic particle is not that micro. Particles that are smaller than 5mm fall under the definition of a microplastic – so not so little.

The refurbishment market is now mature and in some countries, this accounts for up to 50% of overall sales. An interesting and worrying observation we see whenever we are involved in the refurbishment of old pitches is the legacy of poor base construction found in facilities that are 10 to 15 years old. More often than not, when the base of an old pitch is exposed we find serious issues with it.

Hybrid systems were spawned from early iterations of soil-strengthened systems where soils were ameliorated with fibers or plastic mesh. These modifications enhanced or reinforced the soil structure to improve the root anchoring and retention, thus allowing some extended play to be sustained on natural grass surfaces that were suitably treated. The modern hybrid turf system is…

Player welfare is a core theme which World Rugby have at the front and centre of its thinking. A few weeks back I was privileged to attend a workshop and assessment of a group of organisations that manufacture systems or technologies used to assess a player who suffered a concussion from a head impact on the field. All these tools are to be used to augment HIA assessment at pitch side.

Recently the global governing bodies we interact with the most issued a guidance document aimed at providing owners, municipalities, manufacturers, etc., with a one-stop shop standard to cater for multi-use artificial fields. The reasoning behind this move merits explanation. If you think about it, why would a global governing body that extensively researches requirements to suit its…

So, what does planarity mean? The word planarity is rooted in the Latin word plānus, which means flat, and the late Latin word plānāris, which means to be on level ground. When we speak about planarity, it is usually in reference to the flatness of a playing surface. The proper way to measure the planarity of a surface begins with a 3.0m straight edge beam comprised of box section…

Force Reduction Testing, which is also sometimes referred to as shock absorption testing, is the measure of the ability of a surface to reduce impact forces when compared to a standard concrete surface. The term is often confused with the force of an athlete’s heel upon a surface. Force Reduction Testing was originally developed in the 1970s to assess and regulate polymeric surfaces.

Recently, there has been a lot of negative press focused on artificial turf and those of us working in and around this industry have noticed that media seem to be latching on to the alleged safety issues surrounding rubber crumb. There are other concerns as well (and a lot of misinformation), but in this article, I will focus on shedding light between the facts and myths surrounding artificial turf injuries.

An early claim to fame for Sports Labs was the implementation of Key Stage Inspections (KSI) to the construction of the whole of the base works of an artificial pitch or track. It was in the late 80's, in fact, that our principals, civil engineering, and testing background evolved in such a way that designing a pitch from the ground up and making sure it was…

Rotational Resistance (or traction) is a test which was developed for natural turf fields to assess the amount of grip the field returns to the athlete when a plant-and-turn or change in direction is performed. The Rotational Resistance test uses a circular foot with a typical studded configuration mounted onto a plate. This is planted into the surface and a rotation of the studded plate is…

Playing surfaces of all compositions and descriptions have the potential to cause minor to severe head injuries whenever athletes come into contact with them. Artificial surfaces, however, are subject to the most intense evaluations because these surfaces are designed and installed with manufactured products and processed constituents.

Let’s face it, non-filled turf has been around since 1966, so it is not a new concept to the turf industry. AstroTurf can claim the rights to inventing the first non-filled artificial turf for the Huston Astrodome back in the day.Naturally, things have evolved in the last 50 years, and the exponential rise in football turf since its introduction in the late 1990s has been a game-changer for long pile artificial turf.

Artificial pitch requirements have been set in stone for a long time now. The first working limits on the performance of artificial turf for soccer appeared in the publication of the Winterbottom report in 1984. In subsequent years, UEFA (1996) and then FIFA (2001) published limits based on good quality natural turf, following in-stadium performance studies.