Beyond Friction: A New Generation of Skin Injury Testing for Sports Surfaces 

For many years, skin injury testing for sports surfaces has relied primarily on friction measurements. However, research has shown that athlete–surface interaction is far more complex, involving impact, deceleration, sliding behaviour and temperature alongside visible skin damage.Our latest Field Notes article introduces SLIDE (Sports Labs Injury & Decelerator Evaluator), a biofidelic testing system developed to better represent real player interactions while integrating into existing durability testing. 

The article explains why this approach provides a more representative assessment of skin injury potential and how it can be used to evaluate surfaces throughout their service life.