SYMPOSIA PAPER Published: 01 January 1990
STP25347S

Standards for the Playing Quality of Natural Turf for Association Football

Source

For athletic fields used for soccer (association football), important components of playing quality include: ball rebound resilience, rolling resistance, traction (i.e., grip), and hardness. Other criteria related to, but not direct measures of, playing quality include surface evenness, grass cover, and water infiltration rate.

Standards of playing quality were developed on the basis of comparisons between players' perceptions of surfaces and the results of objective tests taken on the fields within 2 h of matches. Questionnaires were collected from 444 football players at 20 different fields. The fields were tested in the same locations within each field at six 5 by 5-m plots.

The results were used to formulate standards in the form of “preferred” and “acceptable” limits for each component of playing quality. The apparatus, test methods, and proposed standards for association football fields are described.

Author Information

Canaway, PM
The Sports Turf Research Institute, Bingley, West Yorkshire, England
Bell, MJ
The Sports Turf Research Institute, Bingley, West Yorkshire, England
Holmes, G
The Sports Turf Research Institute, Bingley, West Yorkshire, England
Baker, SW
The Sports Turf Research Institute, Bingley, West Yorkshire, England
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Details
Developed by Committee: F08
Pages: 29–47
DOI: 10.1520/STP25347S
ISBN-EB: 978-0-8031-5133-8
ISBN-13: 978-0-8031-1296-4