Synthetic turf and grass: A comparative study

Abstract

playing surfaces approximately six years ago brought with it a controversy regarding the effects of these ersatz turfs on player injury rates. Following an initial manufacturer's claim alleging injury reduction on its artificial turf as compared with grassy these synthetic playing surfaces have been either maligned or r staunchly supported by coaches, players and fans. Astro Turf, Tartan Turf, Poly Turf and natural grass football fields were studied to determine the effects of these surfaces on ( 1 ) player speed, (2) impact energy absorption, and (3) shoe traction. We believe this to be the first comparative study to evaluate these parameters on a variety of playing surfaces. MATERIAL AND METHODSAstro Turf&dquo;' (Monsanto) is a synthetic turf made of 1/2 inch nylon ribbon pile of 500 denier (blade thickness) on a polyester nylon mat which is double bonded to a 5/s inch closed cell nitrile rubber and polyvinyl-chlo-ride pad on an asphalt base (Figure 1). Tartan Turf&dquo;' (3M Company) is fabricated of 1/2 inch cut nylon pile of 40-60 denier on a knitted polyester backing which is double bonded to an open cell 5/s inch polyurethane pad over an asphalt base. Poly Turf&dquo;) (U.S. Bilt-Rite) is a }í6 inch polypropylene pile of 450 denier fibers matted on a polypropylene mat and single bonded to 1/2 inch closed cell nitrile rubber and polyvinylchloride pad over an asphalt base. The grass tested was a recently mowed, one year old sodded high-school football field. Timed sprintsSix randomly selected college football players were timed in a series of 40 yd straight line and slalom dashes on grass and Astro Turf. The slalom course had pylons placed at 10, 15, 25 and 30 yd positions. Each player ran each dash 3 times on both grass and Astro Turf and average times were determined (Fig. 2). On Astro Turf an average decrease of .206 seconds per player was noted on the straight sprint and a decrease of .241 seconds per man was recorded on the slalom course as compared with grass. The slower players, who were also the heavier ones, gained the greatest proportion of speed on the synthetic surfaces. Energy absorptionSince football is a collision sport, both between players as well as between combat-From the

Footwear traction and lower extremity non-contact injury

“…Athletes instead wore special turf shoes which consisted of a large number of smaller rubber studs or simply ordinary running shoes when performing on artificial turf. In general, the combination of shoe and 1 st and 2 nd generation turf produced higher traction than a cleated shoe of natural grass (Stanitski et al 1974;Bonstingl et al 1975;Mallette 1996;Livesay et al 2006), which potentially relates itself to the increase in injury rate seen early on with artificial surfaces.…”

“…The drag tests can be conducted using a sled (Stanitski et al 1974;Bowers & Martin 1975;Schlaepfer et al 1983) or other custom made device (Torg et al 1974;Torg et al 1996;Lambson et al 1996;Villwock et al 2009a;Wannop et al 2009;Kuhlman et al 2010;Wannop et al 2010) (Figure 2-1), with the whole shoe attached to a prosthetic foot or shoe last (Wannop et al 2009;Kuhlman et al 2010;Wannop et al 2010) or only parts of the shoe or cleats attached to a disc ( Livesay et al 2006;Severn et al 2010) in contact with the surface. Other methods to measure translational traction have included pendulum devices (Bonstingl et al, 1975;Van Gheluwe et al 1983), as well as force plates measuring vertical and horizontal forces while an athlete performs various athletic movements (Nigg et al 2009).…”

“…Early studies were quick to point out that these first and second generation surfaces produced much higher injury rates than natural grass (Bramwell et al 1972;Stanitski et al 1974;Torg et al 1974;Bonstingl et al 1975;Alles et al 1979;Lambson et al 1996;). One study found that knee injuries were 25% more common on first generation turfs (injury rate of 1.0 per 1000 exposures) compared to natural grass (injury rate of 0.8 per 1000 exposures) (Skovron et al 1990).…”

“…When studying traction most studies have used sample surfaces, and/or sample shoes, and have sometimes measured the traction months or years after injury data collection (Torg & Quedenfeld 1971;Torg & Quedenfeld 1973;Stanitski & McMaster 1974;Torg et al 1974;Bowers & Martin 1975;Andreasson et al 1986;Ekstrand & Nigg 1989;Heidt et al 1996;Torg et al 1996;Myklebust et al 1997;Myklebust et al 1998). This may not…”

The Impact of Changing the Coach on Injuries in Professional Sport—Example from Practice

“…He often changed the training ground, so players were more likely to get injured. He held training sessions on artificial and natural grass, which did not suit the players because they were more often injured [8]. Changing the training mode also changes the work of individual muscle groups so the change of coach changes the whole psychophysical concept of athletes.…”