How to choose the right sports field for your school?

Choosing the right sports field system for school is crucial for performance and ensuring durability; this guide will walk you through key considerations and options to make an informed decision that meets your school’s unique needs.

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Hockey

The ideal surface is a non-directional, dense sand-dressed surface, around 18mm in pile height with a surface fibre weight between 1600 and 2000g per sqm. It will have a sand dressing with approximately 14kg per sqm, that is evenly brushed into the surface so that it is no longer visible.

It will be laid onto a shockpad, most commonly made of recycled tire rubber with a particle size between 1-4mm and a resin binder of at least 10% content to hold it together. A well laid pad should last at least two field lives.

This pad will be a minimum of 15mm thick when laid onto a porous asphalt base. It is possible to lay a thicker pad of 20mm onto a well-constructed, compacted, and free-draining, tight stone base and achieve the same performance characteristics.

This surface can accommodate recreational soccer, tennis, and lacrosse. The field and surrounds can be in different colors, with different colors also used for the playing lines.

Rugby

The ideal surface is a 60mm long fiber that is straight, made from monofilament yarn, and has free fiber at least 20mm above the infill. The ideal surface weight should be above 1700g per sqm to ensure the infill is less visible and play is on the upright fibers.

The infill material will consist of a base sand layer, ideally using a clean, rounded material that is between 0.3 and 1.00mm in size. Onto this is a layer of recycled rubber crumb, normally between 0.5 and 2.00mm in size.* The performance of the infill depends heavily on how well the infill material is applied.

To meet World Rugby standards, a shockpad has to be used. This is normally a 25mm pad constructed with 2-6mm size rubber and 10% minimum binder content. Alternatively,factory- made pads also can help afieldh meet the requisite standards. The pad would normally be laid directly onto a well constructed, compacted and free draining, tight stone base.

This surface can also meet FIFA standards for soccer and is good for lacrosse.

Soccer

There are more surface options for soccer, often depending upon what other sports are under consideration. As above, a 60mm pile height surface with a pad works perfectly with football or rugby. For hockey it is much different, and a lower pile height around 40mm, probably using a fibrillated fiber would need to be used, and even then the quality of hockey play is very low.

For pure soccer use, the two options are to lay a 60mm monofilament surface onto a stone or porous asphalt base or a 40mm surface onto a shockpad onto a stone base. The type of shockpad is the same as in rugby.

Whichever pile height is chosen the aim is to leave at least 20mm of fibere free. In terms of weight, again, more fiber plays and looks better and lasts longer, so go for at least 1600g per sqm.

For many schools there are seldom-used old tennis courts that could be converted into a productive synthetic turf area. Once again, the sports to be played on these should determine the type of surface chosen.

For a tennis/netball court, a short-pile synthetic turf offers a friendlier surface than plain tarmac and can also be used for the new Hockey, cricket practice, and recreational soccer.

For 5 a side soccer use, a 40mm fibrillated surface is ideal, and this can also allow some light hockey training.

The importance of choosing the right surface and system is a key decision in why a school needs a field. When the level of sport to be played – school matches, for example – dictates, then the highest quality should be looked at. When it is more about maximizing hours of use then durability becomes a key factor.

For more advice on what system to choose speak with a field provider, a fellow school that has a synthetic turf pitch or a recognized field consultant.

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