Winter Sports - Football “
Head Physio, David Rennie, has been conducting a programme of measuring pitch hardness at both home and away fixtures and building up a comprehensive range of data to help deduce an ideal level of hardness to reduce player injury
John with his assistant Simon Gibson
and, at the same time, reconstruct and extend another training pitch and incorporate 100mm of fibre rootzone. Local firm Hewitts Sportsturf were awarded the work and started to construct the new pitches on the 18th March.” “With such a tight window for recovery it
was important to start this work early, so work commenced on the two main areas on the 17th March, just seven weeks after my arrival” says John. “Hewitts are doing a fantastic job and, after just a few weeks, we are nearing the final stages of the work.” “As for ongoing maintenance, we work
Desso fibres ready for sewing
The manager and players tend to like a fast, zippy and firm pitch so, to achieve this without compromising turf quality, we have developed a programme of maintenance that delivers what they want
”
Right: Some data of results of hardness taken on different type pitches in the league
52 I PC JUNE/JULY 2014
very closely with the coaching staff and physios of whom one, the Head Physio David Rennie, has been conducting a programme of measuring pitch hardness for a number of years, measuring both home and away fixtures and building up a comprehensive range of data to help deduce an ideal level of
hardness to reduce player injury. We regularly take Clegg hammer readings of both the stadium pitch and training pitches with the aim of controlling the hardness of our pitches.”
“We also monitor soil and air
temperatures, take regular soil samples to keep an eye on nutrient levels and also use a prism gauge to check height of cut.” “As for playability, the manager and
players tend to like a fast, zippy and firm pitch so, to achieve this without compromising turf quality, we have developed a programme of maintenance that delivers what they want. We cut the pitch as often as we can to maintain a height of 19mm. After a Saturday match, for example, we clean up with the pedestrian rotaries straight after the game then, on the Monday, run the Toro Pro Core over the pitch to relieve compaction. We’ll then
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