THE RESEARCH PLAYBOOK
How Field Variability Impacts Athlete
Quantifying variations in key metrics within and between natural and synthetic surfaces
By Ava Veith; David McCall, Ph. D.; Chase Straw, Ph. D.; Daniel Sandor, Ph. D.; Jay Williams, Ph. D.; Elisabeth Kitchen; Kevin Hensler; Aaron Tucker, Ph. D.; and Caleb Henderson, Ph. D.
safe playing surface is essential for athletic competition; and key field characteristics such as surface hardness, rotational resistance, soil moisture, thatch depth and infill depth( for synthetic fields) play a crucial role in assessing field quality.
To improve field safety and optimize athlete performance, interdisciplinary collaboration among turfgrass scientists, sports scientists and sports medicine professionals is necessary. Evidence-based field management strategies must be developed to ensure more consistent playing conditions, reducing the risk of injury.
The objective of this study was to quantify the impact of surface variability on athlete safety and performance, both within and between natural turfgrass and synthetic turf surfaces. This research will quantify how variations in key surface metrics affect athletes utilizing data from wearable technologies such as GPS trackers and inertial measurement units( IMUs).
Additionally, to further understand the influence of field surfaces, athletes were surveyed before and after performing drills to gather insights into their perceptions of how surface variability impacts their performance.
METHODOLOGY ATHLETIC FIELDS TESTED This research was conducted in August of 2024, during which four athletic fields on the Virginia Tech campus in Blacksburg, Virginia were studied( Figure 1). Two of the fields were natural turfgrass( bermudagrass) grown on native soil, where one was maintained at a mowing height of 1.59 cm, and the other at 2.54 cm. The other two fields were synthetic turf, both composed of slit-film fibers with a mix of sand and crumb rubber infill. For both field types, one field was classified as“ low usage,” while the other was classified as“ high usage.” This was determined based on traffic frequency, field age and management practices. Specifically, the low-usage
18 SportsField Management | August 2025 sportsfieldmanagementonline. com