Module 5:

5.4 Influencing pitch quality

5.4.1 Introduction

1   No one activity or individual performance standard determines the quality of a pitch. However, a few activities and performance standards can be the major influencers of overall pitch quality.

The key performance standards that influence play are live ground cover∗, traction, hardness, rebound bounce and ball roll / ball speed, as well as infiltration (and drainage) rate. The presentation of a pitch will significantly influence the opinion of a spectator, but not so much that of the experience of a player, because the other mentioned performance standards are those which most impacts a player’s experiences.

∗ If a reinforced-hybrid pitch was being assessed then this term would also include the artificial grass leaves which are green, even though they aren’t living. For these types of pitches a slight addition to the term could be used for live ground cover, such as live and artificial-grass ground cover.

5.4.2 Activity

2   If we look at the 19 maintenance activities (we will exclude the tractor / power unit feature for this exercise) and relate these to the performance standard of live ground cover, we can start to consider the connections which can arise between work carried out on a pitch and the influence the work activity might typically have on a performance standard.

Whilst the terms we use for the extent of influence are Very significant, Significant, Some, Negligible and None, they are not defined and are therefore subjective. However, they do act as a starting guide to provide the basis for further reflection on how maintenance practices might be influencing the quality of the football pitch surface being produced.

The greater the influence and impact an activity might have on pitch performance and overall quality, the higher the value that would be given. This approach is similar to that of a control panel for a recording studio where parameters are adjusted up, maintained, or reduced to get the best performance for the recording.

This activity could be extended to cover all the maintenance activities and performance standards, however, that is outside the scope of this course. This is something you might wish to explore further by yourself, possibly as part of a group discussion covering all the relevant performance standard you use or wish to use. Each member of the group could make their own estimate and then the group could discuss and potentially agree on maintenance priorities.

3   Where performance standards are being investigated for the extent of influence by maintenance activities then numeric values might be given to each of the terms assigned to an activity. An example might be:

• Very significant = 9 points.
• Significant = 5 points.
• Some = 2 points.
• Negligible = 1 point.
• None = 0 points.
• Or whatever scale or points you decide is suitable for your requirements.

4   For this activity try and estimate the extent of influence the 19 maintenance activities might have on the Live Ground Cover performance standard, over the period of a year.

As we have just mentioned this is quite subjective, so in some ways there isn’t really a right or wrong answer to how we are looking at it. However, the purpose of this activity is for it to act as a catalyst to help you in the development of your critical thinking skills.