Helpful Documents
This document provides athletic directors, parents, school board members, administrators, coaches and athletes with motivating information highlighting the need to keep grass competition surfaces trimmed to a level consistant with the rule set governing high school field hockey in the USA.
Field hockey is one of the most difficult sports on the planet to master yet field hockey is one of the most popular sports in the world. More people play field hockey than play American football and soccer combined!
Practice and competition surfaces conditions that are properly prepared help reduce injuries and enhance the ability of the athletes to perform. A practice surface with long grass almost certainly ensures that the participants will not be able to successfully complete even the most basic skils. A competition surface with long grass is very dangerous. Long grass -- longer than 1.5 inches -- is comparable to asking a basketball team to practice or compete on a court covered with used automobile tires.
Absent from the document are the following:
1. Many of the athletes participating in high school field hockey are vying for scholarships worth well over $100,000.
2. A 'field' is a nice place for cows, horses and agricultural projects that set out to determine which school can grow the nicest grass. A 'competition surface' is where teams meet for an athletic competition.
3. It is a 'suburban' legend that cutting the grass short will force the grass to "burn out". Grass that is cut short DOES NOT burn out. Grass that isn't watered burns out.
4. The competition surface must be prepared for competition based on the competition schedule, not the happenstance of a cutting schedule.
6. The rules require that the field enhance skillful play. A field that is a detriment to skillful play is not only in violation of the rules, it is a detriment to the athletes' chances of winning a scholarship and, more important, it is unsafe.
7. Umpires should not allow games to be played in unsafe conditions (lightening, darkness, long grass, etc.).
This document can be freely distributed but only without modification.
Field Hockey Competition Surfaces (grass): Click Here
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