PM1076: Impact Force Differences on Natural Grass versus Synthetic Turf Football Fields

Background: Concussions in high school athletes have negative impacts on attention and concentration and negative associations with academic performance. In previous studies of high school sports, over 15% of concussions were attributed to contact with the playing surface. While synthetic turf football fields are increasing in popularity due to lower maintenance costs, they have also been associated with more ankle and knee injuries, with inconclusive data on concussions. In this study, natural grass and synthetic football fields were compared by assessing the deceleration on fall impact. The objective of this study was to determine if there is a difference in decelerating force delivered to pediatric athletes between natural grass and synthetic turf football fields. The primary measure of this study was the deceleration of a manikin on impact with the field.

Methods: Accelerometers were placed on the forehead, apex of the head, and right ear of a Century Body Opponent Bag (BOB) manikin. A Riddell football helmet was secured onto the head of the manikin over the accelerometers. This manikin was dropped onto natural grass and synthetic turf high school football fields from a stationary position at a height of 60 cm onto its front, back, and left side. Each of these drops was conducted 10 times at the 40-yard line, 20-yard line, and endzone. The deceleration on impact was calculated for each sensor by calculating a net vector from the x, y, and z vector components.

Results: Data was collected on 1,710 total drops from 10 natural grass and 9 synthetic turf football fields. For the forward and backward falls, all accelerometers showed a significantly greater impact deceleration on the synthetic turf compared to the natural grass surfaces. For the side falls, the apex accelerometer showed a significantly greater impact deceleration on the synthetic turf. The results of the aggregated means and standard errors are displayed in Table 1 and represented graphically in Figure 1.

Conclusion: Impact deceleration was significantly higher in synthetic fields in at least one of the accelerometer locations for each drop type. These findings suggest that concussion risk may be higher for athletes playing on synthetic turf fields.