Enrique Orts López2, Laura Magraner Llavador1, Rafael Aleixandre Micho2 , Sergio Puigcerver Palau1, Rafael Mengual Ortolá1 , Enrique Alcántara Alcover1
(1) Instituto de Biomecánica (IBV) Universitat Politècnica de València (Edificio 9C) Camino de Vera s/n (46022) Valencia (Spain)
(2) Fundación Deportiva Municipal – Valencia City Council
After more than two years of research, the funding from the European Union and the efforts of seven organizations from 4 countries have made TELETURF possible. This training tool was created to improve the safety and quality conditions of artificial turf fields.
INTRODUCTION
Sports surfaces of artificial turf have revolutionized the practice of sports, such as soccer, marking a milestone in the management of such sports facilities. The advantages over natural grass include maintenance costs four times lower than natural turf, and the fact that they can be used 24 hours a day compared to 2 or 3 hours in the case of natural surfaces. Therefore, it is not surprising that there are currently about 100,000 artificial turf fields installed in Europe.
Figure 1. Artificial turf soccer field
However, the intensive use of this type of sports surfaces has revealed the great importance of their correct maintenance. Improper maintenance increases the risk of injury to players and makes it difficult to develop sports activities with a high technical level; it also causes the premature aging of the surface, which reduces its useful life by one fifth.
This problem is particularly aggravated by the fact that there is no adequate specific training available to the professionals responsible for the management of sports facilities.
In order to solve these shortcomings, the TELETURF (Online vocational training course on maintenance of turf sport fields) project was born, which involved 7 European organizations with the objective to achieve a training tool to improve the safety and quality of artificial turf surfaces and increase their lifetime.
This training tool is the result of years of research and development involving more than 100 professionals from 12 countries with the financial support from the ERASMUS+ program of the European Union.
Figure 2. Equipment used in maintenance tasks.
DEVELOPMENT
The TELETURF project was developed over two years (2017 and 2018) by a consortium made up of seven organizations from different countries, who were responsible for successfully achieving the aforementioned objectives:
- Fundación Deportiva Municipal (FDM) – Valencia City Council (SPAIN), which coordinated the project.
- Instituto de Biomecánica de Valencia (IBV) (SPAIN)
- Marsella City Council (FRANCE)
- Kiwa Isa Sport (HOLLAND)
- Asociación de Gestores Deportivos de la Comunidad Valenciana (GEPACV) (SPAIN).
- European Capitals and Cities of Sports Federation (ACES) (BELGIUM)
- Instalaciones y Mantenimientos del Césped Artificial, S.L (CESPEVAL) (SPAIN)
The excellent collaboration between the IBV and Fundación Deportiva Municipal is particularly noteworthy, which makes this city one of the leaders in research on artificial turf surfaces through the synergies created among sport, research and innovation.
On this basis, multiple activities have been performed, which allowed us to develop an online course on the maintenance of artificial turf surfaces (Figure 3).
Figure 3. Gráfica de la estructura del proyecto Diagram of the course structure
The first activities of this project were performed at the beginning of 2017. A conference was held in Valencia where the consortium met for the first time and discussed how to start implementing the project. These meetings were complemented by various technical visits to some artificial turf fields in the Turia gardens, where those responsible for their maintenance provided relevant information for the project. During these meetings, the work bases were established, and the tasks were scheduled in the short and long run.
Once the target audience for this training was selected, their preferences and needs were extracted, collected and analyzed.
After this initial activity, it was subsequently processed in order to generate the specific technical contents that make up the central core of the project. Such contents have been reviewed to verify and ensure that they meet the quality objectives required.
The revised and approved core contents are available in the four official languages of the project: Spanish, English, French and Dutch.
Figure 4. Contents developed in the pilot course.
In order to verify that the contents adjusted to the target audience, a pilot program was carried out through the IBV online training platform “Maintenance management of artificial turf sports facilities”, which consisted of 50 teaching hours and involved sports managers, technicians and operators responsible for the maintenance of artificial turf fields in various European countries: Latvia, Croatia, France, Italy, Holland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia and, of course, Spain.
This pilot test, which was positively evaluated by the participants, allowed us to assess whether the contents adjusted to the European level, and ensured that the work performed met the quality parameters and was an attractive training offer for future customers.
Once the contents had been checked, the course was presented on December 4, 2018 during the European Sports Gala at the headquarters of the European Parliament in Brussels, which was chaired by the European Education, Culture, Youth and Sports Commissioner. The TELETURF project was officially presented at this gala by the Project Manager, Enrique Orts López and the IBV researcher Sergio Puigcerver Palau.
Figure 5. Presentation of the project at the headquarters of the European Parliament.
During the year 2019, the course was officially launched, expanding and updating its contents, including a practical session, as well as personalized tutoring. The students who are interested can register through the IBV online training platform using the following link: https://tienda.ibv.org/es/25-deporte
The course consists of six modules:
- Introduction and construction components of artificial turf
Session 1. Basic concepts of artificial turf
Session 2. Construction elements of artificial turf surfaces
- Biomechanical aspects of artificial turf
Session 1: Introduction to biomechanics and its applications on sports surfaces
Session 2. Biomechanical measurement techniques
- Assessment of the technical function of an artificial turf field
Session 1. Technical function of the playing surface
Session 2. Technical function of the sub-base
- Assessment of the sports function of an artificial turf field
Session 1. Surface-player interaction
Session 2. Surface-ball interaction
- Regulations
Session 1. Regulation on artificial turf surfaces
- Maintenance of artificial turf fields
Session 1. Maintenance-related problems
Session 2. Maintenance operations
Session 3. Management of maintenance activities
CONCLUSIONS
The TELETURF project has fulfilled the objectives initially established:
- To introduce the different components of artificial turf sports fields.
- To learn the basic biomechanical aspects to be considered when analyzing sports fields of artificial turf.
- To recognize and minimize the risk factors associated with player injuries.
- To identify the main regulations on sports fields of artificial turf.
- To plan and select the most appropriate procedures for proper maintenance of the facilities.
This project has analyzed and responded to the training needs of the professionals in the area of artificial turf sports facilities through online training content, providing them with knowledge to improve the safety and quality conditions of artificial turf sports fields, increase their lifetime, and improve their maintenance. In addition to the knowledge acquired online, the students who take this course perform a practical session in a sports facility, coordinated by CESPEVAL, a company specializing in the maintenance of these surfaces and project partner.
Those who students who pass the evaluation will obtain their certificate of achievement, issued by the Instituto de Biomecánica (IBV).
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We would like to thank the collaboration provided to the aforementioned seven members of the TELETURF project consortium, which have received the financial support from the ERASMUS+ program of the European Union with reference 2016-1-ES01-KA202-025236.
