GLAS Special: Audit the pitch structure of your sportspitch
Donal Kearney MSc outlines the essential steps for assessing and improving the physical structure of your sports pitch
Print17 July 2025
Since the times of the nineteenth century industrial revolution, sport became more accessible for people and typically land allocated for sport was only that not fertile enough for agriculture. The 1990s in Ireland saw a wave of new golf course constructions the majority of which provided better drained putting surfaces, tees and fairways all year round play.
oft underfoot conditions due to poor pitch structure
Higher demand usage of modern pitches
Nowadays significantly higher demands of football pitch use, from an increasing number of teams, usage from September to April. Too many pitches not built to recognised standards typically decline in playability standards and this can happen as quickly as four or five years post construction.
When grounds maintenance staff inherit a poor physical structure as shown below, the sports pitch is compromised.
Layering of different sands with poor root depth
A sportspitch is dependent on a good physical structure in order for a turfgrass maintenance programme to be effective. The impacts of poor construction standards using inappropriate construction materials which cannot be corrected by routine maintenance.
So what is the pitch structure?
Pitch structure is the physical make up of the vegetative cover, soil and microbial activity which determines how good the playability standards of the pitch. The success of any Sportsturf surface is fully reliant on a healthy root structure which needs a consistent physical structure throughout the entire pitch.
New pitch structure with healthy strong root structure just 16 weeks old
Standard
Good maintenance practices ensure the passage of air exchange and even soil moisture retention by aerating and decompaction. The frequency of maintenance should be relative to the number of fixtures.
Training
Properly trained maintenance staff are essential in applying the primary maintenance practices of mowing, aeration and nutrition. A record of sportspitch fixtures needs to be recorded.
High level audit of your sportspitch
Ideally the rootzone profile should be 250 mm to 300 mm. How frequently is your pitch been aerated and type of aeration? Assess the percentage of grass cover.
Surface evenness
Dips and hollows cause typical areas for player injury by losing footing. A lack of topdressing and forking local worn areas allows these areas to become out of control and are real problem areas in time of injury risk to players.
Quality of cut
Typically a trained groundsperson will have good mowing practices of removing minimal clippings and mowing frequently. They will ensure their mowing practices provides for a clean cut and avoids serrated grass cutting that weakens recovery.
Recovery plan when a maintenance plan was implemented
Measure the infiltration rate
The differences in the infiltration rate in an area of the pitch heavily trafficked by play compared to an area with less wear and measures the importance of effective maintenance.
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