It’s Fall and that means that every year there are several sports activities that either start the season or some end the season. Baseball ends in November with the World Series and Football, Basketball and Ice Hockey get going full swing.

When we treat an athlete who plays in single or multiple sports and we commonly treat them for injuries or over use syndromes.

I wanted this blog to focus on the difference between Field Turf  in comparison to natural grass.   

I have reviewed several articles discussing the use of Artificial Turf and they showed that there is not only lesser rate of injuries of football players, but that the injuries occur with less severity in comparison to natural grass, as shown in this five year study conducted by Department of Health and Human Development at Montana State University.

The study showed that artificial turf’s lower surgery rate indirectly leads to saving costs due to the reduction in health claims and medical bills that are not always covered by health care.  With the players on the field vs. in the training room, teams finish higher in the standings and schools get noticed for their superiority.  Having a safer playing surface pays dividends for itself, and these dividends are proven to be attained playing on artificial turf.

Many top NCAA football teams play on Field Turf fields at the home stadiums and 20 NFL teams have the surface in their stadiums.But keep in mind that there are more factors in preventing sports injuries, including more appropriate shoes or cleats, as well as the conditioning of the athletes.