tbi, knees, ankles, shoulders, oh my.

I grew up in a time where every soccer field had a grass playing surface. Most soccer fields were only around 100 yds long by 55yds wide, unless you played in a mining town like Dunlevy where it was 106 long by 70 wide and lined weekly with lime. If you played in a stadium with a football field you often didn’t have grass between the football hashmarks. Those fields dictated the style of play — you would pass the ball across the mud or dirt, on the dirt-build attacks down the wings were there was always grass looking to finish with a cross. If it was a dry summer, the ground would give big bounces and you played most of the season in Mundial Turf Shoes instead of Copa Hard Grounds. During Hurricane Season you may need to bust out the World Cup Screw In to help the field drain when the soil was soft and make sure you could try to run through the puddles. You always would come home with mud, dirt and grass stains. You always wiped your shoes clean. You always used a fresh coat of mink oil to assist in the waterproofing for the next time you hit the pitch.

Thirty years later, I very rarely referee a game on a natural playing surface. Almost every high school has installed a synthetic surface. We now have indoor– outdoor soccer in full sized warehouses and bubbles allowing teams to play 11 v 11 soccer year round in Pittsburgh. Indoor soccer is no longer limited to 6v6 inside of hockey dashboards or futsal inside gymnasiums. We now are able to create fullsized outdoor soccer year round thanks to synthetic turf and giant structures. The smaller sided training season no longer is what it used to be and the full sized game appears to never end. In the case of my referee life, it means, I typically can arbitrate full sized “competitive soccer” from Valentine’s Day to Thanksgiving. This weekend specifically I went from an end of season outdoor U14 NPL Game on Saturday to an indoor 8v8 High School league. It’s great for keeping my decision making sharp. It’s not great when my body needs a break.

Last February my body told me it needed a break after falling off my paddle-board. I learned that my knee was pretty much bone on bone. After having two ACL re-construction surgeries on that knee, it had become pretty worn down with my past 12 years of coaching, playing and referee running. After learning this, I modified my workouts, adjusted my gait to utilize my glutes more than my quads and scheduled more rest days in season. This high school season I scheduled an off week mid-season to allow recovery before the end season push. It helped a bit, but hip flexors, adductors and glutes were holding some tension from the adjusted gait. How do I know this? I work out every day in season for mobility. I have a routine for mobility, flexibility and recovery utilizing foam rolling, massage guns, electrical stimulation, cupping and a massage therapist. This being in tune with the body thing has helped. The world of outdoor soccer in western Pennsylvania is almost exclusively played on infilled synthetic turf. Running on these synthetic surfaces has also helped –my structured Mizunos, plus turf fibers, plus the infill provides a good cushioned surface. Using the two official system for high school also reduced my per game mileage by approximately .75 miles per game. Overall it made this season go by without any incidents.

Then this past weekend a new part of my body met the synthetic surface and the surface definitely had an impact on me. I was sitting at the top of the 18 to observe the bodies crashing the net on a home team corner kick at the south goal. When the visiting team tried to clear the ball they popped it straight up in the air directly over my head. As I attempted to backpedal to get out of the way, I had an attacker come into the space I was trying to vacate and take my legs away from me. That attacker made it to the ball and headed it wide and outside the 18 on the far side near my AR1. I however did not easily tuck and roll away after losing my legs. I was still down on the turf after landing directly between my shoulder blades, feet up in the air, and back of my head hitting on the turf by second base. It’s been over 26 years since I had last needed to be checked by an athletic trainer for a TBI. However, I knew how I hit the turf I should take a minute to be checked out. Best case scenario I didn’t show any signs of a mTBI and I would be adding 2-3 minutes of stoppage time to be checked for any signs of cognitive impact. Worst case scenario, I couldn’t focus, couldn’t handle the light from the sun, had a ringing in my ears or could focus and needed to be replaced by my AR. As a coach who has been an advocate for my athletes when going through any potential TBI, I knew what I needed to do and knew that if any flags were raised I would need to take myself out of the game. If it was just the shock of hitting the turf for the first time in a lot of years then a minute or two would allow me to recollect and finish the game out. Knowing my body and being trained as a coach for signs of a concussion for the past 10 years really helped me understand how I needed to watch myself over the next two days and then the next week to understand if there are any continuing signs of the mTBI.

More TBI information to be published shortly.

Not all infilled turf surfaces are the same. There are many options available currently.

In the past few weeks I’ve been on short pile mono-filament turf, high pile mono-filament, and slit film turf. There are all types of reasons why schools would choose one turf over the other. Decisions may be based on utilization by multiple sports or cost, but each plays differently on the soccer ball and traction can vary depending on footwear choice by players and officials. Be ready to adapt your footwear to prevent injury and allow for maximum performance based on the top surface and sub-surface. In the last few years more and more installations of infilled turf surfaces have also included underpadding layers either paved or snapped together. These cushion layers are important for sports where body contact occurs often or where ball reaction is designed to replicate natural turf.

I always like to mention this to my athletes when I coach. I try to remind them that it is OK to train in a shoe that is less than their ideal game day shoe. I’ve asked them to make sure their turf has enough infill before using a molded shoe designed for hard ground and artificial surfaces. I’ve seen too many players not realize that the turf does not have enough infill for their clears and wonder why their ankles or shins start hurting after the first week of camp. It’s ok to have an economical pair of turf trainers for training in addition to you game day artificial surface cleat. Your body will appreciate getting the extra cushioning on training days.