As a coach, your field is much more than a facility that hosts your team's home games. It is a place that your players develop into your ideal team through practice. Throughout a season, there may be 5x more practices on your field than games! Practice is essential to ensure your team plays at its highest level during these games. It is also important to protect your field during practice so it too can perform at its best on game day. The goal of this post is to provide tips and tools to practice the way you want to without sacrificing your playing surface.
When it comes to grass, rotating high-traffic areas is key. Avoid doing the same thing in the same spot every day. The majority of this post is providing examples of practice no-no's and how to avoid them.
Warming up
Take a walk down your foul lines the next time you are on your field, and you will notice how different the turf looks on the line compared to the turf 20 feet in play. In many cases, you will see less healthy, green turf due to compaction from increased traffic. Everyone is attracted to lines, so the player that has 'line' has been standing right on the line every day your team practices. The easiest solution is to alternate warm up areas every day. For example, one day your team can warm up three steps in front of the line and the next day three steps behind the line. Also, just because your dugout is on the third base side does not mean that your team has to warm up on that side every day for practice. Mix it up. If your team alternates warming up in front, on, and behind the line every day and switches foul lines you go from warming up on your home foul line every practice to one time every six practices.
When it comes to team stretching and running drills, the same principle applies. In general, these activities should be done in a different part of the outfield every day.
Batting practice dirt protection
To avoid having to repair the batter's boxes on your field after batting practice (BP), synthetic turf mats are the way to go. I am sure many of you already use one of these mats to protect your boxes. If you don't use one already, this should be your next purchase for your field. Not only does the mat prevent the clay underneath from needing repair, it maintains moisture in the batter's boxes. We will discuss moisture management of dirt areas in another post, but the general idea is that moisture is one of the keys to having elite-level dirt areas. Check out the image below of synthetic turf BP mats in two different colors. Baseball needs 6'x12' and softball needs 7'x12'. Southern Athletic Fields/Turface has these online for $402 and $460 before shipping.
Once these mats wear out (and they will), they still can be of good use. When one mat is covering up the batter's boxes, the catcher's box is left uncovered for drying and abuse from taken pitches during BP. After you purchase a new mat, don't throw the old one away. Place it behind the new one to cover up the catcher's box.
If you want the ultimate moisture management during batting practice, leave the plate tarp on (if you don't have a plate tarp yet, get one and leave it on when you're not using the field). For this, players cannot wear spikes since spikes will puncture the plate tarp. You simply place the BP mats on top of the plate, roll the BP tunnel over the tarp, and you're set!
Batting practice turf protection
Since only one player is hitting live at any given time, there are other players and coaches standing around the batting tunnel watching or getting practice swings in. Have you ever noticed where everyone is standing? Take a look during your next practice. There will be a congregation right around the home plate dirt-grass edge. Hopefully your home plate circle is large enough that these people can move off the turf and onto the dirt. If not, I highly recommend that you utilize some type of turf protection to reduce the amount of traffic you get around your plate circle.
In many cases, you may already have some 5-6' synthetic turf on-deck circles that you use during games. These are great to use for players waiting for their turn in the cage. The on-deck circles work well for coaches hitting fungo to infielders during BP as well. A pair of 6' turf circles will cost about $400 - $500 shipped, while a 5' pair may be about $50 - $100 less. For high school-level sports, baseball or softball, turf circles less than 5' in diameter are not recommended. The 4' circles are usually reserved for youth play.
Another option is to purchase woven mesh material that has rounded edges to fit around your home plate circle. While this is the more expensive option, wear will be greatly reduced on your edges and players will have the freedom to move anywhere on the mats. A less expensive option is to talk with a sales rep and get a 10'x10' or 15'x15' mat of the same material and alternate the locations you put it. This does not necessarily prevent the edges from being trampled on, but provides a more flexibility compared to the turf circles.
The image below is a great example of the woven mesh material used to protect the sidelines and the infield. The same material used on the sidelines should be used for the trapezoid between the mound and plate on baseball fields to prevent divots in the grass from ground balls hit either during BP or fielding practice. Over time, these divots can be the cause of inconsistent hops on the field.
When it comes to choosing a color for turf protection, the darker colors will make the turf warmer than the lighter colors. If practice is on your field primarily during the spring when temperatures are much cooler, three hours with a dark-colored mat (black, dark green, navy) will not be an issue. However, when its 90°F and the sun is shining down in the summer, the dark mat can heat up the turf underneath quickly and cause the leaf tips to essentially burn. If that is your situation, a grey mat set would work best for you.
Base running drills are common during BP, so it is important to have players standing on the dirt when they are waiting their turn to run bases. Many times the edge between the first base bag and the first base coach's box gets worn down from excess foot traffic during base running drills.
The pitcher during BP needs to be standing on something to provide a barrier between his shoes and the turf underneath. Ideally, it would be a pitching platform that has wheels on the back to make it easier to take on and off of the field. A synthetic turf mat lying directly on the turf is an option, but should be one of the last. The benefit of a raised platform is that the pressure to the ground is applied to the perimeter of the platform, instead of being applied to wherever the pitcher's feet are when using a synthetic turf mat.
Here are some examples of platforms online through Beacon Athletics. Many other companies will offer similar products, I just used Beacon this time because I liked their pictures for the pitching platforms. You can click on each of the images to go to their site to learn more about pricing and specifications for each platform. Again, other companies may offer different prices but the price comparisons will be relative.
Mound protection
Similar to what was mentioned earlier in this post about having a plate tarp, a mound tarp is just as important. In general, the mound should only be uncovered for practice when there is activity planned on the mound. Leaving the mound uncovered subjects the clay that makes up the mound to unnecessary drying, negatively affecting how it will play. It takes less than two minutes for two players to put the tarp back on and stake it in, so time should not be an issue.
When you have drills on the mound, protection is similar to the plate. To protect the mound during pitcher fielding practice, the same mat used on the plate for BP can be used on the mound to prevent the need to repair the mound. Using a turf mat will also prevent clay chunks from getting all over your pristine turf.
Is it worth the cost?
After reading this, there may be concerns about the cost of some of the turf or dirt protection. I understand that budgets are limited in many cases, but it is important to consider cost in relative terms. For example, a woven mesh mat for your infield may cost $700, but divots in the infield that are not repaired can cost you a game or the season. Divots can create bad hops for fielders and can create lower extremity injuries for players planting and/or turning their feet on divots.
Another example pertains to synthetic turf mats used on batter's boxes during BP. These mats cost around $500, but can easily be justified when comparing the cost of clay to repair the boxes each day you have BP. Don't forget about the time and energy you have to spend tamping away!!!
Keep raking coaches!