The field at Stanton was Italgrass or something similar and had a fill of coconut shells, IIRC. It was an excellent surface, albeit a bit hard.
Coconut shells? Geez, very non-pliable isn't it? Seems like it could cut you if it wasn't ground up pretty fine. Still, would much, much rather that than ground up tire. Organic material - what a concept.
Yes, I believe it was Italgrass. I remember picking some of the material up and it seemed pliable enough.
Maybe after getting wet a lot it becomes more pliable enough w/o falling apart. That's what you'd want.
It's not Italgrass. According to this press release from 2008, Santa Clara University's Scranton Field used an infill called Geofill, made by Italian company ItalGreen http://www.santaclarabroncos.com/sports/m-soccer/spec-rel/042108aaa.html http://italgreenusa.squarespace.com/geofill EDIT: in searching for more info on ItalGreen and one of its USA distributors SafeTurf Systems, I found this website where someone is tracking articles about artificial turf. This page has good references to incremental costs for alternate infills. http://www.synturf.org/alternativeinfill.html
The field is composed of a new species of synthetic grass carpet called "Double T" that was thought, patented and planned for soccer playing. In place of the rubber pellets found in most new artificial turfs, the new field will use the ecological alternative Geofill, the 100 perecent natural infill patented by Italgreen made mostly of vegetal fibers and minerals. So, like coconut shell fibers and say magnesium and zinc? "Wow, that was a hard fall, good thing that magnesium and zinc were there to cushion it!" Maybe that's so if it gets into the body somehow it is providing essential minerals, like adding minerals to cereal.
Now you're talkin'. Instead of ingesting carcinogens, you could be building bone health! We could have the players take several head first dives into the turf every training session in the hopes that they would ingest enough bone material to offset any injuries they might incur as a result of the head first dives. And if they do get injured, they'll recover that much faster!
USSoccer disallows youth heading at 10 and under, plus limited heading to age 13 in response to class action lawsuit. Taylor Twellman gets showered with hate mail. @TaylorTwellman: Can't tell you how emotional I am that progress is being made and I can't wait to see it come to fruition. #CARE https://t.co/0KZpniLPjI http://www.ussoccer.com/stories/201...rmation-about-upcoming-player-safety-campaign
I emailed national AYSO asking for their policy in the wake of the lawsuit resolution. I got the most pathetic, pass the hot potato response, not even a "we're looking into what's best for our kids." Wouldn't you think that all the major kids' sports orgs, especially those that had been sued, would have a statement ready?
Here's an interesting new development. San Diego company Banyon Biomarkers has published 2 studies on their TBI blood test. On samples taken within 6 hours of injury, they showed elevated levels of a protein called glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), which corroborated CT scan results. However, not sure what they used as controls (i.e. patients with no experienced trauma), or how long protein stayed elevated. An inexpensive diagnostic for brain injury of any kind (TBI or dementia) could literally be life-changing.
Howler Magazine had a good podcast which included the following: "US Youth Soccer has agreed to limit the amount of heading for younger leagues, in an effort to increase player safety. We talk to one of the driving forces behind that policy change, attorney Steve Berman." Starting at around 7:30 on the podcast: Steve Berman is a former collegiate player and coach, a certified ref and a parent of a premier club player Berman is also a partner in a class-action law firm in Seattle The objective of the lawsuit was to force change in the way concussions were handled in USSoccer. The case was dismissed in jul-2015 in Oakland but gave them the right to fix the complaint. The lawyers continued to discuss settlement rather than file an amended complaint, which both sides felt would have been successful anyway Is there more work to be done? A settlement is always a compromise; this is a step forward The issue was proving neuro protection when the science is evolving USSoccer did not agree that heading amongst children was an issue FIFA refused to participate on the grounds that US had no jurisdiction Are US players going to be behind the rest of the world? Berman thinks the answer is to wear gear that tracks the G-forces to the head, and remove player from practice or game when too much has been absorbed. The laws of the games should be changed to include the protocols that USSoccer is going to incorporate - these were not elaborated on.
They were explicitly named as defendants in the lawsuit, along with US Youth Soccer, US Club Soccer, and some other orgs that are not USSF. My guess is that when FIFA was allowed out of the suit, the sports orgs decided not to take it too seriously.
This is not technically sports medicine, but this company TruSox makes socks that keep your feet from moving inside the shoes while playing. Do you know anyone who uses these socks? http://www.si.com/planet-futbol/201...der-armour-nike-adidas-kevin-bill-plank-usmnt To see what the socks look like, their website is https://trusox.com
I'm thinking these will prove to be a lot like those ridiculous titanium/copper necklaces and bracelets that were so popular with baseball players a few years back or the coflex strips popularized by the womens beach volleyball players. There is no end to the sort of voodoo superstitious sportsmen and women will embrace...
I think there might actually be something to the "sticky socks" thing. When you need to change direction and you are applying all of this force, any kind of little slip that is not directly related to what you are trying to do can make a difference I would think. I always felt that I could be quicker in boots that fit real snug. And when I was playing a lot of Ultimate, I would actually play barefoot (OK, these were generally not very competitive games, but I think I did play one tournament barefoot) because I felt that I was quicker that way. There was no shoe / sock apparatus to get in the way.
It'd be nice to hear from a normal human who wears trusox. But at $40/pair, that might be hard to find.
You can. A lot of the comments are about how it seems to prevent blisters, but there are also several that mention efficiency in pivoting, cutting, etc.