HOW QUALITY SPORTS FLOORING HELPS ATHLETES AVOID INJURY?
Fans cheering in the bleachers won’t think twice about the quality of a basketball court or any other sports surface for that matter. However, coaches, athletic directors, and the people who build sports facilities understand just how critical the floor beneath an athlete’s feet can be – both for performance as well as safety.
Whether you’re designing an indoor gymnasium with a basketball court for multi-sport use or building an outdoor court with a synthetic surface, quality matters.
A quality surface won’t prevent athletes from ever getting hurt, but it can certainly reduce the likelihood of injury. Let’s take a look at the different factors used to make a safer sports floor.
A Quality Sport Court will protect athletes’ Joints?
Sufficient shock absorption is crucial in a good sports floor. That’s what helps reduce long-term injuries among athletes of all ages.
A floor with good shock absorption will be easier on an athlete’s joints and help preserve the body.
Basketball is the perfect example of a sport that can be hard on the legs. Players are constantly running, jumping, cutting, and pivoting. Installing a quality sports surface helps preserve joints and ligaments in the feet, ankles, and knees. That’s especially important for younger athletes who are still growing and developing.
Keep in mind, that the sports court tiles’ hardness of the material is not a measure of shock absorption.
A Quality Sports Floor Has the Right Amount of Giving
The ASTM standards use the term “vertical deformation” to describe the give a sports surface provides. It measures the ability of a floor to adjust as an athlete jumps or falls on the court.
It’s important to make sure your floor has the right amount of giving for the type of activities that will take place on it as well as the age of athletes using it. Not enough vertical deformation could lead to an increase in acute injuries, but too much may impede performance and decrease stability.
Another way injuries can occur in sports is from slips and falls on surfaces that fail to provide proper traction or, in some cases, too much friction.
If you need to consider how the area will be used when choosing the right flooring option. The rubber flooring may be ideal for a weight room, but for sports like basketball, indoor soccer, and volleyball, our interlocking plastic court tiles would provide too much coefficient of friction.
The final criteria detailed in ASTM F2772 test ball bounce, or ball rebound, which measures the accuracy and uniformity of a ball’s behavior on the surface. You want a responsive floor that provides a good bounce for ideal playability.
Ball rebound is measured in comparison to the height of the bounce on a concrete surface. Your floor should also provide consistent bounce throughout the court. This way, athletes won’t be caught off-guard by uneven responsiveness on different areas of the floor.
ASTM standards require a minimum of 90 percent rebound height in all categories. Our tiles rebound rate >95%.
Distractions during gameplay can also lead to accidental injuries. One way to avoid that is by reducing noise in a gymnasium as much as possible. Wanhesport‘s High-Quality interlocking Sports court tiles will Improve Playability and Reduces Noise.
