Could Your Team Use Extra Space to Train?

by Mary Helen Sprecher

For the school that wants to take its track and field program to the next level, designated training facilities—above and beyond the regular competition facilities—may be the key.

Before you shake your head and turn the page, consider this: many programs with long-standing reputations as national or regional powerhouses on the track and field circuit have teams for both men and women (or boys and girls). They may also have varsity and junior varsity teams. And their running programs may include not only track and field athletes but cross country runners, as well.

In other words, lots of people who need lots of practice time on and around the track. To balance those needs without short-changing anyone, and to have the best prepared, most competitive athletes around, doesn’t it make sense to have a training facility?

Contractors in the sports facility construction industry say it’s nothing new. In many cases, they add, the extra facility is a necessity, depending on the program.

But there are distinct differences between the regular facilities that the visiting team sees, and the one the home team practices on.

“The biggest difference we see between the training facility and a facility designed for competition is not so much the track itself, but absolutely everything else in and around the track oval,” says Sam Fisher of Fisher Tracks in Boone, Iowa. “This difference can even affect the location of the event areas. A training facility is just that, and if the shot put sectors are off in another field and out of sight, it really isn’t a big consideration, other than sometimes stretching the coaching staff a little thin. A training facility typically does not need lights, needs little or no bleacher accommodations and, in many cases, restrooms and concessions are not even a factor.”

(Some institutions, say other contractors, have a different take, and will lavish their practice facilities with amenities and accessories, including lights, timing devices and other equipment. Facility budget and willingness to commit more funds to the track and field program tend to dictate what can be added to a training program, unless independent fundraising is taking place.)

According to Donald Smith of Open Window Concepts, Inc. in Lakewood, Colorado, other changes can be made. “Sometimes separate short straights are constructed for training,” he notes. “They have a variety of uses, including warm-ups, practice starts and shuttle exercises.”

Schools don’t become track and field powerhouses by accident. Their practices are intensive, and might run throughout the year. In some regions of the country, Smith says, that means a need for indoor practice facilities. “This is true at all levels, including high schools. Sometimes, the practice facility is a field house with a track surface on portions of the floor. Other times, it may be a gym with rollout resilient mats. In most cases, they are used for conditioning and for work on technique, as the limited space does not allow for completing the event as it would be outside.”

Because athletes tend to practice their sport repetitively, contractors tend to agree that surfaces that are easy on joints are more beneficial for training.

“Soft tissue injuries are a concern to these athletes at any level,” says Art Tucker of Plexipave System, Division of California Products Corp. in Andover, Massachusetts. “Therefore, it requires a track surface with good force reduction values. One way to achieve this in a generic sense is to have the owner specify a full-thickness track. This can be done regardless of material composition. A 12–13mm thick track is significantly better than a 10mm track from a safety consideration.”

Remo van der Wilt of Descol Pulastic Sports Surfaces in The Netherlands works it out mathematically: “It takes an athlete less than seven seconds to sprint 60 meters indoors, but he spends hours and hours training for that achievement. Fatigue significantly increases the risk of injuries, especially at the lower leg or back.”

For this reason, says van der Wilt, there’s a distinct need for a high level of shock absorption on a training track. “Unfortunately,” he notes, “too often a lot of money is spent on a competition track and limited budgets are made available for training facilities. To justify a larger budget for a training surface, one could select a true multi-purpose spike-resistant flooring material. Multi-purpose in the sense that it has the proper friction characteristics for multi-directional sports like basketball, volleyball and soccer, but also allows larger-scale indoor events. Ideally, this surface should also bring performance levels equal to a track and field competition situation.”

For those who love the idea of a designated training facility, but whose budgets won’t cover it this year, there are options for maximizing training space while using one track and field facility. Joe Mauck of Schwab-Eaton, P.A. in Manhattan, Kansas has seen lots of multi-tasking in facilities.

“We have installed multiple pole vault boxes in various directions to account for wind direction,” says Mauck. “We install these at locations that could also be used for competition if needed. We have installed shot put pads and rings without defined sectors, which are used for training. These are mostly used for training in throwing technique, but can also be used for practice throws. We always try to install large high jump areas. This allows placing the landing mat at different locations to allow for wind and minimize wear on the surface. It also allows practice to be done in a location different from the preferred competition location if necessary. We have designed 0.75% slope decline lanes for training purposes. This is incorporated into the competition track facility area and is usually installed outside the competition track oval along the straight.”

Other training aides Mauck says his company has used “are usually simply painted marks. We have used the non-competition area of the chute to paint starting lines and foot-placement or stride marks for both men and women to use for practicing starting from blocks in the sprint events. Most tracks also incorporate painted practice takeoff areas for the long jump and triple jump.”

Certainly, a track and field program doesn’t have to have a designated practice facility in order to be successful; some winning programs have training facilities, some do not. In fact, some don’t even have a school track and must make do with other facilities. But by and large, as Mauck says, “training aids may lead to a more efficient use of the overall facility and can help build a more successful track and field program.”

Note: The American Sports Builders Association (ASBA) is a nonprofit association helping designers, builders, owners, operators and users understand quality sports facility construction. The ASBA sponsors informative meetings and publishes newsletters, books and technical construction guidelines for athletic facilities, including running tracks. Available at no charge is a listing of all publications offered by the Association, as well as the ASBA’s Membership Directory. Info: 866-501-ASBA (2722) or www.sportsbuilders.org.