Grass Pitch Improvement Webinar
This week we held our most recent Grass Pitch Improvement webinar, in partnership with the Grounds Management Association.
The webinar was hosted by Senior Regional Pitch Advisor Julien Morris and looked to guide and give tips on how to protect and maintain your grass pitches from the winter elements.
The webinar had over 40 attendees, with the following topics covered:
- When is wet too wet? - Dealing with pitch use in wet and waterlogged conditions
- Goal area repairs - Best practice in-season repairs, keeping them level and green for as long as possible
- Deep spiking and linear decompaction - Pros and cons of each and how they can keep my pitches playable over winter
- Dealing with snow, ice and frost - Best practice do’s and don’ts
- Thinking ahead to spring...
Carrie Barfoot, Essex County FA Facilities & Investment Officer, said "The work our Groundskeeping community do is integral to grassroot football. They are the unsung heroes of the game; they work incredibly hard in all weathers to ensure pitches are ready for play."
"The webinar was an opportunity to receive top tips and ask questions from our Senior Regional Pitch Advisor Julien Morris and it was great to see so many people take time out to attend."
Host of the webinar and Senior Regional Pitch Advisor Julien Morris was delighted with how the webinar went.
"It was fantastic to see so many tuning into the webinar, we run these sessions with the intention of supporting as many organisations as we can in Essex with their grass pitch improvement journey and hopefully a record number of sign-ups reflects that the topics covered mirrored many of the challenges experienced at this time of year."
Clive Shiret, Director of Garon Park Community Interest Company, who attended spoke about the webinar. "Great webinar about measures for keeping your pitch in play the longest during periods of bad weather, hosted amiably by Julien and Carrie. Julien obviously knew his topic inside out and went through indicators, measures and processes that will keep your grass pitch in play for longer throughout the season."
Robin Bragg, groundsman at Earls Colne FC, was another attendee who spoke highly of the webinar. "Thank you for taking the webinar on pitch maintenance and improvements. The schedule was very smooth, easy to follow and ran more or less bang on the predicted time. It was very informative and covered lots of topics that us groundsmen and women need to know to improve the conditions of our pitches."
Thank you to all of those who attended, as well as to Julien for hosting the webinar. The full webinar can be seen by clicking the button below. If you have any questions surrounding your grass pitches and the support available, please contact Carrie.Barfoot@EssexFA.com.
