Does the footballer run faster on artificial or natural grass? Sports technologists from CESA offer the answer

One player runs around the field while the other measures his movement with several laser gates. The twins Mirek and Marek Malat have been actively involved in football since they were five years old and decided to study it after graduating from high school. They are currently in the third year of the Sports Technology programme at the BUT Sports Activities Centre. Research by one of the siblings should show how the type of grass affects a football player's speed.

They play for the football club Velké Meziříčí, study the same university field and now they are also working together on a research project. The topic of Mirek Malata's bachelor thesis is the speed of a football player depending on whether he/she plays on artificial or natural grass. 25 professional footballers will take part in the testing – including his brother Mirek.

“I will be interested in the 10m sprint, the 50m sprint and then the so-called agility run – when the athlete changes direction several times quickly. Measurements will be carried out on two types of grass. The goal is to determine which surface the football player moves faster on. And possibly calculate the coefficient whether the speed is always the same or whether the speed is individual,” explains Mirek Malata the essence of his bachelor thesis. While such researchers are already common in professional football abroad, no similar study exists in the Czech environment.

To measure speed, the third-year student will use laser gates equipped with photocells that measure to hundredths of a second. He plans to test them on the same days and at the same training load to avoid false distortion due to fatigue. The data is then evaluated in a statistical program.

“I suppose that on artificial grass the footballer should be faster due to the harder and more stable surface. Soft natural grass is more pleasant and easier on the joints, but it is harder to bounce from it,” the student outlines the research hypothesis he would like to test.

He would like to continue his follow-up research on the same field: “I would also like to focus on the effect of the playing field on the bounce of the football. But this will be more challenging, because to eliminate natural conditions we will have to take measurements in laboratory conditions,” he adds.

Both brothers are clear about why they chose to study Sports Technology. “We wanted to stay in the sport and we have assisted in measuring young promising hockey players before. The trend in this respect is clear – smart technologies are increasingly used in top sports. It is not common in Czech football yet, but it is already a big trend abroad and in a few years it will come to us,” Malata evaluates the prospects of the studied field.

The Bachelor's programme in Sports Technology is the only one of its kind in the Czech Republic. It combines the study of modern technology at the Institute of Biomedical Engineering of the FEEC (Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Communication) and Sport at CESA (Centre of Sports Activities) BUT. During their study progress, students will learn how to work with tachographs, motion sensors, smart bracelets or in-body systems and interpret the data obtained using artificial intelligence. They can find employment in the development of new sports technologies or as specialists who study human movement by accurately analysing the movement of individuals and sports teams – in gyms, fitness centres or in performance or elite sport.

(mar)

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