Football Pitch Holistic performance management

A fundamental requirement in the use of performance standards is to manage a pitch holistically.

It is important to understand the impact and influence changes to maintenance practices can have on the individual standards and how these might also influence, negatively or positively, the parameters of other standards.

There are a lot of interconnections between many of the standards, so action taken for one particular standard can have a direct effect on another standard. Taking time over deciding what maintenance activities are needed and how they can impact on the pitch as a whole should be an important part of good groundskeeping. So, why not plan in some additional time over a tea break to allow for some insightful systems thinking.

Cherry picking standards to measure and assess to arrive at an overall quality rating much higher than is representative on the ground is just cheating yourself and others and does not lead to the effective management of a pitch. This also builds-up problems in the pitch (with increasing match cancellations and a noticeable reduction in actual pitch quality being two key features) which will typically require very expensive solutions, which would not have arisen if managed effectively in the first place.