Module 1:

What is a football pitch?

1.3 Observation Skills: Football Pitch

1.3.1

Introduction

You need to have a good idea of what you want and what others expect in order to achieve the desired outcome with all of your efforts.

You might be wanting to jump ahead to consider the work that needs to be done and the materials needed, but first we need to decide what it is we are wanting to achieve. That is why we are starting here.

If you don’t set out what you need to achieve then there isn’t a ‘target’ to aim for.

The expectations of others may not then be achieved, nor will there be an objective outcome. You can quite easily waste time and money on activities and materials that are just not needed for a particular pitch if there a clear expectation and outcome are not stated.

This course does assume that people don’t have loads of money that they can afford to waste in maintaining a football pitch.

A key focus of the course is for you to, continually, ask yourself three questions in relation to the required outcome:

Firstly, whether you really need to do something.
Secondly, if it does need to be done, then to question whether it needs to be done at that time, taking into account weather and soil conditions.
Thirdly, does it need to be done at the intensity you have planned. By this we mean is the frequency suitable (neither excessive nor too little), and the settings of the machinery suitable, for example is it too low or too high (e.g. for mowing), too deep or too shallow (e.g. for aeration or scarification), or too little or too much (for material applications).

Time is valuable (you can’t get back what has passed, unless you have invented a time machine, so clearly not), everything has a cost, waste is undesirable, and life is too short to waste on unnecessary activities, so you will want to make the most of your time and other resources.

Module progress: 45%