Equipment & Components

Synthetic Turf Offers Baseball Teams Options
A true baseball purist, Steve Malliet likes stepping onto a well-manicured baseball diamond and smelling the freshly mowed grass. And his personal journey through professional baseball, with stops in the front offices of four minor-league teams and one big-league club, has allowed him this pleasure often. ...

Cooling Solutions Trending in Synthetic Turf Industry
From its introduction in the late '90s, the role of synthetic turf infill was to make synthetic turf play more like natural grass, providing more cushioning for the athlete’s safety and performance.

FIFA Program Certifies Synthetic Turf Performance
This month, a small fraternity of field inspectors will gather in Paris for an annual brush-up on the latest techniques in testing synthetic turf. The goal is to establish consistency among the entities entrusted by FIFA

Purchasing Parts for Strength Equipment
The frame of the seated leg curl machine was covered by a lifetime warranty, and when it succumbed to wear and broke the first time, the manufacturer shipped out a new one at no charge. (Not wanting to jeopardize a longtime relationship with this particular vendor, the club owner prefers that all names, personal or company, be withheld.)

Touch Screens and Networks Revolutionize the Design of Cardio Consoles
There was a moment when stepping onto a piece of cardiovascular equipment began to resemble stepping into the cockpit of a jetliner.

Five Questions to Ask When Purchasing Fitness Equipment
After years of trying out new fitness equipment, weighing the many options out there and regularly pulling the trigger on breathtakingly high-priced purchases, we feel like we have a handle on the process.

First Off-Grid Commercial Pool Powered by Solar Power
There are countless community pools in North America like the one at Hawaiian Shores, a subdivision south of Hilo on the Big Island of Hawaii.

Variable Frequency Drives Help Pools Maximize Energy Efficiency
After the wave of aquatic regulation changes that have taken effect over the last few months, commercial pool owners are likely looking forward to summer — their busiest time of year — as a chance to catch their collective breath.

Moss a Key Ingredient in Natural Pool Sanitization
If you're a facility operator, a sentence that includes "swimming pool" and "peat bog" is ordinarily reason to panic.

Ten Things to Consider When Purchasing a Hardwood Gym Floor
The Road to the Final Four is paved in maple. And so are the majority of gymnasiums at every level of competition across North America.

Ten Things to Consider When Purchasing a Hardwood Gym Floor
The Road to the Final Four is paved in maple. And so are the majority of gymnasiums at every level of competition across North America.

Technology Tweaks Make it Easy for Gyms to Accommodate Activities
New tweaks to familiar technologies are making it easier for gyms to accommodate virtually any combination of activities.

Broken Lockers: Repair or Replace?
When Kim Clark took over as the University of Houston's director of campus recreation in 2012, one of the first things she noticed was the poor condition of the lockers. ...

Lock Specification is Key to Locker Room Design
There are few components in any recreation center, aquatics center or health club that nearly every facility user is guaranteed to touch on nearly every visit. One of those components is the locker door lock. And unlike major program spaces or available exercise equipment, locks are unlikely to be one of the amenities that initially draws patrons to a given facility.

Successful Laundry Operations Depend on Chemical Supplier
The success of any athletics laundry operation often depends on an outside party — the chemical supplier.

Helmets at the Center of Battle to Tame Concussions
No football season in memory has begun with as much emphasis on helmet safety at nearly all levels of the game as the 2012 campaign. Pop Warner Football has banned head-to-head hits.

2010 World Cup Leaves Behind Environmental Legacy
Soccer's biggest event may have heightened awareness of important advances to aid the African continent.

Injuries Renew Debate Over Metal and Wood Bats
A rash of batted-ball injuries has renewed debate over the performance of baseball and softball equipment.