A&H

First 3G game yesterday

HoofItYouDonkey

HoofItYouDonkey

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Level 6 Referee
I don't know if it was a coincidence, but being on 3G seemed to make for an easy game as players are less inclined to go to ground and more inclined to stay on their feet, less careless/reckless tackles. Made the game very easy to control, maybe helped by two teams who wanted to play football.
Anyone else had similar experience on 3G pitches?
 
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3g does tend to mean that players will play football more. That and i think lots of older players have memories of the sand based astros and are afraid of going down on it.
 
HoofItYouDonkey said:
I don't know if it was a coincidence, but being on 3G seemed to make for an easy game as players are less inclined to go to ground and more inclined to stay on their feet, less careless/reckless tackles. Made the game very easy to control, maybe helped by two teams who wanted to play football.
Anyone else had similar experience on 3G pitches?
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Agreed.... though the only downside to this will be when a player does get taken out you have to on the scene pretty rapid as the fouled is likely to need a skin graft and will be ready to react .
The surface also really hurts my knees ? as do most surfaces
 
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Totally agree much easier to control a match on threse pitches,

Only thing I would say the bound of the ball is a bit different on them and can stay in the air a bit longer
 
Done loads. Will seriously hurt your body after a few!

Tackles tend to be few and far between, home team always cope better, away team always complain, much quicker.
 
Darius said:
Done loads. Will seriously hurt your body after a few!

Tackles tend to be few and far between, home team always cope better, away team always complain, much quicker.
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It's funny you say that as everything aches today, left hip, knee and ankle.
 
I referee quite a lot on 3G and have a number of observations ...

1. Firstly, I agree that you do see more football played on these surfaces and less fouls.
2.They tend to be big (and fast) pitches so be prepared to do a lot of running.
3. These facilities tend to be enclosed by a strong fence which means that the crowd are gathered tightly around the pitch which can cause a bit of friction.

Some people love artificial surfaces, some hate them but they are improving and here to stay.
 
The fact you say left hip makes me think it's a reasonable shout! Do you mean the outer side like at the joint?

Poor explanation but if I'm right it'll make sense! I've had this all season!
 
Ran the line on a compacted 3G yesterday - today knees are in bits.

And just an extra note on Oiref's point - I often find 3Gs are quite narrow even if they are a fairly standard length. The pitch yesterday was only about 60 yards wide (so 8 yards from corner to edge of penalty box).
 
I do a lot of 6-a-side on 3G pitches and it does take it out of your joints and back. The under-surface is really compacted hard, so it's like running hard on concrete with bubble wrap on top. The surface means you don't realise how hard it is until later when you start to suffer.

Part of 6-a-side is that there are no sliding tackles allowed, and it doesn't matter how many times I tell them that a block is not a tackle, they just don't get it. Last week a player slid to cut out a 20 yard pass mid way between the players, and the other team all shouted "no sliding, ref!" and expected me to penalise him!
If a player wants to slide on 3G and there's no risk to anyone else then I'm not going to stop him. It's his skin!
 
My experience on 3G seems to vary. There is one in Newcastle (coincidentally where I'm reffing tomorrow/today) that knackers my back after around 45 mins. But then there is a much newer one closer to home that I have no issues with.
 
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