Education Today Education Today Magazine
By Jon Burnitt – National Sales Manager Sports & Education for Gerflor GBI Ltd
The quality of an indoor sports sheet vinyl floor can give specifiers a sporting advantage, with a key function of sports flooring being to help protect players from injury and enhance their athletic performance. A sports floor surface is arguably the most important element of a sporting facility to its players, and to those who design, build and manage indoor sports premises (whether this be in the education, leisure, fitness market), their requirements high on the agenda is the need for a high quality and sustainable sports flooring that consistently delivers the comfort, safety and performance aspects that are so crucial to everyone taking part in sport.
The fundamental importance of the role of indoor sports floorings to environments like clubs, gyms, sports halls, leisure centres and multi-use facilities can therefore not be underestimated, regardless of whether they are low-impact or elite performance sports locations. This also extends to educational establishments like schools, colleges and universities where long-term injuries to the bones, joints and ligaments of budding athletes, especially those still growing, could cut short a potential sporting career.
Clearly aesthetics, acoustics, hygiene, resistance to wear, easy maintenance and good indoor air quality are key factors to sports venues. But when it comes to reducing the risk of injury, minimising the severity of an injury should it occur, and helping to prevent both short and long-term impact injuries, then the choice of sports flooring is critical.