TenCate shows how athlete data is reshaping turf design

As strength and conditioning professionals gathered at NSCA 2026 to examine research, coaching practices and performance tools, TenCate focused on one part of the training environment that is often harder to measure: the playing surface.

At the National Strength and Conditioning Association’s 2026 National Conference, held July 8-11 in New Orleans and online, TenCate highlighted how athlete-centred testing is helping shape turf systems built for the repeated demands of training and competition.

That approach helped guide the development of Pivot® Performance Turf, TenCate’s next-generation turf system designed around athlete movement data.

 The conference brought together strength and conditioning coaches, researchers, educators, allied health professionals, performance specialists and students at a time when athlete performance decisions are increasingly shaped by data, testing and applied research.

TenCate used that setting to show how playing surface design is becoming part of the same research-driven approach.

Joe Fields, CEO of TenCate Americas, said:

“Strength and conditioning professionals are already asking detailed questions about how athletes move, adapt and perform.

“We are applying that same research-driven approach to the surface beneath them. The more we understand how athletes interact with the field, the better we can design surfaces around real movement and support the broader goal of keeping athletes available to train and compete.”

The 2026 SVB LIVE Conference & Exhibition – focused on elevating the live experience across sports and entertainment – is being hosted at Everton FC’s spectacular new Hill Dickinson Stadium, Oct 1st and 2nd, with an Opening Night Icebreaker at Liverpool FC’s iconic Anfield Stadium on Sept 30th.

That focus is changing how playing surfaces are studied. Traditional field testing remains important, but researchers and product developers are now looking more closely at how the surface feels and responds as athletes repeat starts, stops, cuts, landings and changes of direction.

For strength and conditioning coaches, the connection is direct. Athletes perform explosive movements across practices, workouts and competition, often under fatigue and in changing conditions. Those movements depend not only on the athlete, but also on how the surface feels and responds underneath them.

That athlete-centred approach became the foundation for Pivot Performance Turf. TenCate developed the system through years of research into athlete-surface interaction, including testing with more than 1,000 college and professional athletes wearing movement sensors. That work helped TenCate study how athletes interacted with the surface and apply those insights to Pivot’s design.

Colin Young, Ph.D., Chief Technical Officer at TenCate, said:

“Traditional turf testing gives us important information, but athletes bring a different perspective. They feel how the surface responds when they accelerate, cut, land and push off again. That is where our athlete-centered turf research becomes valuable.”

The result of that research is Pivot Performance Turf, engineered without rubber infill and built with a fibre-based construction designed to provide a more consistent playing experience under repeated use. By removing loose infill from the playing surface, Pivot is designed to reduce one of the variables that can affect how a field feels and responds during repeated athletic use.

For performance staffs, the relevance is practical: Athletes repeat the same movements hundreds of times across practices, workouts and competition, and the surface is part of that work. When the field responds more predictably, athletes can move with greater confidence. Young said:

“Athlete data is most valuable when it helps you make better design choices. For Pivot, that meant taking what we learned from real athlete movement and applying it in practical ways, from how the system is built to how the surface responds as athletes use it again and again.”

 TenCate’s participation at NSCA followed recent engagement with sports surface researchers, strength and conditioning professionals and sports medicine audiences, each bringing a different perspective to how playing surfaces are evaluated. Fields said:

 “Our goal is to design surfaces around the work athletes do on the field. That starts with studying how they use the surface and turning those findings into better turf systems.”

About TenCate

TenCate is the world’s leading manufacturer, distributor and installer of synthetic turf systems for sports and landscape applications. Headquartered in Dalton, Georgia, with operations in the U.S., Netherlands, U.K. and U.A.E., the company serves customers in more than 40 countries with a suite of trusted brands and products. They include the new Pivot® Performance Turf, designed to deliver grasslike performance without performance infill.

Source and images courtesy of TenCate www.pivot-turf.com

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