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Advertising supplement provided MFMA

Safety

Northern hard maple’s hard-but-resilient character, natural shock absorption and area elasticity are enhanced by specially engineered subfloor systems. Subfloor systems can be customized to emphasize maple’s natural elasticity and shock absorption (ideal for aerobics rooms or dance floors), stiffness (ideal for basketball or volleyball) or both. This versatility makes maple floors ideal for multiple uses including athletic performance, dances, roller skating, etc. Whatever the intended purpose or subfloor, northern hard maple provides dependably uniform grip and traction to athletic footwear that can maximize performance and safety while minimizing injuries.

According to candidates for the certification of the American Board of Orthopaedic Surgeons, the majority of anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries are non-contact in nature and high school aged students are far more likely to undergo ACL reconstruction than college aged students. These injuries can be attributed to planting and cutting, straight-knee landing, and one-step stop landing with the knee hyperextended 3. Pivoting and sudden deceleration are also common mechanisms of non-contact ACL injury2 4. Considering that basketball ranks second among the top eight recreational activities with the largest number of musculoskeletal injuries among children ages five to 14 years with the most common injury sites being the ankle, hand and knee1 and that common causes of these injuries (running, jumping, quick stops, etc.) routinely occur on all gymnasium and non-gymnasium floors in athletic and non-athletic settings, it is vital that the flooring possesses the greatest number of safety characteristics while offering maximum versatility. Northern hard maple offers a proven track record performance and safety when used in competitive and multipurpose settings.

The Birmingham, Mich.-based Ducker Research Co. Inc., conducted a survey in 1998 (funded by the MFMA) of sports flooring owners who had maple and synthetic floors or who had replaced synthetic flooring with maple. This survey compared incidence of injuries that occurred on each sporting surface. The resulting data indicated that athletes were 70 percent more likely to sustain a floor-related injury on a synthetic floor than on a maple floor.