How to Make a Backyard Football Field

If you have children, and your house sits on a spacious property, one of the best gifts that you can give your kids is building a backyard football field. The great thing about having your football field is that your kids can practice their skills anytime they want to, and you can still utilize the area for other purposes.

You can create your backyard football field with ease. Aside from that, it can be a great weekend bonding activity for your children.

Here are some of the ways to do that:

1. Prepare your backyard

Your field will have a more professional feel, plus your kids will enjoy playing more when your grass is well-mowed. When you have a clear and clean yard, you can proceed with taking the measurements of your backyard. Here are steps in preparing your backyard:

• Start by cutting or trimming your grass
• Remove any weeds that may have started growing, and keep your lawn well maintained
• Take measurements so you’ll know how large the football field will be. Taking the measurements will give you an idea as to the inclusions of the football field, and the size that you will eat up from your property.

Also, it is from this measurement that you can create your end zones and your endpoints, or where you should position your goal posts.

2. Purchase and install your goal posts

After cleaning and measuring the backyard, you can plan on the type of goal posts you should put up. Here are the types of goal posts:

• Permanent

If you are creating a backyard football field that you intend on keeping for years, it is worth investing in better quality goal posts that you can keep, or without the need of constantly removing them. You can purchase any of these goal posts from Park Warehouse, for example.

• Temporary

If you are making a backyard football field merely for a temporary purpose like a party, then you have other options available such as plastic goal posts or inflatable posts. Inflatable posts are the most recommended ones that you should buy from your local sporting goods store, as this is also the safest for your children. When you use inflatable posts, you will not have to worry about your young children accidentally bumping into them.

3. Mark your end zones.

After you’ve taken the measurements of the space that you will utilize to create a field, mark each of the four corners with cones. After marking them, mark your twelve into twelve equal sections, which will be your yard lines, such as 10 yards, 20 yards, and so on. Do not forget to mark your end zones, too. To make your markings straight, you can use a meter stick or any other long, straight objects that you have. When marking, you can use any of the following:

• Spray paint
• Chalk
• Nylon string

4. Prepare enough football sets and gears

If you are creating this backyard football field for a party, it is also your job to prepare enough football sets and gear, excluding the shoes, for each child that will be coming over.

• Play items, such as balls and gears

This football set pertains to the shirts of two different colors that will separate the boys into the two respective teams that they will all belong. No backyard football field is ever complete without a football. More than just having one football, you should also be more prepared and have around three to five balls.

It is always good to have a lot of extras, especially if you will be having a lot of kids over. Pigskin footballs are the best, and you can store these in a proper outdoor shed, along with your other gear, so that it will be easier to keep, store and maintain. Apart from the ball itself, you should also prepare other gear such as the referee’s whistle. You can store all these football gear in the same shed where you store the shoes, for easy access.

• Field and spectator area

When you talk about a football field, this does not only pertain to the football field itself but also the other parts on the side that are necessarily a part of the field, such as players’ and viewers’ benches. It is essential for you to remember about this, and not just the football field, as you have to give the players a chance to rest and raise their legs in between games. If your children suddenly invite friends over to play football, you will already have this ready.

A good tip for you to remember is that you should not worry much about benches, just in case your children will no longer enjoy football, or when the party’s over, as you can still keep using these benches for other purposes in the future such as other parties and get-togethers, or football viewing parties.

5. Go extra and paint your kids’ favorite teams’ logo

If you have the skills and creativity for it, you can go a little further and more extra by polishing up your football field by spray-painting your kids’ favorite team’s logos! Doing this can be an excellent surprise for your children, and it is a unique way to keep them motivated by playing, too! Plus, it will make your kids feel like as if they are playing with their favorite pros.

6. Set the rules

There are many ways for your children to enjoy your backyard football field! A part of this great experience involves setting rules. Your rules should be dependent on the type of game that you would like to play. For example, for today, your kids might want to practice kicking making goals, and this weekend, they might want to invite friends over to have an NFL-like experience in your backyard!

7. Have fun

After all the hard work, don’t forget the most important thing: put your backyard football field to good use and have fun. All this effort will not be worth it if none of the members in your family enjoys the sport, or gets excited to go on the field. This backyard football field should be a ground for you and your children to have a great lesson on teamwork, camaraderie, and sportsmanship.

Conclusion

If you are not looking to have a permanent football field in your backyard, these steps are ideal, too, for other purposes of temporary nature. You can use these steps as a guide for use when you are looking to create a temporary backyard football field for your child’s football-themed party, World Cup viewing party, or any other occasion that will have young kids coming over to your home.