Preparation Before You Get to the Field

Most cities and schools require that water-soluble paint be sprayed on the grass now. This to prevent the ruts when using kerosene or other materials to burn or kill the grass. And also so other sports can re-use the field either right after the soccer season or interleaved with it.

If other sports will be using the field at the same time, you presumably need to pick different colors of paint for your different lines. As the soccer field boundary lines are usually the largest and there are fewer lines spread farther apart in soccer, try and use white as your color. This makes it easier for the referees and players to see. Avoid Orange if you can as color-blind players or referees cannot distinguish the lines on the green grass.

Sprayed on paint can be done either using aerosol cans or a more professional paint sprayer on wheels with a 3 to 5 gallon tank. It often takes 4 to 7 aerosol cans to repaint a full size (high school and above) field each week. Twice as much for the initial layout as you will paint over each line twice. The amount of paint depends on how wide a line you form and how fast you walk. It takes xx gallons of latex paint otherwise to re-paint a full size field.

Each age group generally uses a different size field. The chart below gives you suggested sizes based on using the small sided games endorsed by both AYSO and USYS. The age group determines the overall dimensions, the restart distance (size of center circle), what areas near the goal may exist, and what size goals you will use. U14 (Middle School) and above generally use full size dimensions as called for in the FIFA rules. Middles school often have the minimal overall field dimension (100 yards by 50 yards or the size of an American Football field). Realize the size you need and what the park may support are two different things though and so be prepared to adjust.

Age	Touch Line	Goal Line	Penalty Area	Goal Area	Center Circle (radius)	Goal (height x width)
U6	25 yard	20 yard	6 x 12 yard	same	4 yard	2 ft x 1 yard
U8	50 yard	30 yard	8 x xx yard	same	6 yard	4-5 ft x ~3 yard
U10	80 yard	40 yard	14 x xx yard	6 x xx yard	8 yard	6 ft x 6 yard
U12	90 yard	45 yard	16 x xx yard	6 x xx yard	10 yard	7 ft x 7 yard
U14	100 yard	60 yard	18 x 44 yard	6 x 20 yard	10 yard	8 ft x 8 yard
U16 on up	110 yard	65 to 75 yard	18 x 44 yard	6 x 20 yard	10 yard	8 ft x 8 yard

The edge of the dirt infield, when the soccer field is placed in the outfield of a baseball diamond, tree roots or ruts, a fence, mounted bleachers, and a “bare spot” in the grass from a previous season. All of these may be encumbrances that restrict where you place the field. You generally want as clean a playing surface as possible for the whole field area. Ruts, weeds, and the like can easily trip players running for the ball and not looking down; or cause the ball to bounce oddly when hit. Areas where water pools after watering or raining should be avoided as well.

Often there are fixed, buried anchors for the goals. So the goals may need to go in a very specific place. The goal placement then determines where your goal line and center of the field is. Note that the anchors may not be accurately placed though. So do your best to make the goal lines as parallel as possible but still allow the goal placement directly on top of the line while anchored.

Otherwise, if there are no restrictions, plan to center the goals in the general playable area (centered over the width of field planned) and positioned so the mouths are apart the length of the field desired (touch line length). While it is not useful to have the goals in place while painting the field, placing them so you can mark their edges and center point with a temporary paint mark can help if they are restricted to a fixed location. But if you can, move the goals out of the way (off the field by 3 yards or more) before setting up the whole field as they will just get in the way of you and the paint machine.

From the rough center spot of where the goal mouth is, measure how wide a playable area you likely have. Remember the field must be equal width on either side of the goal. So move the goal if a hazard on one side is encountered before reaching a limit on the other side. If a hazard occurs midfield at the side, then temporarily run a string down to form a center line and measure from the string to your hazard. The center line should start in the center of each goal.

You need, at absolute minimum, one yard off the boundary line in any direction as normal playing surface just as you have inside the field. Optimally, you will have a total of 2 to 3 yards off the boundary line of playable and hazard free surface. So if you cannot support as wide a field as you hoped for, scale back your plans to the widest field you can support. If you are trying to lay out a 100 by 60 yard field, you need 102 by 62 yards, at absolute minimum, of clear, unencumbered playable grass surface. Preferably 106 by 66 yards at minimum with a little more near the goals.

• An 80 yard (or longer) AND 120 yard (or longer) string (a third or fourth one can be useful as well; tying shorter strings together is fine; color does not matter)
• Six tent or goal tie down stakes to hold the string. Screwdrivers with brightly colored handles that you can find in the grass work great. Ten if you have more than two strings.
• A field liner with paint
• A hand-held can of spray paint (possibly on a spray wand if desired).
• One (or two if possible) field tape measures that are at least 300 ft (100 yd) long (preferably 360 ft or 120 yds or longer; available at most hardware stores)
• Some drinking water, a hat, and sunscreen if a hot, sunny day as this will take you 1.5 to 4 hours to setup; depending on your experience and speed

You need a string winder because the long strings easily get tangled if you bunch or hand wind it around a stick or other object. It is very frustrating to be trying to untangle a string while you are simply trying to get a long straight line by stretching it. And you have to do this very often. Often, a cable winder from a hardware store works great for this. Once a string gets wet paint sprayed on, it becomes sticky as well and this makes a cable winder a necessity to wind and re-extract the string quickly.

Often corner flags can work in place of the tent stakes to hold the string and tape measure. They are just more cumbersome to carry around the field.6

No matter how you mark the lines, the hand held can of paint works great to make temporary marks in addition to the lines put down by the liner. For example, when laying out the center circle, it is often easiest to attached the tape measure end to the center spot, hold the tape at the 10 yard (or equivalent mark) and walk in a circle making a short paint dash every yard or so. You can then easily come back with the field liner and make a very nice round circle by simply tracing over the dashes.

You can get away without a tape measure if you mark key points along one of the strings by tying knots or ribbons. But remember that you will likely paint over the string (as opposed to the tape measure) so trying to get fancy with dimension marks on the string or ribbon will not help. Per field size, there are only about 10 dimensions or lengths you need to know about.

So with preparation done, lets look at the first steps when you arrive at the field covered in the next section.

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