TRAINING FOR MARKING OF COURTS AND FIELDS IN SPORTS AND
GAMES IN ‘TRUE-NORTH’ DIRECTION
Dr.R.Kalidasan, Assistant Professor (SG) & UGC Research Awardee
Department of Physical Education & Yoga, Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirappalli
Abstract
Sports especially outdoor games are played on grounds, which is broadly classified as
courts and fields. The small area games such as Basketball, Badminton, Ball Badminton,
Handball, Kabaddi, Volleyball, Tennis are played on the courts. The large area games such as
Football, Hockey are played on fields. The play area of almost all the outdoor games that are
played on courts and fields are marked in the north-south direction except Kho-Kho in order to
avoid sunlight falling directly on eyes of the players. This is one among many reason for laying
the court / field in the north-south direction. It has been the practice for past many years to lay
the court / field in north-south direction with the help of compass. The compass will generally
give only magnetic north direction and not true-north direction. Technically there are three types
of north, namely Magnetic North, True-North and Grid North. In the modern time, to find the
true-north direction, many techniques are used. GPS is one of the popular techniques used
throughout the world to find the true-north. But ‘sun shadow technique’ is the cheapest and the
most accurate technique to find true-north, which is highlighted in this paper.
Key words: Marking, Magnetic North, True-north and Shadow technique
TRAINING FOR MARKING OF COURTS AND FIELDS IN SPORTS AND
GAMES IN ‘TRUE-NORTH’ DIRECTION
Dr.R.Kalidasan, Assistant Professor (SG) & UGC Research Awardee
Department of Physical Education & Yoga, Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirappalli
Introduction
Sports especially outdoor games are played on grounds, which is broadly classified as
courts and fields. The small area games such as Basketball, Badminton, Ball Badminton,
Handball, Kabaddi, Volleyball, Tennis are played on the courts. The large area games such as
Football, Hockey are played on fields. The play area of almost all the outdoor games that are
played on courts and fields are marked in the north-south direction except Kho-Kho in order to
avoid sunlight falling directly on eyes of the players. This is one among many reason for laying
the court / field in the north-south direction. It has been the practice for past many years to lay
the court / field in north-south direction with the help of compass. The compass will generally
give only magnetic north direction and not true-north direction.
Types of north
Technically there are three types of north, namely Magnetic North, True North and Grid
North. True-north differs from magnetic north, which varies from place to place and over time
due to local magnetic anomalies. A magnetic compass does not show true-north. In fact for over
millions of years, magnetic north wanders considerably and occasionally reverses, so that the
magnetic north pole to near the geographic south pole at some periods in the earth’s history. In
the arctic region, a magnetic compass is not very useful.
Sun shadow technique
In the modern time, to find the true-north direction, many techniques are used. GPS is
one of the popular techniques used throughout the world to find the true-north. But ‘sun shadow
technique’ is the cheapest and the most accurate technique to find true-north. It requires two
straight long iron rods (8 mm) with three feet height, five straight small iron rods (8 mm) with
half feet height and one Hammer. Apart from the above said items the sun light and a leveled
area is needed. This technique should be experimented either in the early mornings or in the
evenings, so that one can get good length of shadow.
First fix one 3 feet long rod using hammer in the ground, perpendicular to the ground at
90 degrees. Then take a small iron rod and fix exactly at the end point of the first long rod’s
shadow. After 20 minutes take another small iron rod and fix it with help of hammer exactly at
the shadow end point of the first long rod. Similarly every 20 minutes take another small iron
rod and fix exactly at the shadow end point of the first long rod. Continue to fix at least five
small iron rods. Normally all five small iron rods will be in one line. With help of a rope all the
five small iron rods are connected, which will be in the east-west direction. Another long rod has
to be kept exactly perpendicular to the east-west line drawn earlier. This long rod will be in the
true-north direction, with the help of the rope, a line can be drawn, which will be in the northsouth direction.
Conclusion
In future, all courts or fields to play outdoor games should be marked in true-north
direction. True-north marking of courts and fields requires training. It is suggested to include
true-north marking in the curriculum of under graduation programme in Physical Education.
Reference
Idioms - Meaning of “true north”- English Language. (2011, April 1). Retrieved from http://
english.stackexchange.com/questions/18888/meaning-of-true-north
True north – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. (2015, August 5). Retrieved from
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/True_north