NEWSLINE STORY
published November-December 2015
Constructing NHPA and Home Courts
by Jerry LaBrosse, 4th Vice President and Charter Communications Director
In the last issue, my
article, “What’s in the Truck?” was about the NHPA equipment inventory. The
article spurred several positive responses, along with some questions. Here
I’ll address some of those questions, providing information for those who wish
to build some portable courts for their own use.
The first and most common question is “Where can I buy some of these courts?” The simple answer to that is nobody makes these courts for resale, to my knowledge.
If you can’t buy them, the next most common question is how to construct them and where do I get the materials needed. Having assisted many folks in building these courts for their own private use, I tell them all that NHPA courts are built for easy assembly and teardown without any special tools. So, if someone is building portable courts for home use, the design can be greatly simplified.
The stake assembly is one of the biggest items. I have suggestions for a simple and effective stake that has been tested and proven. The front bumper pads can also be simplified, as well as the backstop.
The rubber walkways are one
of the most effective pitching surfaces I have ever seen. The rubber came in three-foot-wide
rolls, 50-feet long from a company in Pennsylvania, Dodge-Regupol. We tape them
together to make a six-foot-wide mat. The quarter-inch-thick rubber cuts fairly
easily with a razor knife.
Lines are then painted on with a stencil. When setting up the world tournament, the short distance foul lines are established and the mats are spotted on those lines for reference. The clay filled boxes are then set on the painted marks, creating the perfect spacing for the courts.
As I mentioned in the last Newsline article, we are planning to repaint the lines on all of the mats this year in Montgomery. I have already made and tested out two stencils on my home courts, which are identical to the NHPA courts.
Shown is a peek at what this operation will look like. Notice that the short distance foul lines are applied with white tape. The reason for this is that we need to tape the front of the mats down to the floor using three-inch-wide, black, Gorilla Glue tape. We then put a short strip of two-inch-wide white Gorilla Glue tape to mark the foul line.
There is an effective alternative to the rubber matting, and that is thin, rubber-backed carpet. The three-foot by six-foot size is a very common one, and can be worked with easily. Put two of them together and you have a six-foot square, which just happens to be the same size as the pitching platform. I recommend using Gorilla Glue tape to secure it to the floor. The sandpaper strips applied to the box bottoms will grip the rugs as well as the rubber matting, thus minimizing court movement. Rugs are also a nice non-skid surface to throw from as well. There are companies that rent these rugs and sometimes have used ones for sale at dirt-cheap prices.
If anyone out there wishes to build a smaller number of these portable courts, I am available anytime for some quick advice. Remember, the complete drawings for these portable courts are posted on the NHPA website. (link to: http://www.horseshoepitching.com/gameinfo/bldraised.html)
In closing, we will need all the help we can get to do maintenance on your World Tournament equipment in Montgomery, Alabama, prior to the 2016 event. So, if you can donate an extra day or two, we would greatly appreciate your help. The work will likely be done on Monday and Tuesday, July 18 and 19. More information about this will be posted in upcoming articles.
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