It's almost like spending a week being pampered in a five-star luxury resort ... then returning home to bills and a basket of laundry.

For many field hockey players, that's the difference between games on turf compared to those on natural grass.

"It's not even the same game," Pine Plains midfielder Rachel Beam said. "On turf, you're using a totally different skill set, and the roster is even setup differently, position-wise."

Beam plays club field hockey for a team in Pennsylvania, and they compete almost exclusively on turf fields on the travel circuit. There, she has grown accustomed to a faster game and smooth surfaces that allow her to showcase an array of stick skills.

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But Stissing Mountain High School, like most schools in Section 9, has grass fields. Among the teams in the section, only Kingston plays on turf, according to Debbie Beam, the Pine Plains coach and Section 9 field hockey chairperson. Her school has a "faster grass" surface, she said, but it doesn't equate to turf.

The transition to grass for players with experience on turf is a splash of water in the face. The game slows down, spacing on offense is greatly diminished and ball movement can be difficult, Red Hook coach Diane Zduniak said. And with the players in close quarters, it often leads to frequent whistles and obstruction calls, further hindering the pace. Because of the resistance on grass and the particles beneath it, force must be exerted in every hit, pass or shot, John Jay defender Jessica Lasaponara said.

"A lot of us play outside of high school," Rachel Beam said, "so it can get frustrating sometimes having to slow down or not being able to use certain maneuvers we've learned."

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Cost is obviously a factor for school districts, as installation of a turf field can cost upwards of $1 million. But, Debbie Beam said, field hockey is fast becoming "a turf sport." It is mostly so at the collegiate level and beyond.

Debbie Beam said it can be difficult for college coaches to thoroughly evaluate a player's skill level on grass. Jessica Caruana, senior captain of the SUNY New Paltz field hockey team, agreed.

"We'll watch film of a player or team on grass and come away thinking they're not that good," said Caruana, who played most of her high school games on turf in Suffolk County but has witnessed several teammates have to adjust to New Paltz's turf. "You're limited because some of the skills you've mastered just don't work on grass ... You have to learn to use lifted passes and almost try to keep the ball off the ground as much as possible."

Conversely, teams that play the majority of their games on grass are often at a disadvantage on artificial surfaces. For a "grass team" visiting a "turf team," Zduniak said, "You have to think faster, move faster, anticipate. It also really tests your conditioning."

John Jay is one of only two teams in Section 1 that plays on grass. But Lasaponara said that has its advantages. Having played so often on grass she said, her team has developed stronger swings to power the ball. But, she admitted, that can sometimes hurt them on turf "when the ball moves too fast."

The Bombers have won three straight Class C sectional titles, but Debbie Beam said that playing primarily on grass eventually catches up to them in the postseason, when the regional championships are held in the Hudson Valley Sports Dome. Beam said it typically takes a team a half to get acquainted with the turf, "and by then you might be down a couple goals."

To counter that, she has tried to schedule scrimmages with out-of-area teams who have turf, and even played a non-league game against Class A Arlington last week.

"Yeah, we lost," she said, referring to the 3-0 defeat. "But we got turf time, and that's more valuable."

Stephen Haynes: shaynes@poughkeepsiejournal.com, 845-437-4826, Twitter: @StephenHaynes4