19 Nov Apex Athlete – Santiago Hernandez
It’s that time of the week again as we meet another Apex Athlete who shares their story about why they chose STATSports and what they gain from using a soccer GPS tracker.
This week’s Apex Athlete is 19-year-old Santiago Hernandez from Waukegan, Illinois. Currently majoring in Civil Engineering, Santiago is playing at Junior College level at the College of Lake County on a soccer scholarship.
Although the COVID-19 pandemic has delayed his season, he’s trained rigorously throughout the summer and autumn to be ready. His favourite team is Paris Saint-Germain and the players he looks up to most are Kylian Mbappe and Neymar Jnr.
Why did you want to use a GPS tracker to monitor your fitness?
At first I didn’t know what this vest and GPS tracker was when I saw professional soccer players wearing them.
When I did my own research and found out the benefits of this soccer GPS tracker, I was amazed and I bought one because I knew this was going to be a long time investment that would benefit immensely.
Another reason I bought this, is because I see almost every professional player on social media wearing one of these and since my goal and dream is to go pro, I feel like buying this is taking a step forward towards that goal and dream.
It has given me something to strive for, it allows me to review my stats and compare them to the pros, and it has shown me that there’s always room for improvement to get to their level.
Can you explain how the Apex Athlete Series has helped your fitness?
Apex Athlete Series has helped my fitness because I can check my stats in every training session. I can see the areas that I am improving in. It shows me what I need to work on and it allows me to see other athletes from my community and see how they are doing.
If I see that they’re beating me on the STATSports Leaderboards it gives me more motivation to go harder in my next training session since I’m very competitive.
If I didn’t have the Apex Athlete Series in my life right now I wouldn’t be able to have the insight to observe and analyze how I am doing as a soccer athlete and I would also be at a disadvantage compared to athletes who do have Apex Athlete Series.
What metrics do you concentrate on the most when you analyse a session?
In my training sessions it depends on what I’m working on but as a Right Forward I focus more on my max speed and the number of sprints I do.
To have that higher sprint capacity is an advantage against the defenders because I can obviously repeated sprints again and again as they tired. I also focus more on the High Metabolic Load Distance (HMLD). The higher intensity I can work at in a session, and the higher my HMLD score, the more I know I’m working at a more advanced level of physical activity.
What are your current sporting goals?
My current sporting goals is to continue improving everyday using the GPS tracker and getting to the level the pros are at in the Apex Athlete Series app.
Also, I am going to continue playing Junior College and hopefully play my third year in a Division 1 University.
Throughout those two years I will be working on improving myself on every aspect on the field so I can possibly land an invite to the MLS combine and hopefully get drafted.
Become an Apex Athlete
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If you are an individual player who wants the same world leading technology that is used by over 500 elite teams around the world, you can cop Apex Athlete Series.
This will allow you to easily interpret your own training and game data through our iOS and Android app, without needing the support of elite sport scientists. How fast are you running, how much distance are you covering at high speed, and much much more – find out by clicking here.
