20 Feb Is my child too young to wear a STATSports soccer GPS tracker?
A question we’re asked a lot by our followers is at what age should young footballers start using our Apex soccer GPS trackers?
There’s a common misconception that, not only are GPS trackers just for professional sports teams, but that you must be of 18-years-old or above to wear them.
But that’s not the case. In fact, some of our users are as young as eight-years-old. From that age, kids become much more powerful and explosive with their physical capabilities.
They tend to play a lot of sport in different codes and sometimes this can have varying impacts. To be able to track their physical development from this phase right through their teens is a potentially huge advantage.
Monitoring Metrics
As children get older and their abilities develop, they – and you as a parent or coach – will be able to spot advances in those capabilities.
Total distances and distance per minute will give a basic indicator of their endurance levels and at what intensity they’re working at.
Speed-based metrics such as max speed, high speed running distance and sprints provide an insight into energy demands of an athlete.
These values combined gives you an overview of how faster and fitter they are getting as they get older.
Avoiding early injuries
Injuries in sport are unavoidable. Due to the physical nature of a lot of sports, injuries can be more prevalent. However, most injuries in young athletes are due to overuse and overtraining.
The most frequent types of sports injuries are sprains (injuries to ligaments) strains (injuries to muscles), and stress fractures (injuries to bones).
STATSports’ custom metrics should as High Metabolic Load Distance (HMLD) and Dynamic Stress Load (DSL) are key indicators in terms of injury prevention.
Your HMLD score indicates the intensity at which you’ve just performed, made up of accelerations, decelerations, and high-speed running. Your DSL score is like a fatigue index based on your running gait.
STATSports Player Stories
Keimar Clarke’s son Demetri, aged ten, has been using Apex to great effect in recent months. We spoke to Keimar about how GPS tracking has benefited Demetri in a practical sense.
“I definitely see him getting better physically. When we first started playing last year, I could tell his balance was off which seemed to cause a lack of strength. When we bought the Athlete Series, we could see his step balance was, in fact, not right. We were able to implement various balancing drills and since then his balance has been incredible to the point he plays with kids two ages up and outmuscles them.
He loves it. He doesn’t leave home for practice, scrimmages or games without it. He never has to be reminded to get it packed and he looks forward to seeing his progress and where he can improve. We are definitely loving it.”
Mark Bellew’s son Sonny, aged nine, has also reaped the rewards of using our Apex soccer GPS tracker.
“Just now at U-9s, he starting at CAM, then drops to right-back or left-back (he’s very comfy on either foot). His step balance is nearly always bang on 50:50. If he plays on the right, his right foot is slightly higher and vice versa when he’s on the left.
His max speed is his major marker for now, as for now, all he’s interested in is beating his latest effort. Everything else is back up for me to talk to him about. During games, I watch it live on my phone and give him indication as to how close he is to his top speed and it can drive him on in games. He loves it.”
Cop it
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 purchase 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 in high speed, find out by clicking here.
