15 Sep STATSports celebrate Elite 64 top performances with weekly leaderboards
STATSports’ exciting partnership with US Youth Soccer’s new Elite 64 program has hit the ground running, with new Leaderboards displaying performance data from some of the most talented youth players in the United States.
Every game is a recruitable moment, and in the initial data to be released this week via the use of STATSports’ Apex Athlete Series GPS tracking technology, we can see who the fastest youth players across the country are — tracking Max Speed in each age group from 14U through 19U.
Modern soccer players need to be athletic, as well as technically gifted, and Max Speed is often one of the most popular stats for players and coaches to monitor, as it accurately shows who has hit the fastest speed during games.
Barry Watters, STATSports Head of Sports Science, said: “This early data shows some really impressive numbers across the age groups that have been competing so far. It’s widely acknowledged that speed is becoming more important at the top levels of the game, so for these players to be able to compare themselves to fellow players across the country is a really important benchmark for comparison.”
Elite 64 is the new elite club-based competition within the USYS National League. It brings the top clubs and players together for an enhanced experience, which — thanks to technology partners like STATSports — provides interactive data and opportunities for all participants. The STATSports and Elite 64 link-up allows players across the Elite 64 to show off their abilities through every fixture, making every single game a recruitable moment via GPS performance data.
Global leaders in GPS tracking technology and official monitoring device of U.S. Soccer Federation, STATSports are working with US Youth Soccer to highlight all of the best performers across Elite 64, allowing players to build out their own athletic profiles based on the performance stats gathered during their Elite 64 games.
Comparisons across Total Distance, High Speed Running, and High Intensity Distance will also be available in future weeks, allowing players, coaches, and scouts to track the stats across multiple key physical performance indicators, as these players compete throughout the season.
Alongside benchmarking against players of their own age group, those using STATSports’ Apex Athlete Series GPS Tracker can also compare their performance to some of the top professional soccer players in the world, including Harry Kane, Alex Morgan, Raheem Sterling and Megan Rapinoe.
Metric Explainer 1
Max Speed
Max speed is the maximum velocity a player can sprint in a session, measured in either meters per second (m/s), miles per hour (mph), or kilometers per hour (kph).
Max speeds are hit within the 20-meter to 40-meter distance range, and achieving a max speed at least once per week reduces the risk of hamstring injuries.
Players like Kylian Mbappe (38 kph/23.61 mph), Raheem Sterling (37.30 kph/23.18 mph), and Erling Haaland (36.04 kph/22.39 mph) are some of the fastest soccer players in the world.
In STATSports x Elite 64 Leaderboards, we have used session data from players that has been saved from matches where data has been recorded as “Gameday.” We have displayed this in mph on the Leaderboards so that all players can see what they’re competing against throughout the season.