The youth soccer player data revolution is coming - and PlayerStat Data are at the forefront.

“It takes a revolution to make a solution” – Bob Marley

It might sound biased, but I firmly believe the coming revolution in youth soccer is centred around player performance data – collecting an as-granular-as-you-need picture of player performances from a physical & ability perspective. 

Why am I so firm in my belief? This revolution will be democratic - the data impact can be felt by all players, coaches and parents at ALL levels of youth soccer.

Allow me to explain….

A data revolution can be explained as the transformative actions needed to respond to the demands of a development agenda - closing data gaps to prevent discrimination/biases, liberating data to promote transparency & accountability and, to develop new targets. But what does this mean in a soccer context?

Player performance data allows youth soccer stakeholders to:

• Access objective data outlooks on player performances to bring enhanced detail/clarity to coach-player feedback sessions.
• Create targeted, measurable development goals over a season & beyond – knowing the progression/regression can be captured using data.
• Provide evidence to support coaches’ comments – this evidence at players/parent can also be extremely effective in negating what can be emotional interactions around potential conflicts of thought with coaches.

In short, data shines an unbiased light on all aspects of player performances & development pathways for all stakeholders over the short, medium & long-term.

Do youth soccer stakeholders realize the power of player performance data can have on their own soccer goals? Evidence to this point suggests they do not. Goldmines of youth-specific player performance data at their fingertips going unexplored. 

Previous blogposts and LinkedIn articles of ours have pointed those involved in youth soccer to the fact easily accessible player performance data outputs & insights are slipping through their fingertips – especially with the vast spread of camera solutions at youth soccer matches. This recorded match footage contains 1000s of individual player performance datapoints per game – outputs that can a massive impact on players’ development pathways & clubs’ operations.

For early pioneers in the coming youth soccer revolution - those that embrace youth player performance data solutions - what benefits/advantages do they experience across one season & beyond?

• IDPs driven by objective, measurable player performance data outputs: IDPs driven by coach opinion and/or subjective insights are missing out on a key factor that can supercharge the player’s plans – objective performance data. Evidence backing coach feedback points, providing transparency for players (and their parents).
• Longitudinal player datasets turning into a competitive advantage: One 30-game season can produce more than 32,000 individual player datapoints; when clubs build up multiple seasons’ worth of datapoints, the year-on-years value is greatly increased as users embrace granular trends in performances, player benchmarking insights, predictive pathway analytics and much, much more.
• Enhanced player retention numbers, season-on-season: Research shows as squads stay together & move through the age-groups, the greater the impact on player & team development pathways. Over two seasons, an average player can access ~4,000 datapoints across their performances. Moving to a club without a data footprint means leaving a huge development tool behind them.
• Better-maintained coach/player and coach/parent relationships: Embracing transparent performance data outputs & insights across a youth soccer operation can have a huge impact on relationships between club staff and its players & parents. Enhanced comms, constructive feedback based on evidence & arguably a more balanced & less emotional approach around sensitive player scenarios – driven by actionable, objective data.  

It begs an important question for some though – to embrace this data revolution about to run through youth soccer, do we need specialized staff to interpret the data presented?

Answer – it depends on what you want from your solutions. It can be as simple/granular as you want (from a physical tracker output to a performance monitoring POV). Basic performance data outputs can be readily interpreted by current club staff without the need for sport science or data analysis expertise.

Take our Soccer Intelligence data solutions as an example...

Our outputs & insights are simple performance metrics; easily understood by coaches, players and parents alike. Easy to understand = easy to adopt & implement. And what do our clients need to access these player performance data outputs & insights?

• Match video footage (mp4 format) and,
• Team lineup details.

It's that simple. Two elements, now omnipresent at youth soccer matches, can unlock a goldmine of data-driven player development enhancements for players, parents and the clubs themselves. The youth soccer data revolution can be embraced at speed & at ease across youth soccer operations.

So, to all Head Coaches, Directors of Coaching, Academy Directors etc., the revolution will not be televised - your club can embrace this and the benefits that will sweep through the youth soccer data adopters. Don't wait, reach out to us for more information on how to get onboard with the revolution.