Albion SC Partners With Advantage Training To Provide Player Athletic Assessments
Youth Soccer News: Spencer Tatum believes that great athletes are not born but are created. With the tag line of Perform At The Level You Expect, Advantage Training‘s website name is AdvantageMovement and these words incapsulate the essence of Tatum’s program for creating better players. Athletes Advantage Training has worked with top athletes and professional players from the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, PGA and of course the MLS including Ray Lewis – Linebacker, Paul Stastny – 2x Olympian, Grant Hill – NBA, Chris Capuano – New York Yankees MLB All-Star, Danny Cruz – Philadelphia Union, Tim Clark – PGA and Grace Park – 2xNCAA Player of the Year; LPGA Player of Year: 2004 Kraft.
With knowledge comes power and the goal of assessing a youth soccer player’s physical capabilities is to know what it will take for them to reach the next level of ability. Many top flight teams around the world use these athletic assessments on their players, but it is rare to find that here in the USA.
In late June, San Diego based Albion Soccer Club – one of the leading youth soccer club’s in the USA – will offer competitive athlete assessments to score and improve each individual player’s athletic potential. With a forward thinking approach to building the best youth soccer club possible, Executive Director Noah Gins knows that talent is cultivated and player development is a journey and not a race. Gins’ goal is to provide distinct advantages for his Albion SC players and has already established a strong partnership though Puma with EPL’s Arsenal FC. Now, Gins continues to enrich his player focused training and development by partnering with Tatum’s Advantage Training.
It is a real game changer to look past what a youth soccer player’s performance is on the field today and offer the tools to technically enable that individual to reach their potential. Understanding that youth soccer players develop physically over the course of time, Gins wants to help players reach their full potential by offering the right tools for success. Developing true homegrown players takes more than concern for the final score but the vision to develop potential and cultivate abilities with a meaningful and constructive plan.
“Athletic assessments are key to helping players reach the next level and provide our coaches with a road map for success,” said Gins. “The athletic assessment will give us the ability to see past a player’s performance today and see their future strengths and potential. The data will also guide us in age-specific performance drills to add functional training to enhance sports performance. The assessments will include linear speed and agility, lower and upper body power and functional movement as well as rotational power and endurance.”
In addition, Albion SC has the objective to penetrate each of the layers of the club and pin point the athletic potential from within each age group. “At Albion SC, we recognize that many players at the various levels may still be developing technically or tactically but could have undiscovered athletic potential. Without the understanding of such potential it would be hard to fully assess and construct the best platform for player development,” said Gins. “Through this assessment with Advantage Training we will now have the ability to just that.”
“Advantage Training’s player assessments will let us know what our players need to work on physically and our coaches will use this information to help our players become stronger competitors.”
The program’s goal is to increase performance, and recovery while also helping reduce the risk of injury. By assessing a player’s lower body strength or ability to physically pivot can provide valuable data to help that player isolate what may be holding back their performance and help them reach a higher level of ability. The information can also indicate areas of weakness for potential injury which can be minimized through strengthening.
Tatum is excited to work with Gins and his Albion SC players and coaches. “Noah is a real innovator and visionary. He is always looking to be cutting edge and I had been looking for someone who shared my vision and commitment to competitive youth soccer player development. He is the right guy to work with and we look forward to really helping his players.”
